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Gardening 101 – How to Begin

“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

At the risk of being too cliche, Benjamin’s counsel about planning is absolutely true. It may be tempting to skim through the planning stage or even to skip if altogether, but if you do, I promise you will regret it in the not-to-distant-future. I have been gardening in the same spot for two decades, but there is not a single year that I don’t plan it out again BEFORE I plant. There is never a time when the garden is the same as it was the year before. I am always wanting to try new things in new places, and as the sun/shade ratio has evolved over the years, it has changed how things grow and flourish (or not) in certain areas. Where am I going to put the potatoes? What can I do to get the carrots more sun? What can I do to amend my soil in this bed? What is going to separate the potatoes and tomatoes? (they hate each other bytheway) It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most important step in growing a garden.

Start at the beginning, with a PLAN. Map out your garden – keeping friends together, bad neighbours apart and considering sun and shade

WHERE:

Choosing WHERE to plant your garden is not to be taken lightly. You can’t just plunk it in an available patch of ground. There are important things you must look for, that will determine the type of garden you can grow. If you’re growing flowers there is a lot of flexibility, but if you’re growing vegetables you need . . .

SUN: You can do without a lot of things in a vegetable garden, but you cannot do without SUN

Get to know your yard and garden.   Go out into your yard at different times of the day.   Find the spot with the most sun you can afford to convert into garden space.   Six good full hours of sun is considered FULL SUN, and that is what you’re looking for.  Don’t discount using pots in sunny areas.  Don’t discount the front yard either. Who said that gardens must be in the back yard. Some of the best and most beautiful vegetable gardens I have seen are in front yards, so open your mind.

To begin with, pay attention to the light patterns in your yard every couple of hours. Note how they’re different in the spring, summer and fall. Get outside in the spring, and assess where the shadows fall and for how long. Record your findings. Either use marking stakes to indicate light and shadow in your yard, or draw a map, sketching in where the shade in two hour increments. Start about 7 AM and stop about dusk. Use a pencil to mark shady sections of the yard. Note the sun and shade pockets throughout the day. Vegetables need at least six full hours but many flowers will do beautifully with less.

Remember that light patterns change. The position of buildings may not change but many other things do. When we moved into our current house the yard was bordered with trees, especially along the west side, many of them evergreens. They provided a sense of privacy and necessary shade in the hot dinner hours when we chose to eat outside, and we appreciated them. As time went on we noticed that we needed our sun umbrella less, and one day I was shocked to note that by 4:00 in the afternoon, our shade stretched all the way to the trampoline, a good 100 feet! Clearly that shade had been gradually increasing but I had never paid a whole lot of attention to it, other than to notice that our table wasn’t as hot at dinner time as it used to be. Once I did start paying attention however, I noticed how that shade had changed the growing patterns of a huge chunk of our yard. Dan had been wanting to cut those trees down for a few years because of the shade, but I wasn’t convinced till my big discovery. Trees grow. Big trees become bigger trees. It happens so gradually that until we are prepared to open our eyes and seriously take NOTE of the sun vs shade situation in our yards, it simply escapes us. But regardless of whether we’re taking note, it is affecting the growing conditions of everything it touches.

No one likes to cut down trees, but sometimes it just has to be done, and I knew that day our two big spruce trees had to go. They had grown to a whopping estimated 35 feet, and in their ideal environment, were only gonna grow taller. They came down September of 2019. When you’re tracking your sunlight, keep in mind that in the spring bare branched trees are not giving as much shade as they will in the summer; once they leaf out, the former illusion of filtered sunlight morphs into full shade. Be frank in your assessment, it doesn’t do you any good to be sentimental about trees. If they work they work, if they don’t they don’t. You are the boss.

Ideally, you’d like to find a nice sizable patch of ground that receives 8 hours of full sun a day, unobstructed by tree shade or building shade. But if your yard is mature, that may not be possible without removing or at least pruning a tree or two. Removing the lower branches of a tree can allow filtered sun to shine through where full shade once dominated, and for flower gardens that might suffice, but vegetables need more than filtered sun.

Our sunniest spot was over on the north east corner – which had been where the previous owners parked their RV so it was packed gravel, and possibly contaminated with oil. We didn’t have the resources to dig it all out and replace it with good soil, so we opted to put in raised beds, bricking in the pathways. Over the years, fruit trees have been planted in the yard and other trees have had to go – mostly because of shade in the wrong spots. The point is that sometimes you can MAKE sunny spots, or at least REMOVE sun impediments.

Your best spot might be in a soiled area where all you have to do is remove grass. Lucky you. Your best spot might be shaded by some nice trees. You can always prune lower branches to open up sunlight, or you might have to remove one or two. Remember, you can always plant another tree in another area where it can be a better neighbour. Your best spot might be in an area with poor soil or as in our case, no soil. In that case, raised beds might be your best option. Your best spot might be on your patio, in which case you may be obliged to grow in containers. If you live in an apartment, your best spot might be a balcony. Sun will determine your best spot. Every other condition is manageable.

I believe that for the most part, gardening directly IN the soil bed is the easiest and usually the best. But raised beds are a great alternative with a whole list of benefits.  
Container gardening IF the container is big enough and is watered frequently, is ideal for spaces where soil space is poor or not available like a patio or balcony. Remember however, that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There is no reason you can’t employ more than one method depending on what your yard or space provides. I have several flower gardens throughout my yard, all IN ground. My tomato garden is IN ground. My vegetable garden is in raised beds. I use containers throughout my yard, especially on my patio to extend my growing area. In-ground, raised beds and containers can all have a place in the same yard depending on space and exposure.

Sun is serious business, and I have a philosophy about where plants reside in my yard. If you are a plant that tolerates shade or partial shade, you will get it. There are too many plants that MUST have full sun, to be wasting it on any that are agreeable to less sun. So we have a very segregated neighbourhood in our yard: separated by their need for sun, full sun, less sun, partial sun/partial shade, mostly shade, full shade. Each area is populated by those who do best in it.

Sunny areas can be very HOT and will need special attention, and watering is very important.  Not watering often enough or giving too little water at a time stresses plants and makes them susceptible to disease.

Flowering plants like tomatoes and cucumbers love the sun. The sunnier the better. They will ripen better in the sun, and will in general do better in every way.

Leafy plants will bolt in hot sunny areas, so they could use a more filtered area. Partially sunny areas like east or west exposures offer a balance that is suitable for many plants including leafy plants.

SOIL – Preparing your soil and maintaining its best health

Soil is more than just ‘where your garden lives’, it is also ‘what it eats’, so pay attention to what’s in it.  Most garden soils, without regenerative organic additives will be depleted within just a few growing seasons.  To improve depleted soil or maintain good soil to a rich healthy plant-supporting environment requires a simple plan of adding organic material such as aged manure and compost.  Whether you buy compost or make your own, along with manure it is the best organic additive to your soil.

Getting to know your soil: sandy-clay-loam, acidic or alkaline

SANDY Soil is very loose, letting both moisture and nutrients drain away.  Working in organic matter like garden compost acts like a slow-release fertilizer helping restore nutrients, as well as providing absorbing material so important in moisture retention.  Preventing water from leaching through so quickly with also retain nutrients. 

CLAY is made up of very fine particles that stick together making it difficult to drain.  Working in nutrient rich organic matter like compost and well rotted manure (emphasis on WELL ROTTED), physically breaks up the clay improving drainage and acts as a slow-release fertilizer.   It also makes the soil easier to work in, and less compacted after rain. 

LOAM is a rich soil containing a well balanced amount of sand and sediment and other rich organic matter with a smaller proportion of clay. It is what we’re striving for in the perfect garden soil.

Replenishing your Soil

Even the best of soils must be constantly replenished with nutrient rich additives to keep them fertile.  Without replenishing, the soil becomes nutrient poor, no longer attractive to worms and not a good source of food for plants.  This results in weak plants with stunted growth, that are susceptible to pests and disease.  The answer is not fertilizer – vitamins, the answer is good organic material – FOOD.  I am not anti-vitamins for people or for gardens, but it cannot replace good food.  As with people, good nutrition is key.  Vitamins come afterward, if needed. 

Well rotted organic material and woodchip mulch is an excellent way of nourishing your soil, increasing soil moisture and adding loam to both sandy or clay soil. 

The best time to bring in manure is late fall or early spring, before planting or after the season’s growth is completed.  If you live in a rural area it might be easier to find, but hey, that’s what google and social media are for.  Do a little searching, ask a few people – you’ll find good sources.  The emphasis is always on “OLD” when talking about manure, especially if you’re going to use it in the spring.  How old is old?  There are many factors that contribute to breaking down manures so its not as simple as saying “3 years old is best”.  Manure that has decomposed adequately will be brown and crumbly.  It will have a fresh earthy smell, not the yucky fresh manure smell.  That could be as soon as second year, or take as long as three or four years – depending on sun and moisture.

