Easy Veg

Well, the peas, lettuce, broad beans, and arugula are either in the ground or going in soon. Should I stop there? Truth is, I don't have a lot of time for my edible garden this spring AND I'm moving in the summer. So what can I plant that is going to be a) easy to grow and b) quick to mature? There are a lot of 'Easy Top Ten' veg lists around and some of them are a bit fanciful. Tomatoes? Yes, easy, if you have lots of sun. Zucchini? You need room. Carrots? You must have friable soil and protection from carrot root fly. So what can even the most time-constrained gardeners manage in the Pacific Northwest?

#1 on my list is arugula. It's tasty, it grows super-fast from seed (I've seen it germinate in 4 days), and tastes fantastic--peppery--and most pests seem to leave it alone.

#2 Probably other salad greens, though they do need cool weather and the slugs tend to like them. I love the Asian veg, too, like those from West Coast Seeds--mizuna, gai lan, mustards.

#3 Peas. They often get mildew up here, but only after the peas have ripened. I've grown them in containers outside the front door so the kids can just pick them as they pass by.

#4 Kale (see below, the 2009 spring crop). Grows through the winter and is my new favorite veg. I stir fry it with ginger and a bit of soy sauce.



#5 Swiss chard. Tasty, easy, and pretty, too!

#6 Fava beans, also known as broad beans. Stick the big old seeds in the ground in later winter and sit back. Two caveats: they do get aphids (see photo)--blast off these pests with water from the hose. And they are a bit of work to prepare. You have to boil, shell, then use them (the beans, not the aphids). But so yummy!



#7 Herbs. This really could be #1 because nothing is easier than perennial herbs: oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme. Annuals herbs can sometimes be a bit trickier--like tomatoes, basil just sulks until it gets hot--but coriander, parsley (it often comes back the next year), and lovage are pest- and trouble-free.

#8 Beans, especially scarlet runner beans. These aren't grown as often in North America as in England, but they are pretty popular here in the Northwest. Striking, and fun for children. The beans are big and meaty.

#9 Radishes. A good crop for 'intercropping' between rows of other plants; they can be ready for harvest in less than a month. Try eating the leaves as well as the root. Spicy!

I think I'll stop at 9, in order to feel that I'm being perfectly honest. Unless there's something I've forgotten?

Worm Tales

I might have spent money I didn't need to spend. Well, I did spend money I didn't need to spend. So many gardening items can be free, or at least cheap. Plants from seeds or from fellow-gardeners. Tools from garage sales. Mulch from fallen leaves. Oversized shirts from ex-boyfriends. Containers from old tyres. You get the picture.

And yet, when I was looking for compost worms, do you think I could find any? To explain, I need the worms because I am moving house (& garden) and won't be able to have a full-sized compost area any longer. So in preparation for this event, I wanted to get my worm composter working again. For those who don't know, worm composting is simple and space-saving. It's also amazingly efficient, especially for kitchen scraps. The composter I have is about 10 years old and consists of 4 stacked compartments, similar to this model. The bottom compartment has a solid 'floor' where the worms concentrate until the compost there is complete; they then move up to the upper compartments through their meshed 'floors'. I've found the process to be very clean and fast, requiring only some redistribution of worms and materials from one compartment to another.

So, for about three weeks I looked for worms. You can't use any old worms, you need red wigglers--read some fascinating facts about them here. (They have 5 hearts! They have no bones!) The Compost Education Centre in Victoria has plenty of information, but they are always looking for worms themselves. (Why? It seems like they could make some money from suckers like me.) Finally I ordered some worms from a local source, Salt Spring Global Worming. They duly arrived after two days in very good shape but as I didn't realize they were going to be COD, they did spend one night at the post office. I put them in my composter, added some existing compost from my big pile (full of lovely microorganisms), some kitchen scraps, some grass clippings, and that was it.



Needless to say, three days later I went to visit my friend and fellow gardener, Christy. I told her about moving, and the kerfuffle over the COD package. She said, "Oh, I've got masses of worms!" We went out to her back garden, took a fork to her wonderful compost pile constructed of used wooden pallets, and promptly filled a used yogurt pot with free worms.



Now all the worms are thriving and generating compost at an amazing rate. It will be easy to move and as I can't bear to throw kitchen scraps in the garbage, I'll be happy. But I'm too embarrassed to say how much I spent. Next time I'll look a little harder.