Getting Back to the Garden

What will you be growing this year?

Maybe you can use a break from the usual topical stuff, so I decided to share another interest of mine.

Here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, most anything grows. Not so much some long season crops like sweet potatoes and only a few species of tropicals like citrus fruits, but most berries (including cran-), nuts, fruits and vegetables like this climate.

I’ve transformed my own postage stamp yard with raised cedar beds and wood mulch and this year I’ve added some raised beds next door where I share space with the neighbor in the other half of the duplex. It’s not quite enough grow space to subsist on but it provides more tasty stuff from late July to late October, and I’m always testing for gourmet varieties that seed breeders emphasize as prized by someone.

Even when I’ve lived in apartments, I’ve always had space for one big pot containing a tomato and an herb or three like thyme, basil and chives.

Gardening is a form of meditation for me and I could easily pursue a smaller version of the expansive Arkansas farm ‘Roots and Refuge’ that would feed a couple most of their annual produce needs. I’ll keep looking for a half acre place within 25 miles of my current locale, but I’ll need to boost my group of paid subscribers to turn that into a reality. Currently places like that get snapped up fast.

I’m thinking of adding a low cost expansion like this next year if I can’t find the perfect sized yard I’m looking for.

I have a huge pot of some perennial herbs like rosemary and thyme and will be trying new varieties of garlic chives and basil.

I’ll also grow two kinds of sweet peppers that sound very appealing.

I have no commercial ties to any of the seed breeders I mention. I include them so you can read more about each variety at their web sites if you’d like. This pepper’s description on the Baker Creek website, for example, kinda made my mouth water. By August I expect to know if it’s worthy of its selling points.

Macedonians grill them, peel them and pair them with a feta-like cheese or create a sweet relish that includes them and some eggplant that’s subsequently used as a bread spread.

I’ll likely grow at least a pair of jalapeno peppers too.

I’ll be growing a cucumber plant or two. These sounded like they’d avoid the bitterness that can occur with some varieties if they don’t get picked fast enough.

Melons can be risky here if they take too long to grow but some great varieties can fit the seasonal requirements. They tend to be sprawl-y so I’ll likely build a cage of pvc pipe and train the vines to wind around it vertically since my ground space is limited.

My annual and eternal quest is to find a group of near-perfect tomatoes. Some I’ve grown before like this pair. This is my favorite cherry and my favorite tasting large tomato, the Pink Brandywine. It wins a lot of taste competitions for a reason though its output lags all the others I’m growing this year.

I wasn’t planning to grow a White Tomesol which is a soft creamy color and has less acid. But some say the taste is surprisingly good. Baker Creek threw it in as a freebie package since I bought several other seeds from them, so I’ll grow one.

Over the winter, I read about a project at the University of Florida. One scientist there is trying to take a nicely flavored tomato, which resulted in a golf ball sized Garden Gem, which has been cross bred with a productive strain so commercial farmers can grow a seriously tasty one for average supermarkets.

To get this one, I had to donate $10 to the research project. They sent packets of a medium sized and a medium pear shaped one, too. I don’t have enough space for them all this year but will definitely grow the Garden Gem.

And my final new tomato variety is one that’s very well liked in Japan called the Momotaro, a medium large variety that still oughta work for tomato sandwiches, BLTs and the like.

In the past 5 years, I’ve tried nearly a dozen other varieties. Two I really enjoyed are the Cherokee Purple and the Berkeley Pink Tie-Dye which has multicolored visual appeal along with an excellent taste.

Next year, I think I’ll try one or two darker varieties like the big Paul Robeson and the Black Krim which originated in Russia, as I continually run across positive reviews of that pair.

Here in Oregon a pair of adults can legally grow 8 cannabis plants too, but my tiny yard only has space for 6-7 medium sized plants not the giant heavy producers. I have a few close friends nearby with a variety of ailments that it offers some relief from. As for me, I’m generally a mild user except when an old back injury flares up. Then it acts like an anti-spasmodic with some additional pain relief.

Last year thieves stole all my plants so I decided to build a multiple alarm system and hope for a better result this year.

I always plant a few decorative flowers to fit in nooks and crannies around the yard too. Lately I’ve been picking up a few fresh ideas from gardeners on YouTube, as well.