Applying manure to your garden beds:
It’s all about your purpose. You may be adding manure for a number of reasons. If you are doing a big over haul of your soil in the spring or winter, you’ll be adding a lot.  Remember the older the better. Whether adding in the spring or fall, go ahead and layer it over the top. In the spring you should be able to plant as usual.  If adding in the fall, it will further break down over the course of the winter. If you’re applying old manure as a mulch mid season around flowers, spread one to three inches deep.  This will help conserve soil moisture, and will break down slowly over the season.  Leaving the manure in the top layer will slowly release its nutrition over the course of a season’s watering, letting it soak through with the moisture. You’ll get many years of ‘fertilizer benefit’ from this, as well as improving the texture of the soil.

Applying compost to your garden beds:
I generally apply last year’s compost to my beds in the spring as I prepare the soil for planting.  If I was buying it, I would do the same thing – in the spring. How much?  Since I make my own compost, I use whatever I happen to have.  If I was to buy a truckload, I’d apply it like horse manure – everywhere, and then either spread it on top or work it into the top layer. As with manure, if you need the material to break up the soil as with clay and sand, work it into it.  If your soil is already good texture, and you’re just adding it for nutrition, leaving the manure or compost in the top layer of your soil, will slowly release its nutrition over the course of a season’s rain.    

Burying Food Scraps in the Garden:
In the early spring I am anxious to start composting, but often times my existing compost is not quite ready for me to add my kitchen scraps.  In fact, most of the time it is still not quite thawed.  What to do?  The ground is generally thawed a lot sooner, so I dig a hole in a spot where I will NOT be planting root vegetables like carrots or beets, and bury my kitchen scraps.  By the time I am ready to plant seeds in that spot (making it impossible to bury more food scraps there), the compost pile is ready for the new season’s offerings. 

PH balance:  Soil PH is an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of soil and is measured in PH units.  The PH scale goes from 0 to 14 with PH 7 as the neutral point.   From 7 down to 0 the soil is increasingly more acidic.   From 7 up to 14 the soil is increasingly more alkaline or base. 
Why is this important?  Plant nutrients become available or unavailable according to the soil’s PH level.  Most vegetables thrive in slightly acidic soil, because that PH affords them good access to all nutrients, a good range being between 6 and 7. Its not possible to ensure your soil is exactly the right ph for each individual vegetable, but in general terms you can focus on certain ranges. Below is a good estimate.                                                                                                                      
Extremely acid: < 4.5
Very strongly acid: 4.5-5
Strongly acid: 5.1-5.5
moderately acid: 5.6-6
slightly acid: 6.1-6.5
neutral: 6.6-7.3
slightly alkaline: 7.4-7.9
moderately alkaline: 7.9-8.4
Strongly alkaline: 8.5-9
very strongly alkaline: >9

It is easy to test with a simple garden soil test kit using dyes, available at hardware or gardening stores, but don’t expect extreme accuracy with ‘numbers’, more just ranges with these kinds of tests.  You will however, get a good idea if your soil is strongly acidic, strongly alkaline or neutral.  Amending your soil is not difficult to do, and you can do it organically, but the sooner in the season you know what you are dealing with, the sooner you can start amending.  In addition to adding manure and compost there are things you could be adding to increase or decrease over all acidity. For instance, peat moss is an excellent soil amendment for acid-loving plants and is easy to incorporate. Simply spread two or three inches to the top and work it into the upper layer of soil. For soil that is too acidic, try adding agricultural limestone to it. Work it into the upper layer of soil. Do your research, and ask around for suggestions. These are two very different things bytheway. Asking your neighbour for his opinion is not research, but both are valuable. In this day when google can be your neighbour, you’ve got the best of both worlds at your fingertips. WHAT:

What vegetables?   What variety of those vegetables?  Where do you buy your seeds or seedlings?   

Plan to maximize your harvest by drawing a map.   Perfection and accuracy isn’t necessary, just be reasonable and close to realistic.   Planting rows north and south is always best, its just not always possible depending on your yard configuration.   If you have to plant east and west, watch that the bigger plants are in the back of the garden (north) so they don’t shade the shorter ones.   Do the best you can with what you’ve got, that’s really all you have to do. 

Best choice of vegetables to grow is entirely related to what is suitable for your area, your climate, your spot, and your sun availability, and of course your preferences.   Yes, you want to be adventurous, and Yes, you’d like to try new things, but remember this whole adventure is ‘NEW’, so maybe don’t get too exotic in your first year or two. Yes, you want to think outside the box – but you want also want to give your plants the RIGHT conditions where they can be their best selves.   Your first few years are important to your confidence as a new gardener.   Set yourself up for success by selecting varieties that others in your area are finding success with.   Ask around for best suggestions of what vegetables to grow, and what is suitable for your area.   Ask neighbouring gardeners.  Ask on gardening facebook groups.  Gardeners are always happy to share what they’ve gleaned and learned from others.  You want to give your plants the RIGHT conditions where they can be their best selves.

Not all plants do well in all conditions, or even in all areas of your yard.  For instance, I don’t grow carrots worth a hoot in my yard, but my friend a few blocks over grows the best carrots I’ve ever seen. I suspect its a sun issue for me, so I’ve tried different areas of my garden, but still I have yet to have a great carrot experience since living in this house. There may be some conditions that are simply not suitable, so I focus on what I grow best.

buying seed

There are no shortages of places to buy seed: local hardware or garden supply stores, dedicated seed stores, even grocery stores.  Many people order their seeds from seed companies.  Last year was the first year in a very long time that I ordered from a seed company on line, and I did that because with all the Covid weirdness that was manifesting itself in the stores (like the shocking TP shortage) in the spring of 2020, I wasn’t at all confident that I’d find seed in the usual spots.  It is my habit, and has been for most of my gardening years, to buy seeds one year ahead.  Every year I buy seeds for NEXT year, and this year I plant the seeds I purchased LAST year.  This way I am never worried about my prospective garden being at risk because I cannot find seed, or perhaps I might not be able to afford seed in any given year.  There have been years like that for us, and seeds are not cheap.  Planning ahead is part of my philosophy for being self reliant.  Of course, I may pick up an extra package of something to use this year, but by and large the pattern is to buy ahead.

while there are others I add from time to time, the basic vegetables I grow that I think are pretty universal are these:

BEANS: bush or pole; green, yellow, purple; all are tender and must be planted well after last frost; assorted varieties.  You may already have your favourites.  If not, ask around for recommendations.   For most years I have planted bush beans because they I’ve never really had places for pole beans to climb.  But last year we added some vertical trellises and an arbour to our garden in the hopes that by reaching UP, we might increase our productivity in the ground space we have, so, now pole beans are my preference.   Taste wise, my personal favourite type of bean is purple beans.  I like them for a number of reasons, but mostly taste.  They grow purple so they are easy to pick, but don’t worry, when you steam them they turn a gorgeous bright green.  They have a somewhat ‘nutty’ taste which I love.

BEETS: red, yellow; round, cylinder.   My personal favourite is the traditional gorgeous round red beets.   Detroit or Ruby Red are my choices.  Detroits also produce nice tender greens which is a big plus in my books. 

CARROTS: orange, red, white, yellow; long, short; varieties: Nante Coreless are my go tos but I am still open to suggestions and could be persuaded by seed company claims of traditional sweet tasting carrots.

CORN: best suited in large gardens with LOTS of sun.  Best to plant in groupings as they cross pollinate each other.  There are some years we’ve grown corn even in our city raised bed garden and had beautiful corn, there are other years the summer simply wasn’t long enough and it turned out we wasted the space.  You takes-yer-chances with Corn up here.  A favourite among the people I polled is Extra Early Super Sweet.

CUCUMBERS:   I haven’t had a lot of luck with cucumbers in my present garden.  I am looking for suggestions myself.  I am very motivated to have them grow UP on my trellises.

dill growing with poppies in strawberry patch

DILL:  This is a garden must for me, and I buy the seed in bigger bags of 250+ grams.  I broadcast the dill among my other plants as they grow straight up and don’t compete with their shorter neighbours. I realize dill is not a vegetable, its an herb – but it lives in my vegetable garden and I replant every year. For more references to dill in other posts, just search the key word.

GARLIC:  I plant bulbs in the fall to harvest the next late summer.  Grown in amongst potatoes, said to deter potato beetles.

KALE:  For years I have avoided everything from the cabbage family simply because I got tired of trying to outsmart the cabbage moth that is responsible for the thousands of ugly worms in cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.  I tried everything I ever heard about or read about, and in the end I gave up and decided those would things I bought from the grocery store.   So when ‘kale’ became popular, I didn’t even consider it.  Last year I bought 6 kale plants quite by accident, thinking I was buying flowering kale for my flower pots.   When I realized my mistake I decided to plant two of them in three different spots in my garden to see if there was a favoured spot.  I was pleasantly surprised that they grew well and we ate kale almost daily for most of the summer.  By late summer, the two that were furthest into the garden, and so less in my sight line, got quite eaten by some kind of rude bug – but the others seemed fine.  Lesson learned, this year I’ll be planting kale on purpose, and probably double what I planted last year.   *hint: they need sun of course, and water often. 

