KITCHEN GARDENS

Last year I finally caved and called in the professional landscapers to do the heavy lifting in my yard. After getting a much needed new set of front steps, some poured concrete planters, and 80 yards of soil and compost, I am finally ready to plant vegetables again. The project was not completed until September last year -- so I was a full season with only my potted herb garden adding anything to my table.

I have had a small kitchen garden for years which I loved. Perhaps it is due to pent up demand for my own grown vegetables, but this year, I have become somewhat obsessed with growing edibles. The yard renovation has left me room to mix edibles in throughout the landscape. My kitchen garden is really just part of the garden now -- look for tomatillos in the front yard in August and you'll have found me.

My mother, who by her accounts, pioneered organic gardening in the 70's (the garden and greenhouse was quite large now that I think back on it), has been cautioning me to start smaller. I have never really been able to work that way so I have been stumbling my way through books, magazine articles, blogs, and several calls to mom as I gather information about my new lifestyle. By the way, if you spend more than 10 hours per week on your hobby, you can officially call it a lifestyle.

While my mother is probably the most helpful because she just answers my questions directly without searching, I have found blogs to be extremely useful in my quest to grow it all. Take a browse through these blogs as a great way to get information about growing your vegetables.

• DigginFood: Willi Calloway is based in the Seattle Area. She is a weekly guest on KUOW's garden show. The blog is actually just part of her site. Having a full site, allows her to branch out into non-blog posts -- she has a section devoted to garden guides and events. The beet guide (which is currently the only guide) is great and was just in time for me (yes, I am a beet grower now).
• French Gardening: Barbara Wilde founded L'Atelier Vert as a company to bring French Garden and Home Items to the US. The site goes by the English friendly moniker -- French Gardening. She lives in France where she travels throughout the country writing about gardening the French way. The link will take you to a great article on growing Endive. Her articles are well-researched and well written. The Au Potager section is all about edibles.
• A Taste Of The Earth: Daisy lives in Montana. Her blog is homespun and can sometimes stray from the garden. When she is on topic, it is pretty informative. Her upside down tomato post is pretty awesome (the link will take you there). If you want to try growing your tomatoes upside down but hate the infomercial pot, check her blog for a great alternative.
• Bloomtown: Darcy Daniels operates bloomtown, garden design company. Her blog is all encompassing when it comes to subject matter. It does have a pretty robust kitchen garden section -- the link will take you to it. It is also filled with pretty spectacular pictures.
• Garden Rant: 4 women share their stories of gardening. The women are located in California, Maryland, and New York. The blog has been published since 2006 -- which makes it about 80 in blog years -- and offers sound advice and loads of encouragement. There is no particular kitchen garden section, but growing fruits and vegetables is discussed regularly.
• Baker Creek Seed Company: Everyone has a favorite seed company. Ok, maybe not everyone has a favorite seed company. Regardless, Baker Creek is mine. If they don't have something you paid for, they send you a seed envelope with the return money in it. So cute. Oh, and they have an unbelievable amount of heirloom seeds.
• Mom: no site. I feel like perhaps I have cheated Mom a little. I only mentioned the one piece of advice that I didn't take. Here are a few tips that I am following: keep cukes and squash separated by at least 25 feet -- they can cross pollinate and you will get "weird" results; plant basil by your tomatoes -- the tomatoes will taste better; always plant garlic in a pot -- if you put it in the ground it spreads like crazy and you will have it everywhere; grow 'up' where you can -- squash and cukes can be trained up trellises (just not the same trellis); slugs can't get traction in ash -- put a layer around plants that are being slugged for an organic solution to stop slug snacking.

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