Vegetable Gardens- An Old Idea is New Again

It seems that everyone is talking fruits and vegetables these days. Economics, health concerns, cost of fresh food, whatever the reason, people are ‘growing their own’. Even the white house has reintroduced the kitchen garden. The trend actually began last year as is evident in the increase in sales of fruit trees and berry bushes. This spring the hot topic is
vegetable gardens. New books have been written on how to get started, computer programs are being promoted to help you plot your square footage and you can even buy prefab boxes
that you put together at home and fill with dirt and seeds. You would think growing your own food was a new invention! Hardly.

Historically the concept of the small home garden came about in the early Middle Ages in cities in Italy and Germany. People who lived in the country had plenty of wild sources for roots and vegetables, fruits and herbs while the people who lived in the cities needed to provide for themselves. Fruits, vegetables and herbs were grown in small plots around their homes.
The harvest would supply the immediate household and excess was sold at the town market.

Over the past several decades fruit and vegetable gardens have come to be associated with large plots of land in the country. This is more of an American idea than an European concept. If you travel by train through Europe you get a voyeurs view of peoples back yards. More often than not they are a tapestry of fruits, vegetables, vines and trees with a shed of some sort for storage and seed starting stuck in a corner. Even in November when nothing much is growing the gardens are beautiful. Brilliant green spinach, kale and brussel sprouts stand in
rows often under the leafless perissimon trees which are loaded with smooth orange fruit. Every square inch is utilized.

Incorporating fruits and vegetables into our landscape is a good trend and both easy and attractive to do. Look at your piece of land and decide how this would work best. Here are some ideas.

1. Create a separate garden plot specifically for growing food. There are endless books on the vegetable garden that can guide you through this. Be sure to start with a manageable size. Weeding takes time, as does watering and harvesting, so plan according to your time constraints. Grow food that you actually want to eat. Involve the whole family including the little guys.

2. Mix vegetables and herbs in an existing flower garden. Gaps between perennials that you usually fill with ornamental flowers can easily be filled with pepper plants, eggplant or bush beans. Mix scarlet runner beans with morning glory’s for a long blooming and edible trellis. Some tomatoes are more compact growers than others. They can be grown in cages and
would take up about as much space as a peony plant. Basil, dill, fennel, parsley and kale all have lovely foliage that contrasts nicely with bright flower colors. Besides flavoring a sauce or garnishing a plate they work well with cut flowers. Use lettuces as a border. Renee’s Seeds, which we sell at the nursery, has a great assortment of leaf lettuce that you would sow directly into the earth. A row as small as six feet long by a foot wide will keep a family of four eating salad nightly. Constant harvesting keeps the plants pushing out new leaves for months.

3. Garden in pots. Much research has been done in plants suitable for container gardening. You can grow an entire herb garden in a single strawberry jar. A large pot, eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, can hold a tomato plant and several basil plants. As the tomato plant grows you pinch off the lower leaves which will allow sunlight to reach the basil plants. Peppers, eggplants, kale, bush beans and even some cucumber plants have been bred specifically for container growing. Be creative. Repurpose that old wagon as a lettuce planter. Horsford’s Nursery offers both plants and seeds and pots that are suitable for container gardening. This spring look for their wagon full of lettuce plants.

Home grown vegetables really do taste better than produce that has been picked before it is ripe and then trucked across the country. Horsford’s Nursery has the seeds you need to get started. Their greenhouses are brimming with young vegetable starts both heirloom varieties and new hybrids. Everyone who works there has been gardening for years. Advice is free.