garden gourmet: my edible garden
Every spring, I pull out all the weeds from my garden and put some nice compost into the soil. Then I plant my spring crop! Last year was more compact and a little less wild than the year before to get action-packed results in a small space. 
Last year, I planted:
- Onions
- Sweet peas
- Kale
- Collards
- Heirloom tomatoes (couldn't resist)
- Basil (didn't do too well...a furry creature was eating it)
- Lettuce
- Beans
- Celery
- Parsley
- Sage
This year was a complete surprise! I planted in the winter time and forgot about it. Then all of a sudden I looked and there were veggies everywhere! We had fava beans, kale, and onions that I had forgotten about.That's the exciting thing about planting food in the winter that doesn't need maintenance.
We had really tapped out the nutrients from the soil for a few years, so we grew the fava beans to nourish the soil. Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International explains that all members of the legume family, including beans, peas, and lentils, replenish the nitrogen compounds that other plants need to grow. When I first discovered the fava beans, I ate some of them raw and they were delicious. To cook them, we peel away the outer pod and steam the beans for about five minutes. Then the inner beans pop out easily from the little bean shells. I tossed some onto a fresh boiled salad and I give them to Bear to eat. He loves them! He picks them up with his little fingers and pops them in his mouth.
We also have volunteer nasturtiums, which are edible flowers, and wild arugula that also volunteers. A volunteer crop is one that we didn't deliberately plant. It grows from the seed of an old crop and keeps coming back year after year.
This is my surprise winter garden!
The bulb of a spring onion eventually gets more round and white. Spring onions have more of a bite than green onions, and can be used raw or cooked and are yum in salads or sauted. I love to pick them early and slice up the bulb a few at a time to save in a jar to sprinkle on my soups. Then the green part I use like scallions - crunchy and delicious. Yum!
Growing your own food is fun, I love eating from my garden!
What's in your garden right now?
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30 comments
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We are lucky to live in San Diego. We just transitioned our winter veggies to summer. We have Kale, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, squash, cucumbers, onions, garlic, collards, bok Chou, peas, carrots, blueberries, strawberries and an orange tree :)yum yum :)-
Apr 12, 2013 at 8:43am0 0I forgot spinach and all of our herbs!flag
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Getting serious about our raised beds this year, some day the whole yard will be edible. :) -
fennel, sugar snap peas, carrots, kale (three varieties), spinach, lettuce, red onions, strawberries. just putting out okra,tomatoes, cukes & more herbs.
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Being in North Western Ontario, with snow moving in on the upcoming weekend, the prospect for planting anything ( ground is still frozen )is well into the future. We do start stuff early in potting soil in the house......all of this stuff comes directly from seeds or stumps from veggies we eat. The stumps from lettuce ( Kale, leaf,and Romaine---- about 4" tall ) are put in potting soil and with care it regrows. Seeds from fresh peppers have sprung through their pot holders in the last couple of weeks. However with spring being absent so far in northern climes, we might be eating off of the indoor plants even before they see the outside soil.
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Living in Alberta I have nothing in the ground yet & this frightens me, being new to AB I am clueless with what can be done in this "zone". Although I am very excited to get started, I am jealous looking at all these beautiful veggie :)
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Amazing garden photos. I live here in Montana. I love having a garden and fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables. Nothing better!!
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Thanks for the motivation. I haven't been doing a garden because we have tiny amounts of sun to grow stuff, butyour litthe garden containers give me motivation that I can do a little too!
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Beautiful garden! I'd love to hear more tips about growing your own veggies. I'd also just like to note that many of the "weeds" growing in the garden are edible too! I've been eating lots of dandelion greens and plantain this spring :)
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Wow it looks amazing. I so wish I could have a garden. When I lived in Sweden with my parents my mother had a great garden.
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Thank you Alicia, my garden looks kind of simmelar to yours, I live in Washington State and kind of cold here in early Spring, but is getting warm so spect a good crop this year.
Planted corn, tomateos, cabbage, carrots, selery, strawberries, cale, onios, spinacs and riddishes.
Have a good day and keep on shareing.
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Here in Louisiana we get a head start on summer veggies - I expect to eat this year's first homegrown tomato in a couple days! I'm already loaded with peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, basil, oregano, thyme, okra...now I'm hungry!
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I live in Michigan, so our planting season is just beginning, except for peas and spinach which I was lucky enough to plant in our heat wave (85 and up) in March! So, my peas or climbing up their trellises and my spinach is small due to the temperature drop in April. (figures, it's Michigan. LOL) But it seems our frosts are gone at night time and my daughter and I planted corn, cucumbesr, lettuce, onion sets and carrots! This weekend we'll be putting in the plants (the others were seeds, except the onions), probably beans, pumpkins, kale, collards, potatoes, tomatoes, squash and many herbs. We will also be putting in gladiolus, cosmos, marigolds, alyssium, poppys, and probably many more! He in Michigan Mother's Day weekend is the time to plant! My favorite weekend, and not just because I'm a mom. Happy Mothers day to all the moms out there!!!!!
