May Showers Bring Italian Salads!
My beautiful, green-thumbed mother, Becky Jahns. I could not have had a better guide! Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
I know that the normal saying is, “April showers bring May flowers,“ but when I was planting my planter boxes the other day with the assistance of my green-thumbed mom, the rain was threatening us and, well, it is the month of May. Further, while arguably a bit late to get rolling on the 2021 growing season, my mom brought fairly mature starts of what constitutes an “Italian salad garden.” Replete with lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and more…I imagine future, tasty meals graced by this fresh salad from the backyard. Thus, and now particularly as while I write this it is dumping buckets outside, “(may) May showers bring Italian salads.”
Prior to planting the new veggies in my planter boxes we had to clear out what was already there. Mature green onions and potatoes galore! And to prep the soil for new stuff? Mushroom Compost from Greensmix, powerful growth fuel in a bag. Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
Already containing incredible soil, the two planter boxes on my property came pre-set with some mature plants in them before we got started. Specifically, there were green onions and potatoes. Little did we know we had an entire meal for six worth of potatoes in the ground, waiting to be harvested. Check out the bounty below! Thus, after removing the potato plants from the planter boxes, and harvesting their fruit, I replanted each potato bush into a new potato garden. Of course, my two little daughters, who were on-hand to help, decided that we are growing “french fries” and not potatoes :-).
The potato plants, after being harvested and ready for re-planting! Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
The harvest of potatoes was pretty exciting. My little girls were digging these up and reacting like they were finding gold nuggets! ;). Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
Plant Those Tomatoes Deep!
Long a veteran of backyard planter boxes, I learned something quite new this year. “Bury them as deep as you can, just below the producing branches,“ said my mom. So down the tomatoes went. I was told that when you plant tomatoes deeper like this it allows the root system to be deeper and more established. These deeper roots pull in more water, which results in larger and faster growing tomatoes. I can’t wait to see this in action!
This image from Attainable-Sustainable.org illustrates well how deep one should plant a relatively mature tomato plant in Spring. Much deeper than I thought! Image Courtesy: Attainable-Sustainable.org
Deeply Water the Potatoes
Potatoes take a lot of water. Just think about slicing into a raw potato, they are packed with moisture and very dense. So when you are growing an entire potato garden, that spot needs to be hit regularly with H2O. Deep watering they call it, soaking down to the bottom roots. Failure to provide adequate water results in tiny potatoes, which would be fine if were were all the size of some of my daughter’s LOL dolls ;). But since we are full-size humans, well, let’s give those potatoes what they need!
The re-located potato garden. Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
This infographic from West Coast Seeds is an excellent guide for proper potato planting. Hopefully you can grow some “french fries” yourself! Image Courtesy: West Coast Seeds
A look at the finished planter boxes. Now just some rain, sun and time ;). Image Courtesy: Dan Meyers
Useful Italian Salad Garden Links
As I don’t bill myself an expert in gardening and rather report from a more experiential standpoint, here are some useful links to explore further some of the concepts noted above. Enjoy and happy planting and growing!
Potato Growing Tips
Tomato Growing Tips
Lettuce Growing Tips
Cucumber Growing Tips
Zucchini Growing Tips
5 Essential Tips for Gardening in the Pacific NW
And for supplies!!!!
Portland Nursery
Pistils Nursery (off N Mississippi)
Garden Fever (off of NE Fremont)
Enjoy!!!