Growing Your Own Vegetables: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide (6 page)

Various chewing and sucking insects capable of damaging plants, ruining a crop, and spreading disease may be controlled by planting marigolds, alliums, evening primrose, wild buckwheat, baby blue eyes, candytuft, bishop’s flower, black-eyed Susan, strawflowers, nasturtiums, angelica, and yarrow to attract beneficial insects, or purchase ladybugs, predatory mites, praying mantises, beneficial nematodes, parasitic wasps, and other “good bugs.” All are powerful and natural allies in the war against bad bugs. When all these practices, hand picking, and good garden hygiene are not enough, as a final resort you can try biodegradable, environmentally safe, and natural plant-based sprays. A conscientious organic gardener should also be willing to give up or “tithe” a minor percentage of their crop back to Mother Nature.

Crop rotation and management

Buy disease-resistant seed varieties whenever available. Rotate each vegetable’s planting area around the garden every year to avoid a buildup of pests or disease spores. Don’t let them just lie in wait to devour next year’s crop. Move the target! Don’t leave disease-infected plants in the garden or add them to the compost pile. Put them on a separate trash pile or burn them to avoid spreading soil-borne contagion.

PART TWO

GUIDE TO VEGETABLES

O
rganizing a list of crops suitable for cultivation by the home gardener can be cumbersome and confusing, not to mention time-consuming. For our purposes—that is, producing and enjoying healthy, delicious food—we have grouped vegetables into the following useful categories: The Onion Family, Leaves, Stems and Flowers, Roots, Grasses and Grains, Legumes, Gourds, The Nightshade Family, and Herbs.

THE ONION FAMILY

C
losely related to lilies, the onion family (
Allium
) offers rich N variety and a broad spectrum of flavors, from the mild and tender leek to the fiery punch of garlic. Unlike fragrant garden lilies, Alliums are rich in sulphur, which gives them their vivid flavor and distinctive aroma.

GREEN ONIONS

Scallions

Scallions actually aren’t a variety of onion, but an early stage in the onion life cycle; these “green onions” are most often the young greens of immature globe onions, harvested when thick as a pencil and at least 6 inches tall. If you want to harvest green onions all summer long, thickly plant onion seed or sets at intervals all spring and thin the young plants as they grow to establish final spacing.

Bunching onions

Bunching onions (
Allium fistulosum
) are perennials, and as such they should be located where they can remain undisturbed. In fact, it’s possible to keep patches of bunching onions going for 10 to 20 years in a fertile soil. Start seed in early spring, sowing thickly in a block directly in the garden. Bunching onions never form a bulb; the white bottoms always stay thin and straight, topped by a shock of green chive-like foliage. Harvest lightly in the first year, allowing the remaining plants to go to seed and self-sow. Next spring they’ll be the first edible to appear in your garden and may be harvested as needed, although they’re at their best early in the year.

Chives

Chives (
Allium schoenoprasum
) are hardy perennials with deep green, hollow leaves that grow in a clump 8 to 12 inches tall. Their mild onion flavor heralds spring. The lovely purple globe-shaped flowers in early summer are slightly stronger in flavor and when separated into individual florets are tasty additions to salads and make a beautiful and edible garnish.

PLANTING:
Little pots of chives are one of the earliest culinary herbs to show up at nurseries each spring; they can be set out in the garden when temperatures are still quite cold. Seeds may be sown ¼ inch deep in fertile soil in full sun once the weather has settled. Divide clumps every 2 to 3 years and reset into the garden at 12-inch spacing to increase your stock; chives make a lovely border to both herb and ornamental gardens.

HARVESTING:
Chives are at their best throughout spring. Snip the thin, grass-like tops often to encourage tender regrowth, and remove faded flowers before they set seed to keep plants full and productive.

Garlic chives

Garlic chives (
Allium tuberosum
), also known as Chinese chives or Oriental chives, are a different species from regular chives but are used in the same way. They are quicker to mature than regular chives, have flat grassy leaves with a delicate garlic flavor, and bear starry white flowers. Garlic chives are less hardy than regular chives; a harsh winter may kill unprotected plants.

PLANTING:
Garlic chive plants appear in nurseries once spring has warmed and can be transplanted into the garden at that time. The seed needs a warm start (70 to 80°F) and is usually started indoors in thickly sown flats; transplant into the garden in clumps, first trimming roots to ½ inch.

HARVESTING:
Snip the fine grassy foliage of garlic chives throughout the summer, removing spent flowers to maintain production.

Leeks

Leeks (
Allium ampeloprasum
var.
porrum
) are grown for their delicate-tasting, white fleshy stem.

PLANTING:
Prepare a well-dug, fertile soil in full sun. Transplants are easier to place than seeds and provide a jump on the growing season when started indoors 50 days before the frost-free date. Leeks require a long growing season, typically 105 to 130 days to maturity, depending on the variety. When setting the transplants into the garden, trim a few inches from the top of each plant and space plants about 2 inches apart in every direction. This will allow you to harvest the young leeks at a “scallion” stage while thinning to an eventual spacing of 6 inches apart.

Every few weeks, mound soil around the growing leeks to “blanch” the shaft for a sweet flavor and tender texture. For cleaner leeks at harvest, keep the soil below where the leaves begin to fan; some people recommend transplanting into a trench that can gradually be filled in during the growing season.

HARVESTING:
Leeks do not store well once harvested. Where winter is reasonably mild, mature leeks can winter over in the garden where they can be picked as needed and add interest and beauty for many months.

BULBING AND CLOVE TYPE ONIONS

Globe onions

Globe onions (
Allium cepa
) start out as green onions and mature to big bulbous roots once their tops wither. Globe onions come in yellow, white, purple, red, Bermuda, and many other varieties. Different varieties do better in different parts of the country; it pays to ask at your local nursery what does well in your area. In general, white varieties are milder and make better green onions; they are also the kind you raise to get little “pickling” onions. Yellow varieties are the best for winter-keeping; red varieties, although sweetest of all, do not store well.

PLANTING:
Globe onions may be started from seed or from sets (tiny onions). Seeds are by far the most economical and produce beautiful scallions, but sets give you a head start on the growing season and a quicker harvest. In the south, fall sowings will winter over and produce an early crop of scallions as well as larger bulbs the following summer. In the rest of the country, start seed indoors as much as six weeks before the ground can be worked, or direct seed in early spring. To plant sets, furrow a shallow trench and place sets, pointed end up, about 2 to 3 inches apart in every direction and cover to the neck with soil.

Onions are heavy feeders and dislike competition from other plants including weeds. Either sets or seed grow well in cool, wet spring weather; irrigate in a dry spring for the best results. Pulling scallions actually improves conditions for the remaining onions by loosening their soil as well as removing competition.

HARVESTING:
Onion varieties and even individual plants differ widely in how quickly they grow. Planting from seed, you’ll have green onions in 60 to 75 days; from sets, in about half that time. To grow large globe onions you’ll need long, sunny days. The more top growth your onions make early in the season, the bigger the bulbs will be when those long, sunny days prompt the plants to begin transferring food from leaves to root.

Ideally, onions should be left in the ground until they mature and the tops dry up. If you are satisfied with the size of the bulbs, you can hurry the maturing process by twisting or knocking over the still-green tops. Wait a few days to pull or dig the bulbs. Spread the bulbs out on top of the ground or in a warm dry room until the tops are thoroughly dry. Bag and store in the dark. Use smaller onions first, as they do not keep as well as larger bulbs.