Filed under: Gardening, Flowers, How-To
Plan your spring garden around yummy summer lunches. Think: cherry tomatoes, chives and more!A year after starting my own 6-pot roof "farm" as an extension of my tiny terrace in New York City, I have learned that even in this minimal space I was able to grow an edible garden. As long as I used my imagination and thought outside the, er, lunchbox, summer delivered a bounty of meal time ingredients -- and ideas.
For the next few minutes let's throw out the tuna salad and see what easy-to-grow ingredients can go into healthy lunchtime sandwiches and salads, straight from the garden. In planning your garden, plant these seeds indoors now and outside after the last frost date in your USDA Zone. Enter your zip code at the Farmer's Almanac to see the best time to to start seeds in your area.
My roof farm cherry tomato crop. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Cherry tomatoes
Easy to grow as long as you keep them in full sun (six hours plus, a day). Even after my plants lost many leaves to blight they continued to produce until the first real cold snap. Halved cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper and some torn purple basil leaves beneath a drizzle of olive oil? Heaven.
Edible nasturtium flowers and leaves. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Nasturtiums
Pretty flowers, yes, but also edible leaves with a distinctly spicy bite. Fresh nasturtium leaves shredded onto a sandwich and topped with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar are memorably delicious. The young seeds can be pickled or eaten raw, like capers. Sow outdoors and in full sun or partial shade.
Chive flowers. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Chives
It took a trip to a German beerhall to taste this lunchtime treat: A snipping of chives on seedy brown bread that has been schmeared with a thin layer of good butter or cream cheese. Don't go light on the chives, either. Several twists of the pepper mill, some salt and you have an unexpectedly satisfying sandwich. The flower buds are also very good added to a salad. Chives practically grow themselves. They prefer full sun but will tolerate some shade.
Curly-leafed parsley. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Parsley
If you are worried about chive breath, add a handful of parsley leaves to your sandwich to sweeten the mix. I toss them first in a bowl with slivers of paper-thin raw red onion, a little good olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. This is one herb that will take some partial shade, though its flavor will be milder as a result.
A bowlful of spicy microgreens. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Spicy micro greens
Sow crops in narrow troughs, at intervals of a month from early spring to frost. They appreciate cold weather so they can be sown now. The leaves are ready for harvest after about two weeks and are snipped with scissors when needed. Dressed lightly with sherry vinegar, walnut oil and a pinch of salt, this leafy, peppery sandwich filler is addictive.
Rooftop-grown pickling cucumbers. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Cucumbers
Grow pickling cucumbers in full sun, water them deeply every day, and soon you will have more fruit than you know how to handle. While you still crave their juicy coolness, eat them like this: Peeled, sliced thin and layered on buttered white bread with the crusts cut off. Chill them, cut into chunks and add them to cubes of creamy feta with shreds of fresh mint. Whiz chunked cucumbers in a blender with a cup of yogurt, a clove of garlic, a pinch of salt and eat as a cold soup.
Plan that lunch garden now. Warm weather will be here sooner than you think.
For more great ShelterPop gardening ideas, don't miss:
Replicate the White House Garden
Time to Grow Up: Arbor Gardens
Say Yes to Fake Plants