I have fallen in love with kale in the garden. It is ready to use from June to freeze up, always happy and healthy – just a little more ‘mature’ toward the end, like the rest of us.

LETTUCE: leaf, romaine, butter, head; I plant a pretty generic leaf lettuce that I buy in bigger bags of at least 250 grams.  I plant in the early spring, then replant about three weeks later to have some variety in readiness.  You could be picking baby spinach for a mixed green salad by mid June and will be picking right up till freeze.   Green garden salads almost every day. 

ONIONS: green onions or bulb onions, and every thing in between.  I didn’t grow onions for years, cannot recall my reason for stopping.  But last year I planted several green onion bulbs, to be pleasantly surprise with the results.  I think we’ll be good friends for many years to come as I plan to do the same thing from now on.  They grew well and quickly.  I planted them among radishes and leaf lettuce and harvested as needed ALL summer long.  They were wonderful to have on hand and we used the entire plant from bulb to the top green tip.

PEAS:  Peas are a great cold weather crop, so best to plant them early when they ground is finally ready to be prepared.  They like cold feet so don’t worry about a little cold.   For years I did not grow them because they took up more room than I felt I could spare, but now with my emphasis on growing UP, I suddenly am much more interested in planting some.   They’ll be done by the end of July, especially if you planted them really early.  So you can plan for them to make room for something that might need the sun later in the summer, perhaps zucchini?    
Stupid cutworms were a problem for me last year.  I’ve gotta come up with a better plan to combat those enemies this coming year.

potatoes in garbage bags with leaf mulch 2020

POTATOES: red, white, yellow, purple; varieties like Netted Gems, Red Norlands, Yukon Golds, Banana, Purple, etc. I love all kinds of homegrown potatoes.  Since we’re in raised beds, room for potatoes has been a problem for years but I generally plant a few plants every year anyway.  My very best experience with potatoes was many years ago when we planted about six potato plants in straw.  Everything about it was great but sadly, for one reason or the other we never repeated it.   Soon we moved from that house and the spot was different, getting straw was sometimes more difficult than others, . . . This coming year, I am committed to repeating the experience with some barley straw. 

RADISHES:  I am not particularly a fan of the taste of radishes, and a handful in a salad once or twice a year is usually sufficient for me.  However, for some inexplicable reason I bought two packages of radish seed last year and decided to throw one package in amongst my spinach, green onions and lettuce seed.   As expected, they grew quite quickly and were up and happy in good time.  In thinning some spots out, I tasted a few and loved the fresh, slight peppery flavour of the tender greens.  Always scouting for young greens to add to spring salads, I began adding the radish greens.  Terrific!  I found a recipe for radish green pesto so I made a batch.  BEST pesto Ever!  I made a great discovery that season that will pay off for the rest of my life.  Me and radish greens will be friends from now on.

SPINACH:  plant as early as possible, they like it cold and will bolt in the summer heat.  By the beginning of July, they’re done. 

SQUASH:  bush like zucchini, trailing like acorn, butternut, spaghetti.  My fave squash is butternut

SWISS CHARD:  This is a standard in my garden, I couldn’t have a garden without it.  One of my favourite summer dishes is SPANAKOPITA which I grow swiss chard especially for.  Its almost the only thing I do with it actually, other than a dish of steams greens here and there – but I am THAT serious about Spanakopita.

tomatoes along the west side of the house, climbing on a trellis to provide airflow along the bottom. Companioned with chives, basil, feverfew and marigold, with a healthy kale plant along for the ride just for fun.

TOMATOES: small tomatoes in pots, larger tomatoes in garden; determinate – fixed size which are usually caged; indeterminate which will continue to grow and grow and grow as long as the season allows, producing tomatoes all along the way.  In another climate, an indeterminate tomato could grow for years, trailing the ground and establishing rootings frequently.  
I have come across my favourite tomato ever in the last few years, first introduced to us by my sister who was given a tomato gift from a gardening acquaintance.  The story goes that the seed for the tomato came from Romania, so the type and name are a mystery.  My sister collected the seed and the following year grew her own plants.  She gave me some, we loved the tomatoes and collected our own seed which we started in the house last March.  At this point, I am convinced I may never grow another tomato variety again.   They are indeterminate.  They are hearty and healthy plants.   The fruits are delicious and sweet, and HUGE, as in huge-like-a-dinner-plate. 
I call them ROMANIAN GIANTS and I have seed to sell. 

when planting seeds, always defer to the instructions on the packets for specifics

TURNIPS:  I am a newly converted fan of turnips since I started roasting them (like sweet potato fries), so this coming summer will be my first attempt at turnips for at least two decades.  A perfect example of how one should never discount learning new favourites to grow in the garden.  Here’s hoping for a good experience. 

CABBAGE:  All members of the cabbage family with the exception of kale, are of NO interest to me in the garden.  I love them all, and use them in my daily meal planning, but I will not grow them. See above. 

I’d love to hear your garden experiences.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

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Pot-pourri

What a bleak world this would be without flowers: without their gorgeous colour, and their sweet intoxicating, natural fragrance. In the warm months, flowers abound in and around our homes, with many practical reasons for growing them – not simply “to gladden the heart“. But in the cold months, one has to be more ‘deliberate’ about including them. That’s where potpourri becomes an invited guest, but before we get to that, lets talk about how important flowers are to our gardens. Here are 6 reasons to grow them.

1. To attract pollinators

Bee enjoying the flower head of garlic chives, cut and destined to be part of a kitchen bouquet

The most important reason I grow flowers is because I like them. But probably the most important reason I grow flowers IN the vegetable garden, is to attract pollinators. Bees are not the only pollinators, but they’re the most recognizable, and they’re every gardener’s friend. As the bees (and other insects) collect pollen, they distribute it to nearby fruits and vegetables pollinating as they go. The longer pollinators stay in your garden, the greater the pollination rate, so planting flowers among vegetables like zucchini and other squash, and cucumbers is very important. Look for bright coloured flowers. Studies indicate that bees like the colour purple. I grow Borage throughout my vegetable garden primarily because of their purple flowers which attract the bees.

2. As companion plants

rosemary in the centre, marigold to the right, red orach behind, poppy leaf at 11:00, borage leaf at 7:00

Sometimes for shade, sometimes to attract pollinators, sometimes to attract pests away from vulnerable neighbouring vegetables, sometimes to repel pests, flowers are more than just pretty faces in the garden.

3. To improve soil

Flowers from the legume family like Sweet peas, Lupins, Wisteria and Clover can improve nitrogen levels in your soil, not just from growing but even after they’ve finished growing. With the lawn mower, chop up spent bean and pea plants, and then use as mulch in areas of your garden that need nitrogen. As the mulch breaks down and rain filters through it, important minerals like nitrogen are returned to the soil. As my Borage grows bigger and begins to shade surrounding plants, I cut stems to put into summer bouquets, but remnants get added to the mowing.
There are many other plants (not just flowers) like Mullein and Comfrey – that provide great ‘green manure’ for your garden. Be open minded to a benefit you may not have considered before.

4. To eat

summer garden salad: garden greens including leaf lettuce, nasturtium leaves, lambs quarters, dandelion leaves, carrot greens, marigold petals, nasturtium flowers, candied pecans, fresh garden raspberries

Many flowers like nasturtiums are more than beautiful splashes of colour in the garden, and more than attractive faces to pollinators. They are delicious, and nutritious. Nasturtium flowers and leaves, pansies and marigold petals are the perfect addition to any summer salad. Making sure they’re free of chemicals is important, but you know what you’re adding or not adding to your own garden. Common edible flowers are Nasturtiums, Calendula (and other marigolds), Borage, and Pansies (including violas). I even freeze Delphiniums and Geraniums in ice cubes to add to chopped water in a glass dispenser.

All parts of the Nasturtium plant is not only edible and delicious, but highly nutritious: flower, leaves, stem and seeds. Search the keyword “nasturtium” to read other posts about this wonderful and versatile plant.

*cautionary hint: Not all flowers are edible so do some research and get recommendations before you freely harvest. My grandkids enjoy eating the many things I give them to try but we have a very strict rule which is – you cannot eat anything that isn’t a berry – unless Gramma gave it you to eat.

5. To gladden the heart

Getting back to the “gladden-the-heart” part. For most of my married life, my mother in law had freshly cut flowers on her table all summer long, and I came to find JOY in that. It is a rare day that I do not follow her example and have fresh garden flowers on my table during the warm months. Through doing so, I have personally come to know the meaning of what ‘gladden the heart‘ means. Growing flowers ensures a steady supply of every changing seasonal bouquets, and that has become increasingly important to me as I get older.

