Relandscape Your Kitchen

Lately, as I’ve been getting my garden into shape, I’ve been reflecting on how some outdoor techniques can apply in the kitchen to create a healthier landscape to cook in. Here are three ways to relandscape your kitchen (and, unlike most landscaping projects, they won’t cost you a cent!):

relandscape-your-ktichen

  • Get Rid of What Doesn’t Work– When we first put our yard in, Christopher and I were on the lookout for ground cover. We saw one we liked—a euphorbia—and I bought a bunch of seedlings hoping they’d take root and spread. And oh did they spread. That particular type of euphorbia, it turns out, spreads by underground rhizome, and although the tag had promised it would max out at eight inches tall, most of our plants were bushy 2-foot monsters.What had seemed attractive at first ultimately threatened to choke out all the painstakingly placed plants in the yard. There’s a parallel here with our pantries. I used to pack my pantry with pretzels because they seemed attractive as a “low fat” choice. Over time, though, I discovered that I was always at battle with them. I wanted the pretzels to make me slim, but instead I’d feel sluggish and bloated after eating them. Sometimes, we just need to admit that something needs to come out.
  • Move Things Around– My mom’s yard is always in flux; in a good way. If a hosta becomes stagnant, she’ll relocate it under another tree. If a clump of lilies becomes too dense, she’ll dig them up and replant them throughout the garden. The lesson I’ve gleaned from my mom’s technique is that location does affect whether or not something “takes.”I think of this every time I open my cupboard and see my grains on the shelf above my head. I say I want to eat more whole grains—both in quantity and variety—and yet they’re essentially out of sight and in a place that takes effort to reach. By moving my grains to a more accessible location (on my project list), they’ll have more of a chance to take root in my family’s daily diet.
  • Try Some New Things– Some of my greatest triumphs in the garden have come from experimentation. One year, we became smitten with Padron peppers at a restaurant and decided to give growing them a try. Since then, they’ve been hands-down the most productive plant in the garden every year. Little delights like that can happen in your kitchen too, and you don’t even need to buy anything new. If you bought a jar of cardamom for a coffeecake recipe six months ago, give it a shot in a curry. If you have some dried chiles lingering on a shelf, throw a few in a pot of beans.

This week, seek out ways to relandscape your kitchen so it will better nurture you.

No Room to Garden? Share a Yard

By Evangeline Heath

One of the big hurdles for an apartment gardener like me is finding a plot to plant in.

I was already growing vegetables in containers, but I longed for a real patch of earth to dig and roll around in. With a five-year waiting list for my community garden, though, some ingenuity was in order.

Then I heard about the concept of “yard-sharing” and immediately hoped this was the answer.

Yard-sharing arrangements connect those without land to neighbors with unused space. It’s a win-win situation. Property owners without the time, skill, or ability to work the land reap the benefits of partnering with local gardeners eager to get their hands dirty. It brings neighborhoods together and creates edible landscapes.

Gardeners and property owners find each other in many ways. You can post an ad on Craigslist, or your city might have a horticultural matchmaking service like the Garden Sharing Registry in Santa Monica, California. I tried the national social network Hyperlocavore, where I created a profile and found my neighborhood already had its own “pod” with several members.

I sent my profile to a few people in my neighborhood, but didn’t hear back. So I emailed my own circle of friends and pitched the idea of starting a garden for them. Artist Judith Brewer Curtis, mother to one of my closest friends, got in touch and said she’d love to have me give some TLC to her neglected back yard. Her house was just 10 minutes away. Bingo!

We arrived at our arrangement informally, but there are some important issues for yard-sharers to hash out:

  • What’s your gardening philosophy? Do you want to garden organically or conventionally? I’m a 100% organic gardener, and Judith honors that.
  • What do you want to grow? A gardener shouldn’t plant vegetables if the property owner expects flowers.
  • How will you handle the cost of supplies? Judith pays the water bill, while I purchase other supplies: soaker hose and attachments, potting soil, and compost bin. I buy most of the seeds and seedlings, though Judith makes the occasional nursery run.
  • When can the gardener use the yard? I have access whenever I want, though I always call or email first.
  • Can the gardener store equipment on the property? Judith has a full set of gardening tools I can use anytime.
  • How long are you committed to the project? Our arrangement is open-ended. But it’s a good idea to agree on the project’s duration if you’re yard-sharing with a stranger, at least in the beginning. If it’s successful you may decide to let it continue indefinitely.
  • How often will the gardener tend the yard? I go over a few times a week, and clean up before I leave. She makes sure everything is watered when I’m not there.

So far, it’s been a “patch made in heaven.” After a big rain made the soil soft, my husband and I double-dug a 100-square-foot plot and amended it with plenty of compost. We planted our summer crops in mid-April, and now we’re starting to harvest cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and melons.

We’ve both found so much satisfaction in transforming an unused piece of land into a green, productive food garden. I get a place to grow, experiment. and apply all my newly learned gardening knowledge. Judith loves taking care of the plants, but didn’t have to do the hard, physical work of setting up the garden.

Most importantly, we both share in the harvest!

Evangeline Heath is a freelance writer based in Santa Monica. She documents her adventures in yard-sharing and urban homesteading in her blog FarmApartment.

Plant Something

nton-small-iconI was interviewed recently for Natural Solutions magazine on whether gardening affects the way I eat. My answer? You betcha. Sure, a garden gets you the freshest of vegetables and taste alone would be reason to start one–there’s nothing like an heirloom tomato still warm from the sun; even lettuce has a ridiculous amount of flavor when it goes from backyard bed into the bowl. But there are bonuses with gardening that go much, much deeper.
 
When you finally pick that heirloom tomato, you’re not just tasting the tomato. You’re experiencing the excitement you felt when the first flowers gave way to tiny green globes. You’re reliving the anticipation of inspecting it day after day wondering when it was going to be ripe enough to eat. You’re feeling that sense of joyful peace that comes from witnessing a miracle of nature. All this in a tomato.
 
It doesn’t take acres to reap the rewards of growing your own food; a sprig of thyme snipped from a pot on the windowsill will transform even the most humble of dishes. The simple truth is that when you grow an eggplant or a cucumber or a bunch of mint you are connected–literally and viscerally–to it, so that the phrase “eat more vegetables” is turned from drudgery into luxury.  
 
This week, I challenge you to plant something to nibble on this summer. If you’re already an experienced gardener, expand your territory and try something new (I just planted lemon verbena for the first time). If you’re an apartment dweller, try some potted herbs on the windowsill or a cherry tomato in a rooftop container. As your project takes root, I look forward to hearing how it affects the way you eat.