Herbal Sprigs - tips, recipes, etc.
Check here every month (or so) for a new plant to know, seasonal garden and growing ideas, plus recipes for using and enjoying herbs.
Enjoy the following seasonal articles. Check back each season for new ones.
Preserving Herbs for Winter Enjoyment
Creating a Kitchen Garden
You don't need a lot of space for a kitchen garden. I encourage you to plant a kitchen garden especially with food prices continuing to increase. From a few seed packets or plants from a garden center, you can enjoy something fresh from your garden almost every day during mid-summer through fall. Follow me as I show you how I created my 2007 Kitchen Garden filled with herbs, vegetables, and flowers.
The first step is always to prepare the soil. We added some peat moss and compost to add nutrients back into the soil. Some years (like this one) I will plant a cover crop. Right now (May, 2008) I have buckwheat planted in my kitchen garden. I sowed the seed in early April once it begin to warm up a bit and I could work the soil (it wasn't too wet). In early June before I plant, I will turn the buckwheat under. I usually do this by hand since the space is small. The buckwheat will add nutrients back into the soil.
In 2007, my husband rototilled the soil amendments into the existing soil and then placed the wood edging around. I didn't plant a cover crop last year. My space here is 5 feet deep by 16 1/2 feet across.
Plant List
Every year I vary what I plant. Usually I have a small selection of herbs and then a variety of vegetables, usually carrots, sometimes tomatoes, beans, and peppers. I usually have a row of sunflowers. This spot does get some shade since it is next to the neighbor's garage, so I'm careful to use the back of the garden for lettuce and vegetables that will tolerate less sun and really do not like the heat of summer. In 2007 we also had an additional bed where we planted cold weather crops (cabbage and lettuce) in late March when the weather started to warm. We removed the lettuce once the plants bolted in the heat of summer and then prepared the bed for our fall planting of garlic.
Carrots: Romeo Round Baby Carrots and Bolero Nantes
Greens: Summer Perfection Spinach and Heirloom Cutting Mix
Herbs: Slow-Bolt Cilantro, Italian Parsley, and Sweet Genovese Basil
Vegetables: Ronde de Nice Round French Zucchini, Oregon Giant Snow Pea, and Trieste Bulbing Fennel
Flowers: Mixed Seashell Cosmos, Cherries Jubilee and Copper Sunset Nasturtiums
Volunteers: Hopi Red Globe amaranth (the large red leafed plants in the photo below. The flowers are used as a dye.
**Most of the seeds were from Renee's Garden or Seeds of Change.
The Garden
Here is the garden in July. The snow peas finished producing in late July and I removed them.
In the front from left to right, basil, bulbing fennel, snow peas, cosmos, and sunflowers. In the back row, cilantro, spinach and lettuce, parsley, and zucchini. The nasturtiums are not in bloom yet, but were planted on the very end by the basil. I direct sowed the seed rather than starting them indoors as I did this year. The carrots were planted behind the fennel and snow peas. A board down the center allowed me to walk in the garden to harvest and weed.
Here's the other side of the garden. The cilantro, lettuce, spinach, parsley, and zucchini plant are shown. We keep the rabbits out of the garden by providing lots of clover in our grass for them to enjoy!
This garden provided an abundance of produce. Here's what I harvested in one day. This is later in the season when the cilantro had flowered (bolted). Carrots will keep in the ground even after a frost. I usually harvest the last of them in late October or early November. Carrots are ready to harvest when you can see the top poking through the soil.
Harvest herbs before they flower and use the flowers in foods because they have a very potent flavor.
