Food gardening three ways
Friends, it’s the time of year to get your plants in the ground! In the past, our region of California has always waited until after Mother’s Day to start our gardens in case of a late freeze. Believe me, it’s happened. There has been snow in May before. But now the summers are starting earlier, and it means a longer growing season.
Now I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert at gardening. I really know very little. Today, before I put most of my plants in the ground I flipped through Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte to see if I can give my veggies an advantage. I have to say I learned a few things like carrots love tomatoes (hehe) and melons and sunflowers like each other. Did you know cucumbers and beans are friends? Now you do!
This year I decided to put my pumpkins in a sunnier area of our back yard and expand the number of varieties I put in. I love pumpkins! I hope they all do well so we don’t even have to visit the pumpkin patch in the fall.
We are lucky enough to have a big enough yard to put in a decent sized garden that gives us plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and squash. This is way number one to garden. In your yard in beds.
The second way: For people that don’t want to be so committed or only have a porch or balcony you can have a potted garden. This is how I do my herbs for cooking! It’s way handier than having to walk all the way out to the garden usually in the near dark to clip some fresh herbs for dinner. You can also do tomatoes and beans and probably a bunch of other more substantial vegetables in pots as well.
The third way: If you don’t have any outdoor space there is still hope! I recently started an indoor LED garden. I planted basil and some salad greens and they are doing fantastic! The LED lights are on a timer for twelve hours on and twelve off. So it is basically the easiest thing ever! You only have to remember to water them every couple of days.
As you can tell, this year I am going all out and doing all the ways. I hope you are able to add some green to your summer as well!
Hugs and veggies!