This Week in the Taste Garden

Welcome to our Taste Garden and what a fitting month to begin our new “A to Z” post format. Spring has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, and our edible garden is waking up with signs of life in every corner…fruit blossoms covering our trees and bushes, gentle mason bees hard at work, newly prepped beds rich with compost and ready for planting, seedlings poking their heads up, tenacious perennials bursting through the soil, and the spring harvest gracing our garden and plates.

May is…. getting outside, digging into the dirt again, planting, nurturing, hoping, and dreaming. It’s a new adventure every day, and we invite you to join us on this journey.

Each month we’ll be sharing a full A to Z of garden posts from what’s new in our garden to our favorite finds as we hit the road.

To kick off this month, here’s a little “About Us.”

What is the “Taste Garden?” Several years ago, I began the process of transforming our suburban backyard into an edible garden. What started out as a few herbs mixed into flower containers ballooned into a passion for growing food. We now have over 300 varieties of herbs, vegetables, and fruit (with a few flowers mixed in) growing in our Pacific Northwest “Taste Garden.” We’re not experts by any means, but we’re always learning and growing – and most of all, having fun in the process.

I’m Kimberly, a Washington native and farmer’s granddaughter, whose roots reach far back into the Skagit and Snohomish Valleys. Digging, growing, nurturing – just getting outside and observing the life cycle of the seasons – feeds my soul. The kitchen is my other “place” and I love trying out new recipes, especially with the food we’ve grown. When I’m not at home, you’ll find me on the road with Chris, traveling and exploring, soaking in new experiences and places.

Chris is a New Mexican desert transplant who landed in the lush Pacific Northwest several years ago. He planted his first tomato, a 3^rd grade class project, in his adopted grandpa’s next-door garden, and he hasn’t looked back since. He enjoys the construction side of gardening, challenges such as figuring out how to grow grapes in this climate, and the battle of reigning in his urge to overprune. When he’s not working on a project in our garden, you can find him hiking in the mountains, brewing his own beer, or camping.  

Here’s what’s happening in the Taste Garden this week…

Apples, pears, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, strawberries, currants. Of all the stunning sights in May’s garden, there are few I welcome more than the wave of first blossoms as our garden wakes up from its winter slumber. We walk along the paths each morning, watching the mason bees buzz about, checking each plant’s progress as tender buds unfurl their beauty.

Their time is fleeting, the blossoms blown away or scattered on the ground all too soon, but I’m content to simply enjoy the moment and the cycles of the seasons.

And the word itself – blossom: to flourish, develop – perfectly sums up May’s garden. Hope, life, and the promise of more to come.

Chives – the reliable workhorse of our May garden. I always know spring is on its way when this perennial herb bursts onto the scene. The edible lavender flowers that greet us soon after are simply spectacular – and perfect for sprinkling into salads or infusing into compound butters or vinegar.

We keep a container with both chives and garlic chives just outside our patio landing, which makes for easy snipping whenever a dish calls for it. While the leaves become less tender once the plant flowers, you can cut the chives back and you’ll have a healthy second harvest. This year we’re growing one container primarily for the leaves and letting another flower at will, as the bees flock to the chive flowers and they’re a beautiful ornamental as well.

Chives are easy to grow (like full sun but are fairly forgiving of some shade), frost tolerant (zones 3 & up), great in containers, and you can cut and harvest as needed for months on end (grab a handful and cut at least a couple inches above soil). Best of all, simply cut back the chives in the fall to make way for new growth, and you’ll be rewarded with a bountiful harvest the following spring.

Digging your hands into the dirt, gently tucking in a handful of seeds, and then trusting nature to do its work – it can be a little nerve-racking waiting for those first seedlings to emerge – but there’s an immense satisfaction that comes from growing a plant from seed.

We sowed a bit later this year, due to colder than average weather and a drip irrigation project, but our May garden is alive now with young seedlings popping up all over the place…broccoli, mustard, carrots, arugula, nasturtiums, peas, sunflowers, radishes, pak choi, borage, and cabbage – to name a few. And as the month edges closer to summer, we’ll be heading out to sow the warm season crops.

For a long time I stuck primarily to transplants, and we still buy our share each spring, but there’s something special about direct sowing. I’m always a little amazed when those seeds that I carefully sowed manage to not only survive, but actually thrive.

One more affirmation of the tenacity and beauty of life.

Purple, pink, white, and red – Easter Egg radishes offer you a kaleidoscope of colors. We’ve been growing these in containers for several years, and they’re always one of the first seeds I plant in early spring and then all the way up to the first frost.

They’re incredibly reliable, germinate quickly, and reach maturity in less than a month. The key to keeping them happy is to make sure the soil stays moist (dry soil leads to woody roots), thin to at least 1-2” between plants (the spicy young seedlings are great in a salad), and harvest them while they’re still young and tender.

Growing up, my mom included the “requisite” sliced radishes in our nightly salads, but as an adult, I’ve discovered creative uses for this traditional veg. Our new favorite – roasted radishes. Simply toss them with some olive oil and salt, roast at 450 for about 15 minutes, and then enjoy! Roasting mellows their flavor and they’re fabulous dipped in some herb-infused melted butter.

There are a few “must have” seeds that we always keep on hand, and this ‘Farmers Market Blend Lettuce’ from Botanical Interests is one of those. It’s a tasty mix of six varieties: Tango, Royal Oak Leaf, Red Salad Bowl, Black Seeded Simpson, Grand Rapids, Red Sails, – and it’s gorgeous as well, the reds and greens providing a bold burst of color.

We begin direct seeding the lettuce early each spring in a container on our back patio and continue succession sowing up until just after the first frost. It’s a delight to head outside each day…to cut a few handfuls of baby lettuce and then to wander through the garden picking radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas – putting together a salad with whatever is fresh and ready to harvest.

And it couldn’t be easier to grow this lettuce mix. Simply scatter some seeds into the soil (we love to grow it in containers), keep it moist, harvest on a frequent basis when its leaves are young, and you’ll be rewarded with an ample harvest. It’s considered a cut and come again crop, so there’s no thinning necessary, and we always get a second and sometimes even a third harvest. While lettuce can struggle in hot weather, this mix has been fairly bolt resistant for us, although I do tuck it behind pole bean trellises or taller plants to offer a little shade during the more intense heat of the summer.

Reliable, delicious, and beautiful – a winner in our book!

Up Next…

Thanks for taking the time to read our first “A to Z” Taste Garden post! Stay tuned for next week’s post featuring herbs, an Italian kitchen garden, lilacs, and more. See you soon!

-Kimberly and Chris