6. Preserving

Drying flowers when they’re in their prime extends their season and their reach throughout the winter. Who says we can’t have flowers on our table all winter long too? That’s where potpourri comes in.

Flowers in the house – Potpourri

The definition of Potpourri (pronounced ‘poh-poo-ree‘, is “a mixture of dried flower petals with spices, kept in a pot or jar for their fragrance“. Variations of potpourris have been used for millennia, all over the world – for fragrance. The type of potpourri I make is patterned after European recipes, mostly because of climate related ingredients. The mixture contains dried flower petals and spices, and essential oils, as well as ‘fixatives’ – the ingredient used to ‘FIX’ the scent.

While there may have been a myriad of reasons people used potpourri in days gone by, there is only one reason I use it. Because I love the smell of flowers. There is something about flowers that come from one’s own garden, lasting for years in a potpourri mixture . . . . I have a 3 gallon crock in my living room full of flower petals that I have dried – some of those petals have been there for decades. I add to it yearly, tossing new petals into the old. Making your own potpourri is easy, and using flowers and herbs from your own garden makes it personal and memorable.  

part one – the ingredients

When selecting flowers, look for ones that keep their colour.
* Rule #1 – don’t rush your potpourri. Like many good things, sour dough and potpourri cannot be rushed. You’ll be starting in the summer as you’re drying flowers, and you’ll be finishing mid winter – perhaps. This isn’t a race, and good potpourri will last for years and years – so relax, take a breath and enjoy the process.

* Rose petals have always been the most basic and important part of any potpourri mixture. I grow few roses, but I collect some from friends, and of course – I receive fresh roses from time to time throughout the year. I never waste them.

Other flowers: Any flower that has a pleasant natural scent and retains a nice shape and colour when dried, is a prime candidate for most potpourri mixtures. Carnations, lilacs, violets, pansies, geraniums, peonies and lily of the valley are good choices. The only petal that I keep separate for its own unique potpourri is ‘Lavender’, and that is simply because it is different enough that it deserves its own pot, and because I am particularly partial to the scent of lavender. If I am to add any other flowers to a lavender potpourri, they will also be purple, of small delicate petals and similar in general, like lilacs, dephiniums, corn flower (bachelor buttons) and forget-me-nots .

Common herbs: such as oregano, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, lemon verbena, basil, assorted mints, sage, lemon balm and meadow sweet are good choices to add to floral mixtures or to use separately.

Spices: fragrant spices such as cinnamon bark pieces, whole cloves and allspice are sometimes used, and I can see their value, but they don’t usually make it into my own mixtures unless I’m making something ‘Christmassy’.

Citrus peel: In many old recipes, dried whole oranges are crushed and mixed with spices. Or one could thinly pare the rind from an orange, lemon, lime or even grapefruit and dry till crisp. They can be added whole or crushed.

this jar is chopped and dried orris root from 2019 and 2020.
Probably next summer I will grind it up in my coffee grinder to use.

Fixatives: A fixative is a substance that absorbs scents and retains them for a long time.  You really need a fixative, the gentle scent of flowers is simply too delicate to last.

The only fixative I have ever used in ORRIS ROOT. You may find it in specialty shops like spice stores, some garden shops, health food stores, or even craft stores, and it is something I can make myself – which of course is always appealing. Orris Root is literally the root of an iris plant. When you buy it, it may come in ‘crumbles’ or as a fine powder not unlike icing sugar in texture. It is easy to use.

Sandalwood. I have never used sandalwood, mostly because I don’t know where to buy it, but I do like the smell of it, and wouldn’t be opposed to using small pieces or slivers of it in a potpourri mixture from time to time.

Essential oils: Essential oils are added to potpourri mixtures to strengthen the scent. Be adventurous and experiment: of course you’re going to use your favourite scents, but try combining oils of ‘like’ scents, try mixing floral and herb scents that you like. Constantly test the ‘scent’ when mixing into your bowl of flowers.

part two – colour and texture

Potpourri should be as beautiful to look at as it is to smell, so pay particular attention to the dried colour of what you’re using. Occasionally you come across a flower or herb, that when dried, completely loses its beautiful colour. Don’t use it unless it smells so amazing you cannot pass it up, but seriously, I cannot think of a single example of an ugly dried flower that smells that amazing. Flowers that dry with beautiful shapes and colours are: borage, delphinium, forget-me-nots, hydrangeas, marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies, salvia, tansy and zinnias. Consider adding rose hips and other interesting treasures in your garden for texture.

Sometimes you come across such perfectly shaped small flower heads or beautiful whole buds, that it seems immoral to rip them apart. Keep them in their form. If drying them is an issue, you can use a drying agent – a ‘dessicant’ to help.

using desiccants for texture

Silica Gel
The most commonly used medium for drying flowers is SILICA GEL. You should be able to buy from a drug store, a craft store or a hardware store. To use, simply put a one inch layer of silica gel in an airtight container, gently place the trimmed bud or flower on top of the gel, stem tip down. Some flowers may want to lay on their side, some might be best laid stem tip up. Be flexible. Gently pour the gel on top of the flower, taking care to get gel between petals if possible, eventually covering the whole flower. Seal the container and place in a secure place, safe from being jostled. Expect it to take 2 – 6 days for most flowers depending on how dense they are.
* hint: Afer use, silica gel must be re-dried. Spread out on a tray and dryin a low oven until completely dry. Store away for future use.

Borax
I have never used borax to dry flowers but it sounds very compelling to me. I will for sure try it. According to directions, take 1 part BORAX and 2 parts cornmeal and stir to completely blend. Layer borax mixture in airtight container the same as for silica gel, place flower on top in the same way as above, gently sprinkling borax mixture over top. Not necessary to completely cover. Seal and put away. Leave for about two weeks, checking occasionally after the first week.

part three – harvesting and drying

Flowers: Just when the flowers are at their most beautiful – usually just before fully opening, is when they’re perfect. Afterward, both scent and colour will begin to diminish. Gather on a dry day, mid morning is best – after the dew has dried but before the heat of the sun.

When drying, pay particular attention to not crowding them. I usually just leave them spread out and loose on a clean tea towel in the open air inside the house and away from direct sunlight which may fade them. If you have a lot, use a baking rack to keep the air circulating. Petals should be dry and slightly crisp, which could take several days in some cases, so don’t be in a hurry.

part four – assembling your Potpourri

– Dry all flowers and leaves till they are crisp.
– Use a glass or ceramic bowl or pot to mix. Never use plastic or anything porous, or metal. Plastic will keep the smell long after making it difficult to use for anything else, and some metals may react to some oils. You really should dedicate your bowl to potpourri – then you don’t have to worry about scents lingering.
– Place all your petals and leaves in large bowl, add any other non powdered ingredient.
– Mix your scent and fixative: Simply add drops of the essential oil of your choice a few drops at a time and mixing well after each addition to an amount of orris root. How much orris root? Depends on how much potpourri you’re making, but maybe start with 4 ounces for approximately 6-10 cups petals. Blend essential oil into the powder with your fingers or the back of a spoon until thoroughly blended.
– Sprinkle the scented orris root onto the flower mixture, then toss with your hands to ensure it is sufficiently incorporated.
– Add whole citrus peel, whole spices and buds if using. Gently toss with fingers again.
– Gently move potpourri mixture into jars, crock, or ziplock bags. Seal to leave for about 6 weeks to set. If in a jar or bag, do not leave in direct sunlight. Toss petals or shake bags frequently – every day or two to prevent fixative from settling.

part five – Enjoying your potpourri. For years!

My 3 gallon Medalta crock is the main container for rose scented petals of all kinds. I’ve been using this crock for about 40 years. It can never be used for anything else at this point; I expect that scent has become part of the crock.

For many years I kept my potpourri in a crock pot in the living room. When the house whas freshly cleaned, I would remove the lid, toss the petals and let the scent waft through the room. A very good friend of mine developed a sensitivity to perfumes that evolved into sensitivity to most scents, including flowers. At first, I paid attention to NOT having the potpourri open when I was expecting her to visit, but it got so that I stopped lifting the lid at all in case she stopped by. I didn’t want her to not be comfortable in my house. This was quite a sacrifice at first, but soon we mostly forgot about what was in that crock. Life changes and my friend moved away. One day I rediscovered my lost love of potpourri and began the process of getting back into the habit of using it.

How to use

rose scented and mostly rose based in an antique jar and a not-so-antique jar

Don’t leave your potpourri out in the open for days at a time. The smell will dissipate over time. Personally, I never bring it out until the house is cleaned. It’s kind of a reward I suppose, but it just makes sense to me that a clean smell should go with a clean house.

1. Pour your potpourri into an attractive bowl in your living room. Toss with your fingers. Before you go to bed, pour back into the crock, or jar.

2. Make small sachets out of thin cotton fabric. Store them in your drawers, closet, linen cupboard, or even pillow cases.

3. Keep in pretty antique jars that you can put on the table, your dresser or your bathroom counter when desired. When done, replace the lid and put away. Keep jars out of sunlight.

Remember, that even the best oils will eventually lose their scent. Toss the petals with your hands from time to time, and refresh your potpourri with a few more drops of oil when needed. You can always start a new batch next summer, or continue to add to existing batch every season. For years I have two potpourris going. The big one is probably one third roses, so I use ROSE as my primary scent of choice. The smaller one is LAVENDER which is about half lavender petals and leaves, and the other half – supplemental petals like lilacs, delphiniums and borage flowers.

Lavender with a few like coloured flower petals like pansies, violas, lilacs and even a rose.

4. I buy nice little jars or make nice little cloth sachets and fill them up for gifts. Tie a piece of ribbon or lace.

I’d love to hear your experience with homemade potpourri. If this is your first time making one, be brave – you cannot go wrong. Have fun and tell me how it went.

warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

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Lessons I Learned from my Garden #2

Hope is critical to a positive outcome

All things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart.  (D&C 59:18).

Gardening is a lot about preparation. And waiting. You clean up, rake out, dig up, move around, plan for, mow, chop, burn, haul here and haul there for days and days. It means dirty hands, dirty-all-over, and sore muscles. Then you wait till the forecast is favourable and finally you plant! If you’re like me you plant in stages. Spinach first, assuming it’s bed is ready. Then potatoes and peas, carrots and beets and so forth. Lastly are the delicate bedding plants like tomatoes, hoping that you’re not jumping the gun. And very lastly is basil (persnickety little princess that it is). Its a happy day when everything is looking your way, and the sun appears to commit to a lengthy stay – the tomatoes are finally into their summer home. And then! . . . you wait. . . . sigh . . . .

I cannot be the only gardener who wishes things would grow a littler faster. We can prepare the beds, fertilize, water, mulch, weed and water some more, but I’ve never met a seed in a hurry. Every year I try to be more realistic. “Get real!” I tell myself. “Stop peeking.” I tell myself. And I do. For maybe a week. Then we get a good two day rain, and I cannot help but take the inevitable day-after-the-rain-garden-tour, looking closely for any shoots of . . . anything. If I was honest, I am always disappointed. Having said that however, I am still utterly amazed at the difference two weeks in May can make to a garden.

May 1: my world is brown.
A few hearty weeds starting to unashamedly show themselves, and the promise of buds on a few early trees.

May 15:
The trailing bell flower (I call it devil-weed) is the most hardy green thing in the yard and it’s happy to be alive. (I’m not happy its alive) Dandelion leaves are beautifully tender in texture and taste. More buds on more trees. Most perennials are up, even the hostas have started poking their pointy heads through. Leaves have budded out on the chestnut tree. Blossoms on the Mayday tree, and the scent of them on the breeze. Tulips are blooming. Things are starting to green up.

May 21:

The stupid red lily beetles have sprung out of NOWHERE and are eating every relative of the lily family for miles around. Pink blossoms on the crabapple trees, and white blossoms on the cherry tree. Popcorn literally popping on trees all over our yard. The Delphiniums are two feet high. Mint is poking through the soil. Borage is in the four leaf stage. Mullein is nice and big and fuzzy. Lovage is already three feet high. The bright cheery yellow daisy-like flowers of Leopard Bain are in glorious full bloom. The world is suddenly every shade of green!

June 1:
The garden is full of promise and hope! Above all, hope. When all is said and done, after all is said and done – there is nothing one can do to rush the outcome. What if the carrot seeds don’t germinate? What if that one time I let it go dry was the critical time when they were their most vulnerable? What if stupid idiot cutworms cut the cucumbers off again? (stupid idiot cutworms) What if it hails? I hate hail.

faith vs hope

“One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.”
– W. E. Johns

I do not have faith that my seeds will germinate. That would be a misplacement of my faith, as I have seen times that seeds have not germinated. Many factors influence that outcome. Of course, I HOPE they will, and I water them as if they will, and I keep hoping till I see it actually happen.

I don’t even have faith that I will have a harvest. Again I hope every year for a good harvest, but my faith is reserved for something much more dependable than the weather, or the fickle nature of ‘nature’. I have faith in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ. I have faith that He will answer my prayers, and that He will bless me according to my diligence and obedience to the laws and principles upon which those blessings are predicated, and of course those He desires to bless me with. I have faith in His promises; promises like families are eternal and that I will see my dad again. Other things I don’t have faith in.

For my garden, I hope the weather will be good. I hope that the sun will be hot. I hope that we’ll get enough rain and that our rain barrels will refill frequently. I hope that day will follow night, and that night will follow day again the way I’m used to. The way I like it. But this year of Covid19 has taught me that even the things I thought were constant and dependable, are volatile and removable. Do I have faith that life will always be what it is right now? Absolutely not.

If there was no hope in a harvest why would we plant a garden?

our city backyard family garden cc 1988

I love garden fresh carrots. Crunchy and juicy at the same time, there is nothing quite like them. But carrot seeds are very small and they take forever to germinate, and keeping them moist while they germinate is critical and truth be told, . . . . . I’m not always on top of it. Watering them can cause a flood and push them all into one area leaving another area empty. You could easily have 8 billion carrots growing so closely together that you must thin them out or they’ll be puny, spindly, little things.

This year I hit upon two reeeeeally good ideas for growing carrots and I happily carried them out. One was to soak the seeds for four days till they begin to sprout, then suspend them in a cornstarch slurry inside a small ziplock bag. You plant them through a small hole snipped in the corner of the bag, squeezing the slurry of seeds into a pre-watered trench. The other idea was to sprinkle the seeds into a pre-watered area and then keep them under a board to protect them from drying out or from being washed away by water. Both hacks required constant moisture of course. I used the best of both ideas and was ‘hopeful’ (even giddy) for excellent results, reasonably certain of a positive outcome. Between hand watering and the rain, I was confident the row never dried out. After about a week I allowed myself to peek, and thereafter peeked almost daily. Carrots can take an easy twenty plus days to germinate (I told you they took forever), but I was delighted to see little white spears poking out of the ground in less than two weeks. I gingerly lifted off the boards to let the sunlight start greening them up. The ground seemed moist enough but I soon got distracted and didn’t get back to them till the next day. Bone dry with not a sign of seedlings I saw the day before. (sad face) I was certain I had killed the tender startlings by uncovering them too soon. I hoped I hadn’t. I watered gently and often, continuing to ‘hope’ for the best but I had lost my prior confidence. I was just considering taking next year’s seeds (I always buy one year in advance) to begin soaking them. Our season is short enough, that every day that goes by gets closer to being too late to start seeds in the garden, so I didn’t have a lotta flex time to weigh it out. I continued to hope, watering daily for the best possible scenario, and checking daily. A few more days and I saw those wonderful grassy-looking tiny bright green speers poking through the dirt along the carrot trails! I am SO glad I didn’t give up.

If hope hadn’t existed I would have ceased to water, ceased to check daily, ceased to expect the best, and consequently I would have sabotaged potential, losing any chance of carrots in my garden this year.

“When the world says give up, hope whispers ‘try it one more time.‘” – anonymous

Hope is a choice. It doesn’t just happen to us; we consciously and intentionally choose it.
Hope strengthens us mentally and emotionally.
Hope provides a positive outlook on life. It literally makes us happy.
Hope reduces stress and anxiety.
Hope improves our general state of health and boosts our immune system.
Hope is essential to our feelings of self worth.
Hope moves us forward and makes the future look like a brighter place, one in which we’d like to live.
Hope energizes us. When we are positive and cheerful it is easier to have energy.
Hope increases faith. And faith increases hope. They are very closely tied together
Hope is healing. Depression is a state of hopelessness, and the opposite is true.
Hope is not stagnate, it is all about ‘doing‘. Acting on hope yields more results than sitting on hope.
Hope is infectious. Just like laughing makes us laugh and smiling makes us smile, hope in another inspires hope in ourselves.
Hope is realistic. Hope in a fairy tale world is not hope, its fantasy. Hope for a pony while you live in an apartment is not hope, it is pleasant musing.

“Every thing that is done is this world is done by hope.” – Martin Luther

The truth is, hope may let you down. It seems cruel but sometimes even those things we have the greatest amount of hope for, don’t happen. Its at those times we wonder why we ever invested in it. It seems briefly that had we not hoped, we wouldn’t have fallen so far, and wouldn’t hurt so much. But for the most part, hope is such a pleasant companion while we’re walking with it, that at the end of the journey, we decide it really was worth it, and we yearn to walk with it again, because with hope everything looked brighter, and our days were better. I wouldn’t ever want to live without it. No matter what happens, I hope ‘hope’ and I can always be friends.

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ― Epicurus

~

The next few blog posts will follow the theme of Lessons I learned from my Garden.
I hope you’ll join me. I would love to hear your comments, and your own experiences about lessons learned in your own garden.

