Having a tasty vegetable garden used to be limited to what would
grow in a summer vegetable plot. These days the garden can contain
almost anything, including edible flowers and be grown anywhere in
the yard including among the flowerbeds.
Having a tasty vegetable garden used to be limited to what would grow in a summer vegetable plot. These days the garden can contain almost anything, including edible flowers and be grown anywhere in the yard including among the flowerbeds.
You can use ingenious ways to get those fresh vegetables from the garden and closer to your table. Use containers, hanging baskets as well as traditional garden plots. Lettuce, chard, spinach and parsley work quite well together in the flowerbed. They make crisp, fresh looking borders and edgings. They can be grown in clumps among low-growing perennials or annuals.
Lettuces with frilled edges give a nice finish to beds of snapdragons or penstemons. Swiss chard is charming as an edging along a walkway or garden path. Try trimming a border of marigolds with parsley.
If there are any damp, partly shaded spots where most vegetables won’t grow, plant herbs instead: parsley, chives or mint. You might want to grow the mint in a container because it can be invasive once it gets established.
Use cabbages and ornamental kales to line walkways next to medium to tall growing shrubs and perennials. There are so many different varieties of them you’ll be sure to find several that will give color and texture to the flower bed as well as ingredients for soups and stews.
Try Brussel sprouts for an unusual addition to the garden. As the plant grows, walnut sized “cabbages” form on the stem. You can harvest the sprouts as they reach about an inch in diameter. Pick off the ones at the bottom first. They not only like the cooler weather, but also are noted for being flavorful after a frost.
From our seed packets: carrots, radishes, onions and garlic can be planted as row crops or tucked into corners and gaps in the garden to fill out the flowerbed.
Feed monthly with a tomato and vegetable fertilizer. Water twice weekly as the weather dictates.
While it’s hard to believe it’s time to set out winter vegetables, consider how great fresh carrots, radishes, onions and cabbage will taste in winter stews and soups. Your local garden center and nursery are stocking vegetable seedlings and lots of packages of seeds and onion sets to make your winter cooking a fresh and tasty experience.
When putting in cool season vegetable plants, the list can certainly include artichoke and asparagus and then continue on to broccoli and cauliflower. In the meantime, seed crops should be started. These include the aforementioned carrots, radishes, onions and garlic, and also beets, celery, chard, cucumbers, endive, lettuce, parsley, peas, spinach, squash and turnips.
Radishes can take as little as 20 days to reach the table; other crops such as asparagus can take two years to reach crop value. For some crops such as radishes and carrots many plantings can be made to assure an endless supply. In areas where the nights can get really cold, put in place some 2 x 4’s around the perimeter of the garden so a covering of plastic can be put over the garden area to protect it. Make sure the covering does not touch the plants. The use of small frames is another idea.
Proper soil preparation is a must. Use organic materials and manures and work them into the soil to a level of eight inches and then add a good vegetable fertilizer. Remember fertilizer does not release as well when the soil is cold.
Once the plants are established the use of a light mulching (about 1 inch of steer or chicken manure dug into about 6 inches in depth) will help heat the soil as well as enable the plants to convert fertilizer into food for them.
– California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers
