Must-Have Plants I'm Growing

 

"We have plowed, we have sowed,

We have reaped, we have mowed,

We have brought home every load,

Hip, hip, hip, harvest home."

Traditional English Harvest Verse

For the last few months, I've spoken with some of the nation's most well-known garden writers, bloggers and personalities about their must-have plants. So, you might just be wondering which plants I can't live without myself. That's why this blog post is dedicated to my 2010 harvest ... and some of my favorite plants.

As you can see above and below, my garden is a rather unruly mix of wildflowers, roses and perennials. The Shirley and California poppies self-seeded themselves from last year, and seem determined to take over my late-spring/early-summer garden.

As garden writer and designer Rebecca Sweet would say, there are a lot of "showgirls" in my garden. These are the plants that bloom outrageously and then disappear in winter. So, I'm working on adding more four-season interest to my new garden, including some lovely little boxwood shrubs which you can't see here because of all the showgirls. But I'll be glad to have their evergreen shapes in the winter months. You can hear more about showgirl plants from my Nest in Style podcast interview with Rebecca Sweet.

I'm a big fan of succession planting. So although my raised beds started out with lettuces and radishes of all types in early spring, they were replaced with squash and corn when the weather heated up.

Last year, I grew a bean teepee in this raised bed. This year, I'm growing 'Blue Jade' corn that was supposed to grow about three feet. They must like my growing conditions, because they are easily five feet tall now. I'm just starting to pull the blue-colored corn now. Incidentally, it's always good to plant corn in blocks (rather than rows) so they can self-pollinate themselves well.

Eggplants are a great way to grow attractive, delicious plants in small spaces. 'Rosa Bianca' eggplant is an Italian heirloom that will shine in any ornamental garden bed. But I like to grow them in containers too. The flowers are as pretty as the delicious fruit.

'Calliope' eggplant is a hybrid with striped fruit that are adorable. Harvest these eggplants when they reach about 2 to 3 inches in size. Great for northern climates, this eggplant ripens in about 65 days.

My 'Little Fingers' eggplant grew huge in a container, and never stopped producing tiny, black eggplants the size of chubby fingers. This early variety ripens in under 70 days. Incidentally, these containers with eggplants were filled with salad greens of all types in the spring.  Learn more about lettuces.

Grow lots of vegetables, and you can make strange faces with your food too. Starting at the top are 'Calliope' eggplants, 'Patterson Golden Scallop' squash, 'Lebanese White Bush Marrow' squash, 'Little Fingers' eggplants and 'Fairy Tale' eggplants. Incidentally, 'Fairy Tale' eggplants are also excellent in containers, and ripen quickly for northern gardens.

It wouldn't be summer without tomatoes of all types. That's why I grew varieties that ripened at different times. Pictured above (starting top left) are cute 'Yellow Perfect Sugar' (grown by a friend); 'Black Krim;' 'Green Zebra' (grown by a friend); 'Black Sea Man'; 'Isis candy' cherries; 'Tomacchio' and 'Principe Borghese' varieties for drying; as well as 'Stupice' which ripened easily a month before the others. Plus, some 'Osmin' purple basil. Tomato growing tips. Six tomatoes for cooking and preserving.

Beans are another favorite vegetable for us. And we especially love the ones that aren't green. Above are beautiful spotted 'Dragon's Tongue;' pinkish 'Red Swan Bush;' and yellow 'Pencil Pod Wax Bean.' Alongside the beans are flowering oregano stems that make the bees in my garden very happy. More about beans.

The weather is gradually growing colder, and there are only a few more weeks to enjoy these summer vegetables. But I'm already planting carrots, radishes and salad greens for the fall. There is nothing better than delicious food out in the garden, even in the colder months.

Meanwhile, what are some of your favorite must-have plants in the garden? Do you agree with these folks?

Must Haves (Flowergardengirl, Andrew Keyes, Pamela Price, Tee Riddle)

Must Haves (Rebecca Sweet, Jenny Peterson)

Must Haves (Kylee Baumle, Fern Richardson, Susan Cohan)
Must Haves (Joe Lamp'l, Patti Moreno, Theresa Loe of Growing a Greener World TV)
Must Haves (JeanAnn Van Krevelen, Lisa Gustavson, Michael Lieberman)
Fav Winter Plants (Kerry Michaels, Maine)
Fav Winter Plants (Dan Eskelson, No. Idaho)
Fav Winter Plants (Doug Green, Canada)
Fav Winter Plants (Helen Yoest, North Carolina)
Fav Winter Plants (Christina Salwitz, Western Washington)

Congrats to GG Winner - Plus, Fresh Food Tips From Readers

We're pleased to announce that Lara Zelman of Massachusetts has won a free, autographed copy of Grocery Gardening. Congratulations, Lara!

A warm thanks to all who participated in this random drawing. I loved reading everyone's favorite ways to eat fruits, vegetables and herbs. Although I know it wasn't easy to pick just one...

