BACK TO MY ROOTS
Don’t look now, but the holiday party/shopping season is soon to tax our schedules, so no one is in the mood to be given another to-do list. On the other hand, the days are shorter and there IS gardening to be done, so I’m still going to make some suggestions. I just bought new D cells for my flashlight in anticipation of the shorter days, but even if you aren’t ready to make that kind of commitment to your winter patch, there are still rows to hoe. So to speak.
When one escapes into the garden, the blood pressure goes down and one’s little place in the scheme of things on earth takes its appropriate, if more humble, place. Gardening provides good exercise and it’s beneficial effects on the human nervous system and psyche are well-documented. So, if you have to neglect something, don’t let it be the garden. And yourself.
The horrible heat wave of late August/early September threw my fall planting schedule in the metaphoric, and all too real, mulch pile. I had starts of broccoli, cabbage, sweet peas, chard and kale all poking their little heads above soil surface just as the heat wave hit and couldn’t keep them wet enough. That really put me behind – now the summer garden is finished – as in “dried up and ugly” – and my winter garden is still too small to plant out. Hating to leave the garden empty, I’ll buy some plants (they call them ‘sets’) to fill at least some of that emptiness.
It is the time to plant onions, which can be a hassle from seed, so I like to buy transplants. If you like onions, I’ll let you in on a secret hoping that you’ll read this after I’ve put my order in! Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, (www.groworganic.com) sells onion transplants towards the end of the year. One of the varieties they carry is an Italian heirloom called Red Torpedo Onion. They always sell out, so I order as soon as I know they have them. Unfortunately, they only sell them in quantities that make a home gardener take pause for thought; hopefully you can share with someone. They are unbelievably good on the grill come next summer!
In addition to onions, other alliums, including, garlic, leeks and shallots, all have a place in my heart – and stomach – so I plant a lot of them. I put shallots and garlic in pots and I crowd all my roses with garlic.
Garlic is a good companion plant because, according to folklore at least, it is good at discouraging insects. I’m not sure this is proven yet, but I think the garlic plant itself is worthy of note and I love having their leaves as an upright element in pots as well as in ornamental beds.
As the days grow shorter, a few hardy souls may wish to join my flashlight gardening, which some may consider ‘eccentric,’ which I wrote of earlier in this article. (I have done more gardening by flashlight than I want my mental health provider to know.) I try to keep up with successive sowings, especially of salad greens, radishes and carrots. I sow three foot rows frequently rather than longer rows (who needs 40 pounds of radishes in one week?), unless I am planning on canning or pickling something. Pickled beets and pickled beans are among some of my favorite home canned vegetables. Even if you could find them in a market, which I think is unlikely, they won’t be nearly as good as the ones I make.
In fact, beets have some similar characteristics to my favorite instrument: the bass. Both are under appreciated with overlooked aspects to their character. To the uninitiated, both have somewhat foreboding dimensions. I recently acquired a stand-up base after years of hanging out with bass guitars, trying to make them sound like an upright. But now, I’ve finally taken the plunge.
Similarly, a lot of folks are put off by beets because of their somewhat steadfast color. I have a friend who swears by their delicate and intriguing flavor and says that even a microwave can’t dampen their exuberance. She prefers them grilled in foil on an outdoor barbecue, a treatment that enhances a lot of vegetables. Anyone’s reticence to try beets just seems to increase her eagerness to foist them on her guests. A downright proselytizer, she introduces others to her beet substituted potato salad sprinkled with fresh peas and it seems to be a hit. Certainly, has the color factor going on! (If the fear of stained fingers, clothes or counters is your only hold back for cooking with beets, try the golden beets you can find in any good farmers’ market – they don’t bleed at all and they are tops on taste – remember, until Hawaii became a state, most of the sugar in the United States originated with beets grown in the midwest – they are sweet, if you start fresh and don’t overcook.) To my taste buds, her recipes don’t upstage my own favorite, beets sautéed in orange juice. Anyone want the recipe?
Or would you rather hear my bass solo?
Grandson of a Great Plains farmer, David King is the Garden Master at the Learning Garden, on the campus of Venice High School. He shares his love of the land and music through teaching, writing and playing in a folk/country band.