NW Flower & Garden Show handout

Due to an overwhelming response (thank you!!!) we ran short of handouts at today’s presentation.  Most of the information is here on the site in one form or another but I thought I would make it easy and post the actual copy from the handout in one place.

What a treat and a privilege it is to speak to such a receptive public.  Everyone love to talk about food!

10 Secrets to a great vegetable garden in the Pacific Northwest

1. Plan and plant for our climate.  Limit warm season crops to just ½ of your available planting space.
2. Embrace organic gardening principles and mix edibles and ornamentals.  If Rule #1 makes you feel like you don’t have enough space take a closer look at your ornamental planting areas.
3. Right plant right place.  Group veggies with similar requirements.
4. Choose varieties wisely.  Shop for locally produced plant starts and seed that has been bred for local conditions.
5. Master the time/space continuum and know your vegetable’s “days to maturity”. Catch Crop: planting fast-maturing vegetables in the space between slower-maturing ones that will later spread. Double cropping or succession planting: plant another crop as soon as you’ve harvested the previous one to keep your garden in constant production.  This is greatly enhanced by using transplants.
6. Give preference to continuously bearing vegetables.
7. Go UP!  Employ trellises, teepees, fences, poles, arbors, etc. to take advantage of the growing space above your beds and add a pleasing vertical element to the garden at the same time.  Plant tall crops such as corn or sunflowers on the north end of the garden so they don’t shade
8. Always include herbs and perennial food plants.
9. When all else fails – look for “Found” garden space.  Pocket of soil by the alley, an unused parking space, parking strip, p patch, garden share, neighbors, divide and conquer.
10. Wherever you garden harvest daily to maximize your garden’s production and not waste food.

Cool season crops:  arugula, kale, chard, mustard, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, beets, carrots, lettuce, radishes, spinach, potato, leeks, Florence fennel, Brussels sprouts, many hardy greens, broccoli raab

Drought tolerant: Many cool season crops can be raised on seasonal rain. Some crops require deep watering to start to encourage deep roots that allow them to withstand later dry periods; these plants are well suited to PNW growing conditions.  Late season tomatoes, purslane, ground cherries, woody herbs,

Shade tolerant (in high summer): lettuce, cabbage, chervil, chives, cilantro, chard, kale, broccoli, peas, bush beans, mustard, bok choy, sorrel, mint,

Sample successions:

• overwintered chard – spring peas – summer/winter squash;
• early lettuce – beans – fall cabbages;
• arugula and hearty greens – tomatoes – overwintering mache and more winter greens;
• early fava beans – corn – overwintering green manure;
• overwintered kale – beets & carrots – overwintered fava beans.

Continuously bearing crops: chard, kale, pole beans, cucumbers, summer squash, broccoli, indeterminate tomatoes, Japanese eggplants, cutting herbs (chives, basil, dill, parsley, mint)

Perennials: asparagus, many herbs, rhubarb, strawberries, cane berries, blueberries, fruit trees, artichoke, bunching onion, sorrel, Jerusalem artichoke

Bibliography:

Growing Your Own Vegetables, An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide, by Carla Emery & Lorene Edwards Forkner, Sasquatch Books, 2009

Edible Heirlooms, heritage vegetables for the maritime garden, by Bill Thorness, Skipstone, 2009

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, sixth edition, Steve Solomon, Sasquatch Books,

The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, Seattle Tilth, 2000

Check online for garden sharing opportunities, garden match making sites, urban farmers for hire and community resources.