As Lara (@GoodCookDoris on Twitter) wrote, "So hard to choose a favorite! I love cilantro ... mixed up with fresh avocado and lime juice. It has such a bright, vibrant flavor."

Photo Credit: The Marmot on Flickr

Basil was a particularly popular herb, receiving most of the responses. Annica Janes (@rootsandflowers on Twitter) says she likes to grow "tons each summer and make it into pesto which I freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to freezer bags. This way we have garden goodness all winter long." She tosses the pesto cubes into tomato soups or homemade pasta topped with chicken and roasted red peppers.

Sara uses basil with eggplant. "One of my favorite things from the garden this year," she wrote, "was a slice of grilled Japanese eggplant, with a tomato on top with fresh basil and some mayonnaise and garlic dolloped to hold it together." She said it tasted so good, "I couldn't stop eating them."

From California, Susie Johnson throws basil into her bruschetta, which she makes with hybrid 'Big Beef' tomatoes she grows herself in summer. Susie mixes together diced tomatoes, chopped basil, garlic, a bit of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and ground black peppercorns.  Then she toasts baguette slices and spreads them with soft feta cheese... before spooning this tomato mixture on top and serving this yummy dish.

Some folks just liked their produce plain and simple. Right off the vine. At the peak of their perfection, taste and nutritional value. And who can blame them for that?

But one of my favorite responses came from Alicia. She wrote, "It's nigh near impossible to pick ONE favorite fruit or vegetable, as most of them are so delicious and nutritious...so...I guess I must say onions, as they are so versatile, and so essential to so many dishes, adding so much flavor, variety and nutrition."

Alicia slices onions, separates the rings and sautes them. In fact, she puts this member of the Allium family in almost anything "but dessert."

Well, I must admit I agree with Alicia. Onions are the first thing I pull from my pantry when I begin almost any dinner. Yet, it's such a food staple, it's easy to take the old onion for granted. Experiment with different types of onions, like leeks too. Lovely leeks are one of my secret ingredients for vegetable soups. But don't tell anyone...

Thanks again everyone for participating!  Keep eating those fresh foods, regardless of the season.

Learn more about Grocery Gardening.

Harvest Time in the Garden

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year,

bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil."

Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905

It's harvest time, a time when many gardens are loaded with late-season vegetables and fruit ripening to perfection. So, it seemed the right time to give you a quick tour of our kitchen garden this year.

Vegetables and flowers are close neighbors in my suburban garden. Above, 'Rosa Bianca' eggplants grow next to sages and other flowers and herbs.

'Rosa Bianca' is an Italian heirloom variety, which is prized by chefs because it rarely becomes bitter. We've grilled the eggplant with olive oil and herbs, as well as featured it in casseroles with feta cheese and other vegetables. This variety can take 70-85 days from transplanting to ripening, so start seeds inside in the spring and plant seedlings after the first frost.

'Fairy Tale' eggplant is a lovely variety of eggplant that really produces well in containers. As the variety only takes about 50 days to ripen, this eggplant is ideally suited for shorter growing seasons. We've sauteed them with olive oil and other vegetables for delicious side dishes.

'Packman' broccoli just keeps on giving. It starts with a single stalk early in the season. Once you harvest that central stalk the plant produces side stalks throughout the summer.

We planted broccoli seedlings in late-April and are still eating from these plants in late-September. If you look closely, you can see all the many side stalks developing into tasty vegetables for us to eat.

With more than 10 varieties of hot and sweet peppers around here, we've been drying them, grilling them, stuffing them, you name it... Above are some paprika, cayenne, hot Thai and jalapeno peppers just waiting to be picked. (Be sure to wash your hands, however, when you do. Hot peppers can burn your eyes if you aren't careful.)

Lipstick' sweet pepper is one of several pepper varieties we're growing, including 'Sweet Banana' and 'Giant Marconi.' With all this abundance, we're freezing peppers now so there will be plenty around for colder months.

Speaking of colder weather, earlier in the season we planted cool-season vegetables such as peas, radishes and beets. In the foreground are 'Forellenschuss' lettuces, which have become a family favorite. The speckled leaves of this delicious romaine-type lettuce are not only lovely, they also maintain their shape well and don't become limp and boring with salad dressings.

Once those cool-season vegetables were pulled out in the summer, we planted a bean teepee in one bed and sweet peppers in the other. Above is a photo taken last week. As you can see, with the right growing conditions, you can have beans later in the season than you may think.

The bean teepee is planted with 'Ideal Market' and 'Purple Pod' pole beans, which are starting to ripen now. The goal is to keep picking these vegetables as they ripen, so the plant keeps producing as long as possible.

But even as these warm-season vegetables ripen, the growing season is by no means over. There are still those cool-season vegetables to grow in fall, such as Brussels sprouts, kales, 'Tom Thumb' peas and more.

In other words, we may not yet be eating from our garden all year long, but we're working on it. Yep, we are definitely working on it...