As a new year in the garden approaches, we can look back to what has and has not been successful in our community garden at the Pine Street Senior Center in Carlsbad. Our garden is a 20-by-4-foot raised bed, situated in full sun with a daily drip water system. We meet on a weekly basis, year-round, with 10 senior students participating each week.
I bring to the community garden my background as Director of the Cornell University Master Gardener Program in Cooperstown, New York. The New York State Master Gardener Program supervised 25 vegetable gardens in public and private school gardens throughout the state. The educational component of the Kids Growing Food Project was to teach children and their parents how to grow food.
The Carlsbad Community Center Garden also has an overall focus on growing food. Although we do have a few giant sunflowers in the mix, we strive to grow and produce food that we all can take home and eat.
When planning our garden in early spring, we take a survey of the students’ daily vegetable consumption, and have found with this year’s group that their favorite vegetables are those that could be eaten in Asian dishes such as stir fry and soups.
My students come from all parts of Asia — Taiwan, Japan and China — so we searched local garden centers for seedlings that would fit the bill. We have also used free seeds from the Carlsbad Library Seed Collection, which are available at the Cole and Dove libraries, and the Learning Center in Carlsbad.
We send our many thanks to Darin Williamson, who created the Seed Library in December 2021. Contact him at [email protected]. for more information about obtaining free seed packets.
OUR FAVORITE GREEN VEGETABLES
With a winter climate of warm days and cool nights, greens prosper and grow quickly, and there are a lot of greens to choose from. Look carefully on your seed packet to see if the vegetable is the “cut-and-cut-again” variety, or research the vegetable you have chosen at the San Diego Master Gardener website, mastergardenersd.org.
Our decision to plant an array of hardy vegetables such as bok choi, mustard greens, Persian cress, kale, romaine lettuce, and assorted leaf lettuce has given us a weekly crop.
Picking every day, or at least twice per week, ensures that the inner leaves will continue to grow, as you use the outer leaves for your salad or dinner meal.
USE THOSE VEGETABLES IN YOUR DAILY MEALS
The thought of planning a good portion of one’s garden to a simple array of greens would never have occurred to me if I did not have the input of my Asian students.
After comparing our breakfast, lunch and dinner consumption, we found that the Asian students ate far more vegetables than I do, and they all gave me a new way to think about using greens.
Mutsuko Tashiro, who was born in Japan, remarked: “I will use all the greens I take home in a stir fry. Add some oyster sauce and some chicken, and you have a quick dinner.” We exchange recipes each week, and often the students will bring in samples for the class to try.
PLAN FOR REAL MEALS
Could we provide a garden that produces all the vegetables for not only soups and lunches but veggies such as zucchini, butternut squash, peppers and beans in spring and summer that contribute to full meals, even baked goods? We will pursue the answer to this question in the future months, so stay tuned!
EACH SEASON BRINGS NEW DISCOVERIES
One of our new gardening discoveries this season was the “companion planting” technique used between carrots and radishes. We acquired from the Carlsbad Village Library Seed Collection two packets each. When planting vegetables with very small seed, such as carrots and radishes, we always plant long rows from top to bottom using the entire width of the bed. I learned from the owner of the first greenhouse I worked for 20 years ago to always overplant.
Mary Leonard of Carefree Gardens, who has been in business for 30 years in Cooperstown, instructed us, “Use the entire packet, sprinkling the seeds thickly, because they can always be thinned out.”
The gardeners planted as directed with the radishes planted in a parallel line next to the carrots. My students are always somewhat afraid to pull the baby seedlings, to make room for those who will grow taller. The rule of thumb is to pull three tiny ones, leaving at least one inch in between the next batch.
Sure enough, the radishes broke ground in one week, while the carrot seeds remained underground. As I read through one of my gardening reference books, “The Gourmet Gardener,” by Annie Proulx: “Planting radish seed with carrot seed results in radishes emerging first, loosening the soil and helping the carrot seedlings emerge more easily. Carrot seed germinates slowly, and can take several weeks to emerge.”
We watched as the radishes, with their heart-shaped leaves, emerged in less than one week. After two weeks, the leaves of the carrots emerged, and after three weeks we began to pull a few, to check on their growth underground. After four weeks, we did have carrots, and the radishes grew quite large in the row next to the carrots.
I am always amazed when, almost instinctively, we create our own how-to book of garden rules! This carrot/radish companion planting system emerged from a lesson from my former employer and a helpful garden reference book.
Send us your helpful tips or even your questions about those plants that just did not work to [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.
Jano Nightingale is a Master Gardener and horticulturist who teaches vegetable gardening at the Carlsbad Senior Center Community Garden. Contact her at [email protected] for information about her upcoming classes in North County.
