Urban Edibles Part 4

Once your plants are in the ground, you need to be responsible about how you water. Veggies like lots to drink. You can let them get a little thirsty, but if you wait until they’re parched, it’s too late. Talk to your parents about the possibility of installing a drip system onto an existing hose or sprinkler line. That way you can control when and how much you give your plants. You won’t waste any water, and you can turn off the hose if it rains. You can also hand water your plants with a hose, just don’t forget! A dehydrated plant is an unhappy plant.

Here are some raised bed planting ideas:

·       Plant basil and tomatoes for caprese salads. We grow heirloom    

        tomatoes of all different colors. Some of our favorites are Flamme, 

        Dagma’s Perfection, Green Zebra, and Black Cherry. These make a 

        boring old red tomato salad jump of the plate. So to speak.

·       Plant a Three Sisters garden.  

     

     Tween Trivia: Native American Iroquois Indians planted 

     corn, beans, and squash together for spiritual and   

     practical reasons. As the corn grows, the beans use the 

     corn stalk as support. The beans have lots of nitrogen on 

     their roots that gets into the soil and helps the 

     other plants grow. Squash plants grow low; they help 

     hold back weeds and keep moisture in the soil. Pretty 

     ingenious.

What a gorgeous example of a Three Sisters garden!

·       Grow a pizza garden: Tomatoes, basil, oregano, peppers, onions, 

        garlic…pepperoni. Just kidding.

·       Grow a pumpkin patch for a fall harvest party. Fair warning: If you are  

        nice to pumpkin seedlings they will take over the world. I'm only 

        exaggerating a tiny bit. Plan ahead.

·       Grow a tipi garden. Caution: This one takes more room than a raised 

        bed has to offer. Think back yard. Have a couple of willing grown ups 

        help you make a tipi out of branches, bamboo, old bits of wood…you 

        get the idea. Grow peas, beans, nasturtiums, hops, grapes, anything 

        that will climb, up the tipi. Plant other yummy things around the base. 

        The result: A late summer hide out and dinner to boot.

At the end of the growing season, when your plants are not producing anything yummy and the first frost is around the corner, it may be time to shut down your beds for the winter. But don’t let the remains of all those amazing plants go to waste! They can be turned into super-rich vitamins for next year’s crops. Which leads us to our next topic...