Warmly,

Cindy

Posted on

Lessons I Learned from my Garden #1

Good things start with a DESIRE

Having grown up on military bases, other than relatives I rarely saw, I never knew any one personally who had a garden. Gardens were exotic places that I saw from a distance when visiting cousins during summer vacation. I really had no clue as to their purpose, or how many hours were spent in them. It wasn’t until I was a newly married 18 year old and heard a wise man say that everyone should plant one, that I even gave the idea more than a cursory nod. Little could I have comprehended then, the life long relationship I would have with my garden.

We planted our first garden in a corner of my mother in law’s vegetable garden our very first summer. A wise man I trusted and loved had openly counselled that we should ALL plant a garden. So we did. We didn’t know a bush bean from a potato plant, but we were enthusiastic and happy to be engaged in the project. By mid summer, morning sickness took over my life and ruled everything I ate, smelled or even thought of. I lost interest in weeding or harvesting that fledgling garden, but my mother-in-law brought an arm full of produce every time she came to visit. I appreciated the gesture, but I really had no interest in anything that ‘smelled’, and that summer, everything ‘smelled’.

I not only felt like a gardening failure, but disloyal to the new wholesome lifestyle it represented. A lifestyle that only a few short months before, I had been so committed to. Some time during the months that followed, that incessant flu-like sickness faded away and we focused on the new baby that would soon be coming to make our family ‘three’. I had such visions of how it was going to be. He arrived in April. We found a house soon after and made an offer to buy it. We were to move in July 1. It had a small spot perfect for a garden and we received permission to plant seeds while we awaited our possession date. We were excited for all it represented, anxious to begin this next step in our life together, but one week before we moved in, Dan got laid off at work. We never did move in, and since we had given notice in our rental, our plans were readjusted quickly. We moved the three of us and everything we owned into Dan’s mom’s basement while we figured out our next step.

Later that summer I learned an important lesson. One of those defining lessons that shapes the rest of your life. That wise man who said everyone should plant a garden, was a prophet (that wasn’t the lesson). His name was Spencer W. Kimball, and when he had said “plant a garden”, it felt like he was speaking directly to me, and I committed to do whatsoever he told me to do (that wasn’t the lesson either). “We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property.” he said “Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.” he said “Even those residing in apartments … can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden … neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities.” – Spencer W. Kimball, April GC 1976

He had a way of driving things home, and he spoke to my young heart. He reminded us of the scripture in Luke 6:46 “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” He had me. And yet, as that summer ended we were back in another apartment, Dan going to school. Though we had tried to have a garden twice, there we were. Friends generously shared of their excess: cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini and other produce, and I marveled at the bounty in my kitchen. I mused this blessing over with a friend one day, saying that I believed we enjoyed more produce this month than we ever could have harvested from our little garden. My wise friend Shirley said “It is because of your garden that you are being blessed this way.“ She pointed out the principle of obedience. That promise that when we obey a law, we receive the blessings associated with it. Plain and simple according to her. The prophet said “plant a garden” – we had. The circumstances surrounding the fact that we didn’t harvest it were incidental. The principle stood. She bore testimony to me in her straight forward way, that I could count on that principle for all the days of my life. “There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which is is predicated.” (D&C 130:20,21) THAT WAS THE LESSON. I didn’t know it then, but my life changed that day. I had seen the fruit of the principle with my own two eyes. And yes, Shirley was right, I had planted a garden. Pitiful though it may have been, I had been obedient. I had tried my best to obey. That was all that mattered. God is in the details. He doesn’t ask us to feed five thousand. He asks merely that we bring our loaves and fishes to the picnic. Thank-you Shirley Clelland, for being such a wise friend and such a patient mentor.

I was no longer a girl. I was a mother. With the responsibility now to take care of my little one. And as a mother, there was one thing I knew I wanted – NEEDED. Yearned for. To obtain blessings from God. Which blessings? All of them. And I now knew how to access them. Obey the laws upon which they are predicated. “I the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (D&C 82:10) I could think of nothing I wanted more than to have the Lord bound to me, and I committed myself that day to do whatever it took to accomplish that.

There are many lessons I learned from my garden over the years, but they all began from that first one – which was that any good thing must start with a DESIRE to do that good thing. Hearts can change on a dime. I’ve seen it happen. But behaviour takes time. Don’t expect to BE everything in the beginning. Start with the desire to ‘be’. And work from there. Alma summed it up in his sermon to the Zoramites: “But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than DESIRE to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.” (Alma 32:27)

The next few blog posts will follow the theme of Lessons I learned from my Garden.
I hope you’ll join me. I would love to hear your comments, and your own experiences about lessons learned ‘from’ or ‘in’ your own garden.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle

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Common Herbs in your House and Yard: part 4 Horseradish to Lovage

Part 3 – H, I, J, K, L

in this chapter: Horse Radish, Lamb’s Ears, Lamb’s Quarters, Lavender, Lovage.
Some inside, some outside. Chapter continues to be a work in progress. I’d love to read your comments below.

HORSE RADISH

Horseradish is a rugged hardy perennial, even in cold climates. In fact, the winter forces the plant into dormancy, which like the rest of us, can be kind of a reprieve. During the growing season, it likes full sun but does fine in light shade. Since sun in my garden is in such demand, I don’t waste it on any plant that doesn’t demand it. If it can tolerate light shade, it gets light shade. Planting one to three horseradish plants should provide an abundant supply for even those of us who love it. You can only eat so much of it, but if you have a bigger garden, and are in love with it or want to share it, plant more. Whether you dig a root from your friend’s garden, or buy one from a greenhouse, they’re ready to go into the ground immediately.

Its interesting to note that the word “horseradish” has nothing to do with horses or radishes. The word “horse” formerly meant “coarse” or “rough”, and the word “radish” originally meant “root”, and yes, it is in fact in the radish family. The root is large, tapering to a point. It has a dark brown peel with a white inside.

The plant’s most commonly used part is the root, known for its strong, pungent flavour (and its heat) – that you either love or hate. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground with horse radish. I didn’t develop a taste for it till well into my adult years but since then I am always on a quest for appropriate ‘carrier’ foods. But don’t discriminate against the leaves, as they are quite edible and very delicious when they are young. They have a sharp, bitter, and peppery taste — similar to arugula and kale and yes, even radish. Snip one or two fresh young leaves and chop up to add to a mixed green garden salad. I’m not suggesting a “horse radish leaf salad”, but to have some horse radish IN your mixed green salad is completely delicious. Try incorporating some of the young leaves into your next garden pesto. Or even add to the greens in your stir-fried vegetables. Be creative. Don’t be a garden bigot by not allowing certain ‘herbs’ or vegetables in your garden to show you how wonderful and versatile they really are.

Horseradish roots are large, tapering to a point, with a dark brown peel and a creamy white interior. They are well known for the ‘bite’, which comes from the release of compounds when the root is grated or chopped. Without grating and exposure to air, horseradish roots seem very innocent, but don’t be fooled, once you grate it you release its full potential, and it can become so hot you can feel it when you breathe. LOL – but not really funny. I’m serious – very HOT. *hint: vinegar stops the heat producing chemical process.

growing

When looking for the perfect spot to plant it, remember, its gonna be there for a long time. The hardiness of horseradish implies that once invited in and given a seat at the table, it is no longer a guest. It needs it’s own room.  Set aside an area in the corner of your garden especially for it. It wants good drainage, not soggy feet. Dig a hole about a foot deep, and loosen the soil around it. Make sure the hole is wide enough to accommodate the entire length of the root. It should be planted at an angle. Allow 18-20 inches between plants, or away from its closest neighbour to allow the roots plenty of room to spread out and grow.

Place the horseradish crown or root into the hole diagonally (roughly a 45 degree angle), with the thinner, bottom portion of the root downward. This allows the roots to radiate out while keeping the leaves of the crown straight up. Always a good idea to add compost to the fill when planting perennials. Good idea to fertilize once in the spring when it starts to grow. Keep them weeded – which is only good manners when inviting a new plant into your garden. A healthy plant should have only 3 or 4 leaf stalks, so prune the others. Not pruning will encourage it to ‘go wild’ and it can quickly crowd out nearby plants, taking over a larger space than you want it to take.

A few years ago, I dug some horseradish roots from my son’s farm where it had gone wild, and transplanted two or three to my garden quite late in the season. They didn’t seem to ‘take’ so the next spring I was convinced I had lost them, so I purchased a plant from a local nursery. Within days of planting the new plant, I noticed the other horseradish plants were sprouting up where I had planted a year ago. Good things happen to those who wait, so be patient. I waited another full year after that before I tried to harvest any, and then just a little ’cause I was anxious to try it. It was the third year before I seriously dug up the plants to harvest.

harvesting

‘They’ (whoever they are) suggest we wait for at least two years, maybe even three years before harvesting. I decided to trust ‘them’; you might want to as well. Best time to harvest is mid-late fall. That’s always a joke in our climate. When does late become too late? At the very least, wait until you’ve experienced a good frost. The frost will kill off the green foliage and you’ll think you’ve lost it, but take heart, this is the sign it is ready to harvest.

