gardening
BY RACHEL FOSTER
Baby Steps
A veteran perennial gardener turns to veggies
I
’ve put in many years of gardening, but when it comes
to growing vegetables in the Willamette Valley I am
pretty much a novice. Last year I took some baby steps
following our move, in the fall of 2009, to a sunny house
and garden already equipped with several board-sided,
8-foot by 4-foot raised beds. Broccoli, string beans and
carrots were fl ourishing there when we moved in, which
was encouraging.
Last year was very busy, and my vegetable gardening
was sporadic and unplanned. But thanks to those raised
beds I made a start, and learned a good deal in the process.
For one thing, I learned that it is well worth seizing any
short, dry, mild patch of weather in February, even if the
weather that follows is wet, cold and miserable. I also
learned that however poorly your potatoes grow, you may
get something out of it. And I learned that adequate soil
fertility is absolutely vital to edible, productive crops. I
won’t pretend I’ve mastered how to achieve it.
I learned that I won’t be able to grow spinach at all unless
I take serious action against slugs and snails; that taking the
trouble to plant seed at an appropriate density may be less
tedious that thinning the seedlings; and that you should
stake your peas before they fall over. I also discovered that
growing from purchased starts instead of seed is convenient
but expensive, and should be reserved for things like
broccoli and kale, which produce useful amounts of food
from a handful of plants over a long period.
There were some marked successes. Not surprisingly,
most were with things that routinely appear on “easy to
grow” lists, such as peas, kale and lettuce grown from
transplants. The peas I sowed in mid-February were Super
Sugar Snap (Territorial Seed Company) a variety that has
very thick, fl eshy pods. I didn’t particularly like the large
pod to pea ratio when they were cooked. Luckily, we and
all our friends greatly enjoyed eating the pods raw. The
red, oval radishes (incorrectly labeled French Breakfast)
germinated readily and grew to a delicious third of an
inch long, then stopped and turned woody. Nothing would
get them going again. A friend mentioned that radishes
must never dry out, but these seemed to need more than
unfailing moisture. I suspect the problem was lack of
available nutrients in still-cold soil.
Early summer transplants of Red Russian kale are still
producing to this day, and the worst challenge they ever
faced was from aphids. September transplants of black
Italian kale yielded periodic crops all winter (for yummy
pasta with greens, oil and garlic) and are clearly poised
to make a forest of tender sprouts as the weather warms.
I had less luck with chard, which in late summer and fall
suffered a nasty attack of leaf-mining borers. I thought the
leaves might outgrow the borers with ample liquid food
and water, but that didn’t work. The only fi x appeared to
be a fl oating row cover.
Broccoli planted in late summer just didn’t grow much.
I think brassicas (excepting kale) need more soil fertility
than my old raised beds provided, even with a generous
allowance of balanced fertilizer at planting time. This year
before planting I’ll try manure in addition to fertilizer,
and maybe some Azomite. I suspect my long experience
growing perennials in fertile clay-loam spoiled me, and I
simply cannot conceive of the amount of fertilizer a veggie
may require. Fertility early in the year while soils are cold
is a common problem for organic gardeners. Some kind of
liquid fertilizer is the best remedy for that.
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Italian Kale
Totally fresh salad greens, year-round if possible, are a
high priority for me. One of my happiest discoveries last
year was Sylvetta Wild Arugula (also from Territorial)
which is somewhat like the kind you get in European
restaurants. It was slow to germinate and slow to grow.
But it was also slow to bolt and, although quite peppery,
it never became inedibly hot in summer as common rocket
can. (That common rocket, self-sown in fall, seems to be
the one to grow through the winter, though.)
I’ve been eating corn salad (also known as mache) all
winter. I sowed some seed last spring, and the plants promptly
bolted. But the prolifi c seeds they yielded germinated wildly
as the weather cooled in fall, and the plants continued to
grow steadily without protection. I like to mix the little
mache plants with the lushest rosettes I can fi nd of that
annoying weed, little bittercress, which equals mache for
cold hardiness and is just now beginning to bloom. Some
people fi nd it too strong, but I like it in moderation. As my
husband could tell you, we like our salads rugged.
ew
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a writer and garden consultant. She can be reached
at rfoster@efn.org
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EUGENE WEEKLY FEBRUARY 10, 2011 33