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I now live in apartment, but I have a balcony that gets full sun most of the day! Since I have such a small place I plant mostly herbs in pots. This year is basil, Italian parsley (both are musts every year!), cilantro (which doesn't always do well, but I try anyway!), sage, oregano, dill, garlic chives, and rosemary, and green onions. This year I am also trying a hot pepper seed mix (serrano, jalapeno, and a few others) and dandelion greens in a really large pot because they are so good for you!
I also have had an orange bush for several years, but unfortunately it has never produced fruit even though it's huge now. Living in KY it's not ideal weather for it, but I keep hoping someday! -
Awesome! I just started a balcony garden this year. I have basil, parsley, green onion, cherry tomatoes, carrots, rosemary, chard and potatoes. It sounds like a lot, but the herbs do not take up much room. I've started with seeds and can't wait to see what turns out. So far the herbs, onions and tomatoes are growing so fast. The rest are all a little younger, it's just starting to warm up here. I also have a compost going. :)
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Nice!! So far, we have beets, arugula, lettuces, peas, potatoes, onions, kale, chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, etc ... just getting started here in Michigan. I haven't tried fava beans yet!
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Beautiful garden Alicia! It's on my "to do" list to start mine next week. I have a suggestion for those with "cement gardens". Grow indoors! Check out this organic culinary herb garden, which provides all you need to grow organic parsely, basil and oregeno, indoors.
http://www.earthelegant.com/products-page/product-category/organic-mixed-herb-garden/
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Love it! We just planted our raised beds with a bunch of different veggies and herbs. Moved all the strawberries. I heard that's what you should do once in a while. Not as hard as it sounds, just take the roots, easy to notice after the leaves sprout. Another beautiful edible flower for your garden is Borage or Starflower. Pretty Star shaped flowers to sprinkle on a salad. They come in white and blue or violet and adds that finnishing touch. Super easy to grow and self sows, comes back year after year.
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Lovely garden! My Veggie Kids garden is full of amazing produce and edible flowers this year as I seem to be getting more of a knack for gardening each year. We have strawberries in a topsy turvy planter which is amazing! (I'll be posting about all this next week on http://veggie-kids.blogspot.com/) We've got a variety of delicious salad greens, broccoli, nasturtium, calendula, onions, peas, tomatoes, carrots, herbs of every kind, bell peppers, zucchini, along with our fruit trees which I claim zero responsibility for but appreciate immensely! An edible garden is such a great way to get kids to eat healthier-what's more fun than picking your food from your own yard!? Love it!
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My husband has been the avid gardener since he got the bug at 5 years old. So I think your garden will inspire Bear too as you work in it and that you eat from it too. Such a wonderful thing to share with children and neighbors.
Since my husband loves to garden he put in a small orchard which is more work that I would have ever thought. Even though we strive to do it organically, there are certain things you have to apply so the trees stay healthy, otherwise they get peach bores and wreck havoc with the tree over time.
We just got a bee hive which is really exciting as we are helping out a lady who has a hobby of bee keeping and so we want to help the bees, so we offered a space in our garden. They seem to be quite happy in our garden of fruits, vegetables and flower gardens. We are so fortunate to live 5 miles from the city and yet feel out in the country. It really has been ideal for us for 20 years though it is a lot of work I will not deny it!!
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I got really lucky and moved into a duplex with a perfect area for a little garden! It was a lot of work to get the soil all ready to go but it was a fun project for my daughter and I. So far I've got three different tomato plants, green/red/yellow bell peppers, jalepenos, cucumbers, white onions and cabbage. Then basil, rosemary and cilantro in their own pots. I can't wait to share some fresh veggies with everyone!
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Alicia, I love your blog which is what inspired me to buy your cookbook. Mmmmm good is the eggplant chana marsala (hope I spelled correctly). Also love the whole wheat biscuits, rustic pasta, peanut butter pie, the brown rice cereal crispy treats. I hope that you will be coming out with another cookbook in time. It is my favorite cookbook that I have ever owned. I am vegetarian, but vegan most of the time. You Rock!!
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I'm slowly adding to my edible forest garden, which just means using the natural structure and succession of a forest to grow food. Purple-flowering chives and smokey fennel are the sunny front, backed by bush cherries, loaded with green cherries even though they are only 2 1/2 feet tall. Behind them and hazelnuts are leafing out. The backyard is more jungle-like. Passion fruit flowers smell like grape kool-aid, pomegranates wave vibrant orange flowers, and kiwi vines twine strong, furry tendrils up an arbor and over to the blueberries. I also grow some annual veggies: tomatoes, peppers, basil, beans, and greens. (Alicia, will try favas next winter.) Eat your lawn!
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Mmm one question ... if you plant your own vegetables you have to use some kind of anti-pest? or what kind of care should have? ... I would like to have some vegetables in pots even be
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