With a shovel or a fork, gently loosen the soil around the roots and remove the whole plant. Try as you might, the likelihood of you getting the entire root out is very low. This is fine, you want the plant to grow back next year right? Expect the root to be between 6 to 10 inches in length so dig deep. Horseradish roots are large near the top, tapering to a point. You’ll usually hear the root break off as you’re digging it out. But if you’re worried that you didn’t leave enough, cut the bottom 3-4 inches and return it to the soil. For kitchen use, cut away the green leaf stalks, wash and dry thoroughly, then slice the horseradish into small, thin sections. These can stored in the fridge in a plastic bag for up to 3 or 4 months.

using your homegrown horseradish

Let me interrupt this part for a plug about the ‘leaves’. Re-read the opening paragraphs in this section – they are not only edible, but very delicious when they are young. Don’t miss out on those, while you wait for the root to mature. And be creative. Okay, I now return you to the ‘roots’.

Wash thoroughly. Easier said than done; when you try it, you’ll know what I mean. Peel roots with a regular kitchen peeler making sure you remove all the brown spots. Continue to rinse as you’re peeling so you don’t transfer the dirt. Dry well. Uncut horseradish roots will keep for several weeks in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Cut horseradish should be used right away. Grated fresh horseradish, preserved in vinegar, will keep for several months in the refrigerator. Peeled and grated horseradish can be stored in sealed bags or containers in the freezer for a few months.

You might want to grate it, you might want to puree in a blender. Up to you. Or maybe a little of both. If you’re grating, use the fine side of your hand grater, or use your food processor (I don’t have one). If you’re going to puree it, then you must first chop the root into small pieces before adding to the blender.

* hint: grated horseradish will tarnish silver upon contact. Don’t put it on a silver serving dish.

Fresh horse radish is super-duper-HOT. It even smells hot. Like clean-out-your-sinuses hot. Best to make sure you’ve got some air circulation while you’re shredding it. Horseradish’s bite comes from the release of compounds when the root is chopped or grated / exposed to air. Without grating and exposure to air, horseradish roots really don’t smell like much of anything. Vinegar stops this chemical process. If you want really hot horseradish sauce, leave the grated root exposed to the air for a few extra minutes, but not so long that it begins to discolour or dry out. For milder horseradish sauce, add vinegar right away. Horseradish will lose its powerful heat over time so don’t make a lot at once. Keep jars sealed in fridge. Best to consume an opened a jar within a couple of weeks at most. Every day after it opens it gets milder and milder, until pretty soon it disappointingly doesn’t taste like anything.

To grate or puree – that is the question. The answer is: whichever you prefer. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you have open windows, a fan blowing the air away from you, and be careful not to put your face directly above the rising vapors.

Grated:
Grate finely. Measure out your grated horseradish into small bowl.

Pureed:
Chop horseradish in pretty small chunks. Measure out 1 cup into blender and add 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1 T sugar and 1/4 t salt. Puree for a minute until horseradish sauce is desired consistency. Pour into 8 oz jar and put lid on. Tighten to seal.

Basic recipe measurement suggestions. May be multiplied for bigger batches.

Recipe 1 – without sugar:
1 cup grated or pureed horseradish
if using the blender or food processor, add just enough water to make it easier to puree.
Once completely grated or pureed, let sit in the air for a couple of minutes.
Add 2 Tablespoons – 1/4 cup white vinegar
and 1/2 teaspoon salt
The vinegar is not there to add vinegar flavour. It is used for the chemical reaction it causes which stops the heat, so don’t add it too soon. The salt is there to enhance the natural pungent taste, so use according to your taste.
Mix well KEEPING YOUR FACE FROM BEING DIRECTLY OVER TOP THE FUMES. Spoon into small jars and seal with air tight lid. Do not process in hot water canner, but you can freeze it.

Recipe 2 – with sugar:
1 cup grated or pureed horseradish (using same method as above)
Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar
2 Tablespoon – 1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix well. Spoon into small jars. Put the lid on and seal lid.

Recipe 3
1 cup horseradish peel and cut for the blender, or shredded.
1/3 cup white vinegar (can use apple cider vinegar, will be darker)
2 Tablespoons of sugar (do you want it more sweet or less?
1/4 teaspoon salt

Recipe 4 – Like it creamy?
Take 1/2 cup prepared horseradish sauce and gently stir into 1/2 – 1 cup heavy cream beaten stiff.

* Cooking horseradish greatly diminishes the flavour and ‘heat’ of the root, so be sure to either eat uncooked, or add to recipe only when the heat has been turned off. Prepared horseradish will keep in the fridge for about six weeks, but you can store the wrapped root in your fridge for longer.

eating it

I am a huge fan of horseradish and wasabi, but my husband is not. Our kids are on either side of the fence. Nobody seems to be a fence sitter with such strong flavours.

– I like it straight from the jar for all beef dishes, even burgers.

recipe 5 for creamy sauce:
to each 1/2 cup horse radish puree
add 1/4 cup sour cream and/or mayonnaise, some chopped chives or green onion and some freshly ground pepper. Like it milder? Add 1/4 cup sweet cream (whipped after measuring).

recipe 6 for simple cocktail sauce:
1 cup ketchup + 2 T horseradish + 2 T lemon juice + 1 T sriracha hot sauce (or 2 T Franks hot sauce) + 2 tsp worcestershire sauce.
Whisk together. That’s it. Serve with shrimp, or as a condiment for burgers, hot dogs, meatloaf, even on top of a ham & cheese omelet or in the mix for devilled eggs.

recipe for sandwich spread:
add a little horseradish into mustard or mayonnaise for sandwiches.

Try putting just a little in your next cranberry sauce.

LAMBS EAR

Wooly Lamb’s Ear is an easy-care perennial with velvety soft, woolly evergreen leaves that are grey-green in color, similar in shape to that of a real lamb’s ears. That combination is perfectly described in the name. It generally grows 6-8 inches, and in bloom, spikes up to 12-18 inches, producing spikes of pink to purple colored flowers.

growing in the garden

In the early spring, Lamb’s Ear looks very similar to a Mullein plant. Same grey/green tones, fuzzy leaves. Tricky little things. But given time it will sort itself out and confess which one it is. As long as you provide suitable conditions, growing lamb’s ear in your garden is relatively simple. It is more hardy in zones 4-8, but I am in zone 3 (Edmonton) and it grows well in our backyard garden. It wants full sun, so try to be accommodating, although you might get away with partial shade. Since it originates in the Middle East, it dislikes overly moist soil, so if you have a notoriously dry spot, it would be a good resident. Because it is not totally comfortable in our zone, best to give it a protected spot if you can. Mine grows mostly in my front garden, but this year I intend to transplant one or two into my death valley area, a particular spot that is always dry. An area that seems to miss all the rain, and would never get any water if I didn’t see to it personally. Which much of the time I forget to do – hence, it is known as ‘death valley’. Only the heartiest plants can grow there. And the ants. They do splendid there, which is another part of its problem. Stupid ants.

Lamb’s Ear self seeds, but you can also collect the seed after flowering to start indoors next spring. In my zone, this is a good idea, as you can never be completely sure its gonna make it through a particularly cold winter.

using

Mostly I grow it because its a novel plant, fun for the kids to touch and enjoy. Low growing, it is perfect border plant with unique flowers. It’s ever green leaves make it a good plant to dry for wreathes.

The leaves can be used as a “band-aid” of sorts, for healing wounds and in helping painful bee stings. In fact that’s what it used to be known for: a ‘bandaid’ plant. For centuries it was used as a wound dressing, particularly valuable on the battlefield. Not only do the soft, fuzzy leaves absorb blood but evidently they have properties that help it to clot more quickly. They also possess antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties. I haven’t ever used it for this purpose, but if you cut yourself badly one day while you’re at my house, in the summer – maybe we can give it a try.

LAMBS QUARTERS

(goose foot or pigweed) – relative of spinach and quinoa. Sometimes known as wild spinach, and considered a weed in most gardens, it deserves more credit than it usually gets. Highly nutritious, rich in V C and E, essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, minerals and antioxidants.

Most of these ‘weeds’ – meaning those plants that volunteer themselves in your garden without an official invitation, are most beneficial in the earlier part of the season before those that you plant deliberately are viable. Most of the weeds grow from self seeding, so they are up and established weeks before your regular garden. This means that you can start eating nutritious and delicious mixed garden greens (lambs quarters, chickweed, dandelion leaves, borage, plantain, etc) in your salad as early as April or May (in the Edmonton area) most years. By mid June, as your garden grows and develops. you should be eating garden more regular garden produce, so you’ll be depending on ones like lambs quarters less.

