I have a small garden, yet big dreams. If I could, I would grow everything! Yes you heard me right – everything! But with a limited space it is simply impossible. So I have to be somewhat ruthless when it comes to making decisions about what to grow in my little garden.
So I came up with this list of criteria that helps me determine what comes in to my personal food forest.
1. Is it perennial?
I love edible perennial plants. A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. … The term is also widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are also technically perennials.
Often times perennial plants are more costly upfront, but you get to enjoy them for a very long time. Asparagus for example can be productive for 15 or 20 years if given proper care!
2. Is it something that is expensive to buy or it does not keep well?
Most herbs and fresh greens can be pricey to buy in a grocery store and lose their crispness and aroma way before they make it home with you. That makes them a good candidate for my garden. Considering that quite a few of them are also in a perennial category makes them doubly welcome.
Did you know that parsley is a bi-annual plant? That means you get two year of harvesting before it bolts and goes to seed. And while it is in bloom it is rather lovely and a great food sources for pollinators.
3. Is it hard to impossible to find it in store?
Have you ever tried an heirloom tomato picked fresh from the vine, still warm from being in the sun all day and sweet as candy, with natural sugars perfectly crystallized inside a beautifully colored sphere? If your answer is yes, considered yourself one of the lucky few!
Have you ever seen anything like that for sale at your local grocery store? I sure have not.
And even though for a few weeks in the summer you can find something very similar to this kind of tomato at your local farmer’s markets, I would still argue that it is not the same.
Nothing can compare to seeing my toddler pick his own tomato straight off of the vine and try to stuff it whole in his mouth. Juice squirting all over, his little face is full of concentrated effort to swallow all of this goodness as fast as possible, so that he can move on to the next one. He calls tomatoes – strawberries, because he cannot tell the difference! Home grown tomatoes are that good! Same goes for freshly harvested snap peas, green beans and many more.
4. Is is easy to grow?
The word is kale! Kale is so easy to grow here in the pacific northwest, it is ridiculous! Dinosaur Kale, Curly Kale, Russian Kale – there are so many varieties!
You can direct seed it the spring and late summer for continued year-round harvest. Collard greens and chard work similarly well here. So drop a hand full of seeds in the ground, it’s that easy!
5. Do you want to try something new?
This year I am adding a few new-to-me edibles to my garden. Things like: Magenta Spreen, Mashua and Strawberry Spinach.
Lambsquarter Magenta Spreen:
A wild plant related to spinach with tangy sweet-sour flavor and striking, color-splashed leaves of lilac, purple and magenta on green. Beautiful for microgreens and salads, and delicious steamed, this plant will reseed itself for care-free harvest every spring.
Strawberry Spinach:
An old-fashioned plant that dates to 1600 in Europe. This curious plant produces greens that are picked and cooked like spinach, but it also produces attractive, red berries that are bland in flavor. These add a nice touch to fruit salads. Easy-to-grow plants are similar to “Lamb’s Quarters”, a wild relative that will reseed itself if allowed.
And they are all perennials! How cool is that!?!
The best thing about gardening is that there is always next year! Next year you can do better, try new things and witness many more miracles.