The first vegetable to plant

A few days ago at the Philadelphia Flower Show I attended a presentation on how to water plants — vegetables in particular — for the best health and maximum benefit. A question came up in the Q&A following the talk. Someone asked, “What’s the easiest vegetable to grow?” I was a little surprised — the question didn’t really pertain. But I was more surprised at the response: “Grow the vegetable you like the most.”

The speaker, Petra Page-Mann from Fruition Seeds, pointed out that no matter how easy a vegetable might be to grow, if you don’t like that vegetable it will be a chore to take care of it. If that’s the case, it will no longer be easy to grow!

I immediately saw the wisdom in what Page-Mann said, but I thought to myself, “What if your favorite vegetable is tricky to grow?” If your vegetable of choice has some very specific requirements, or challenges to growing, a beginning gardener could become discouraged, conclude that he or she has a dreaded “black thumb,” and not try again.

Some challenging vegetables that come to mind are celery (finicky on water), melons (need a long, hot growing season and are susceptible to insect pests), head lettuce (needs a lot of water and subject to pests), carrots (slow-growing and don’t do well in clay soil), onions (are daylighthours sensitive). If one of these is your favorite, it might be wise to pick a runner-up to start with.

Some years ago when I was invited to give a talk to a local garden club, I created a program I called, “10 Easy Ways to Feel Like a Successful Vegetable Gardener.” My first tip was, “Plant garlic.” Garlic is by far the easiest vegetable I have ever grown; that is, once I got my head around the fact that you treat is much as you would flower bulb. Order garlic in the spring for fall delivery and planting (September or October) while the soil can still be worked.

Prepare the garden bed, plant the bulbs, and cover with a deep layer of straw or other mulch (6 - 8 inches). You’ll be rewarded in the spring by beautiful green shoots pushing up, and I don’t know anything else that gives me such a boost of gardening energy than to see this. From there, care is pretty simple: make sure that the garlic gets a moderate amount of water either from rainfall or supplemental watering; withhold water toward the end of June; harvest in July. Clean the bulbs, leave them in full sunlight to “cure” for a day or two (the skin will become papery), cut off the stalks, and then store them in a cool basement or in your refrigerator.

Back to the Q&A session. PageMann asked the questioner, “What’s your favorite vegetable?” The reply was, “Tomatoes.” A knowing chuckle ran through the audience. It was obvious that this would have been most people’s response.

Tomatoes aren’t the most difficult of crops, but in my experience they’re not the easiest, either. If you’re a beginning vegetable gardener and tomatoes are your favorite, I’d suggest planting cherry tomatoes. They grow quickly, are easy to harvest and eat, and are not so subject to the fruit cracking. If you wish, by all means plant a standard tomato or two as well.

A few things to look for with tomatoes are resistance to verticillium wilt and tomato blight, and whether the variety is “indeterminate” (vining, continues to grow, and will need to be staked) or “determinate” (grows to just several feet tall, and won’t need staking).

A Google search will yield plenty of varieties, information, and sources for seeds. Start tomato seeds indoors this month, or scout out local nurseries in April and May. Nurseries tend to stock varieties that do well in our area.

Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail. com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” And check out Pam’s new book for children and families: Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets. Available at amazon.com.