The underside of Lamb’s Quarters’ leaves and top of the new leaves are covered in a fine pink dust. Resist the temptation to wash it off as it is full of calcium and protein.  It contains even more protein than kale.  When lamb’s quarters is young, the entire above ground plant is edible. The stems and leaves can be eaten raw, steamed, or sautéed. Can be used any way and in any recipe that spinach is used, including a ‘spinach’ salad. When I am in my garden, I will often pick the tender new plants and eat them while I work. I never pull them to get rid of them. They’re much too valuable for that. I’ll add them to salads, add them to any other green that I steam.

Like spinach, beet greens, swiss chard and most other greens lambs quarters contains some oxalic acid which when eaten raw in large quantities can inhibit calcium absorption.
These plants are so loaded with calcium however, that the amount of calcium not absorbed due to oxalic acid is minimized. Its a good idea to rotate your ‘greens’ for that reason anyway. Variety is a good thing. The black seeds are edible and very nutritious. Very good source of protein.

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me”. Just because something is called a weed, doesn’t mean we should discount it. The word is only a ‘term’ we use for a plant we haven’t yet found value in. Lambs Quarters is a protected ‘weed’ in my garden and has earned an honoured place in it.

LAVENDER

I don’t know what it is about Lavender that I love so much. Or more accurately I suppose, when my love affair with it began, or ‘from-whence-it-sprang‘. Even as an adolescent when I first discovered the unique and heady smell of lavender, I loved it. I use it in dried bouquets and arrangements. I use it in potpourri. I use it in the bath, and in cosmetics. I use the essential oil. I hope to never have to live without it. A close relative to Rosemary this bushy, strong scented plant is a native to the Mediterranean so don’t expect it to be super hardy in our winters. Having said that, you might be surprised by how often plants in your garden will survive our winters. Every year my lavender comes back is a good omen for me. I learned recently that the life expectancy of a lavender plant is about nine years. This is great information as I can now plan for that demise by encouraging new growth from the mother plant while she’s still young and vibrant.

growing

Best to buy your lavender plants from your local greenhouse or nursery, as they are not that easy to start from seed. But beware, not all lavenders are the same. You may find French Lavender, English Lavender and Spanish Lavender. I prefer English Lavender (pictured here) in every way. The classic lavender scent is English, which is more long lasting than the more mild French and Spanish. French or Spanish Lavenders are lovely and showy, so they’re perfect to have in a pot on a balcony or patio, but to plant in the ground with any expectation of longevity, English it is. English is easy to grow, and is hardier by far, more likely to survive the cold of an Alberta forecast.

In my area (Edmonton, Alberta), lavender may come back a few years in a row, and it may not. Some give up and admit defeat if it doesn’t survive a winter but that’s the coward’s way out, and there’s no glory in it. Every year I buy another four or five lavender plants. I plant them in various spots around my yard. One or two in my herb garden, another one in the back flower garden, another one in my front flower garden. Depends on where my empty spots are. I’ve had lavender come back in a certain spot eight years, and after the ninth winter – it did not. I mourned that one. I really thought I had it licked. Since then I’ve learned that lavender has a life expectancy and it wouldn’t have grown much longer than that anyway. I didn’t do anything wrong. That information is encouraging, and armed with it, I can move forward with more confidence. I’ve had lavender plants come back several years in a row, and some that have not made it through a single winter. Not every spot is ideal, and there’s no beating experimentation while looking for the best one. I plant them in all different locations because I keep hoping to discover the perfect lavender loving spot in my yard. . . . . . still looking. Truth is, Edmonton is not lavender’s ideal climate or soil type, but that doesn’t mean it cannot thrive. You just have to be creative.

Lavender wants SUN. So I give it sun. Sunniest spots I have. Anything it wants that I have the power to provide. Because of its Mediterranean origin, it wants blazing hot sun, but I am not in control of everything – sigh. It will handle drought and heat, but not wet soil or poor drainage. It actually prefers poor soil, which is one of my problems as I have very rich loamy soil (which I try hard to make that way). One of life’s little ironies I guess.

Lavender’s purple flowers attract bees and other pollinators so its a valuable asset to any garden. Plant in the spring but after all danger of frost is past, in the driest part of your garden with good drainage. Because lavender loves dry (even sandy, and slightly alkaline) soil with good drainage, there are a few things we can do to help. If it doesn’t do well, it’s likely due to a wet season, not enough sun and high humidity. Plant your lavender in a raised mound, mixing in a little sand to increase its drainage, and make it less likely to sit in wet soil after a rain. Give it room to expand – about two feet, and think positive thoughts. Not much we can do to keep the rain away in a wet season, but don’t add to it. Avoid the sprinkler. Remember, you’re going for ‘dry’.

harvesting

In the morning, when the oils are most concentrated, clip the base of the flower stalk when approximately half of the flower buds have opened. Cut them as long as possible so that you can put them into bundles. I use an elastic band to secure them, but you can also tie them with string. If I have just a few, I dry them standing up in a dry vase. If I have more, I hang them upside down in an area with good air circulation. Flowers will keep their perfume for months, even years sometimes if in a sealed container. When thoroughly dried, gently rub each stem to remove the flowers.

using

– All parts of a lavender plant are edible, but it has never appealed to me. Kinda like eating soap in my opinion.
Store the dried flowers in an airtight jar out of direct sunlight to preserve the perfume as long as possible.
– Sprinkle them into bath water,
– Tie a handfull into a lavender sachet for a drawer, closet or suitcase.
– What a lovely gift idea.
Slightly squeeze the dried flowers in the sachet to reawaken the scent.
– Lavender oil can take the sting out of bee stings. It is good for minor burns, and reducing inflammation. Use as a wound wash to help prevent infection.
– The scent of lavender is said to relieve stress and depression, and promotes relaxation.

LOVAGE – super hardy, self seeds, can be transplanted

Native to the Mediterranean and popular in Europe and Southeast Asia, lovage is quite unique in that it’s hardy in zones all the way from 3 to 9. That’s pretty much Edmonton to Athens! You don’t see that very often! Because it grows so tall, and bushes out in brilliant greenery, lovage makes a beautiful backdrop to any flower, herb or vegetable garden, and is an excellent pollinator plant. It has earned a permanent spot in my herb garden because of its hardiness, usefulness and loveliness.

growing

Related to parsley, but growing like a bush, lovage has a strong taste resembling a parsley/celery combination. It is perennial – coming back from the root, and also self seeds so you’re never gonna run out of it. Will grow to about 8 feet tall in my garden. It likes sun but will tolerate partial shade. That means it gets partial shade. Full sun in my garden is too precious to waste on any plant who doesn’t require it.
Give it plenty of room to be what it wants to be. It likes to be moist (probably because it grows so fast), but I don’t water anymore often than I feel the need to water my lawn.

It goes to flower mid summer and will self seed easily, so you may get lots of volunteers next year. Luckily its easy to pull out when its young, or dig out to transplant. All your friends can have grandbabies of your lovage plants. If you’re just starting out with lovage, probably best to get a transplant from someone. Apparently, germination of the seeds isn’t reliable and usually has about a 50% viability, so if you’re starting with seeds, plant more than you want. Definitely, spring transplants have better success than fall ones, although I have given plants to friends all throughout the growing season. Clearly, the more time they have to establish themselves the better.

harvesting and using

mortar and pestle

You can use the seeds, leaves, stalks and even the roots.

Seeds: They flower mid summer, and then go to seed, so expect to start harvesting them toward the end of summer. Make sure they’re dry before you pack them into an airtight jar, and then use throughout the year till next summer’s seed is ready. Sprinkle over salads and mashed potatoes, breads, pastries, biscuits, and cheeses. I find it helpful to slightly crush them in a mortar and pestle to release their flavour before sprinkling over your dish. Strongly aromatic.

Stocks: Stocks are tough and need to be blanched. I personally have never used them, except to simmer in a stock and then discard – they’re too tough for me, but the flavour is intense.

Leaves: The leaves look like very large Italian parsley leaves, and they taste like celery, only much stronger. In the summer, I pick them a little here and there as I use them. Chop coarsely to add to a mix of salad greens. Chop finely and use in place of parsley in chicken salad or tuna salad, or even in a batch of fresh tomato salsa. Use in marinades, soups, creamy dips, chili and potato salad, as well as stocks and casseroles. They’re VERY flavourFUL, so use sparingly at first till you get used to how strong they are. Flavour to taste.

For winter use, I pick the leaves anytime in late summer. I dry them, then powder them in the blender and mix with a nice salt to make “celery salt”, which I use throughout the year in all sorts of dishes that I want to add a parsley / celery taste to. Or for a nicer look, hand crumble the dried lovage leaves, and mix with a coarse Himalayan salt. Keep in a short jar to spoon out for use in cooking.

Warmly,

Cindy Suelzle