Hey ladies – I have spent the week working with Roger getting our Salsa Garden planted. I love the whole dirt digging process and the salsa that results in the in end.
I wanted to share the joys of gardening with all my readers but know that I am woefully unqualified. So I asked my friend Ann to share some of her gardening joys with y’all as well as telling us all how to create our own salsa garden. I plant everything in containers (as I only have a back patio,) but the results are fab. We will be spending the whole week on this little process, and, for everyone who comments during the week, you will be entered into our drawing for a $25 gift card from Home Depot to get your own salsa garden started.
What’s More Locavore Than Your Own Container Salsa Garden?
By Ann Stea
The easiest vegetable garden in the world is the one your favorite kindergartener colors for you using paper and crayons and tapes to your refrigerator. The second easiest might just be a Container Salsa Garden.
This is the legal disclaimer part my lawyer says I must write (not really but you should know) I’m not a professional gardener, nor am I an expert or Master Gardener so you may take what I have to offer with a grain of salt. Or you can try this out and add a grain of salt to your end result. It’s your choice. I highly recommend you try because there is nothing better than salsa from your garden, or eating a tomato that is truly ripe and delicious. In fact I challenge you to give this a try if you’ve never planted a garden, are afraid to try or don’t think you have the time or space. Gardening is a very satisfying way to have organic, local foods. What’s more local than your patio or yard?
My friend Kathi has started a container salsa garden. I thought about the hours and sweat and tears and sometimes blood that has gone into my little family’s garden over the past 13 years and realized, Kathi may have the right approach to this whole green thumb thing. After all you really only need four plants and a shaker of salt and some red wine vinegar, or a lemon borrowed form the neighbor’s tree. Why my husband and I feel the need to grow four tomato (which is a major reduction from our previous seasons), 15 pepper (Italian, Jalapeno, Habanero, and Cayenne), two zucchini, three butternut, a few pole bean and two Big Max pumpkin plants is always a wonder to me.
Then I realize it’s in my husband’s blood. It has to be. His parents live on a ¾ acre parcel which has never seen a lawn. Fruit trees, vegetables, fava beans and almond and olive trees some old time flowers and roses are all over the land. There have been years when they have planted nearly 20 to 30 tomato plants and over a hundreds of fava bean plants. We canned the tomatoes, fried the peppers and shelled the favas. We even shelled them the weekend before my wedding but that’s another story.
The same principles apply in the yard, a planter box, or small containers. Plant in good soil, water, protect from pests, and eventually pick. Okay that’s my dream garden. I live in San Jose, California, it was called The Valley of Hearts Delight long before it was ever Silicon Valley. We are blessed to live in an area where it is easy to grow things. I still have trouble with many plants that just don’t work in our summer heat or suffer for lack of a freezing dormant period. My best advice is to find the kinds of vegetables that work well in your area for your best success. I have found the local Master Gardeners and the folks at the local Farmers Markets to be an excellent source of information about which varieties of peppers and tomatoes grow best in your area. In fact I enjoy purchasing my vegetable plants from the Master Gardeners’ sales in my area. I know the plants started here and will do well here. Additionally I am helping to support my local growers. I guess that makes me a locavore of sorts.
Tomorrow – I will be talking about containers for your salsa garden.
Kathi here – So here is my question for you – what area of the country do you live in and what do you love to grow? Ann and I live in the Silicon Valley where things love to grow, but I would be interested to hear what the rest of you have success with. Leave your answer in the comments and I will enter you in the drawing for the $25 Home Depot gift card!
We started seeds for green and purple beans, cantalope, watermelon, 3 kinds of tomatoes, zuccini, and summer squash. We move to our new house Saturday and can hardly wait to get them in the ground. We are trying square-foot vertical gardening this year because we don’t have as much space. But 90% of the vegetables we have eaten for the last year we have grown in a 12′ x 12′ backyard garden in Oakdale, CA!
We planted. The kids helped and we have two tomatoes and we are trying some basil and zuccini too. They are all in pots so we will see how they do. Now I just have to remember to water them.
Thanks Amica mia for the lovely compliments! Now…no I haven’t tried the sunscreen approach. It might be a worthwhile thing to look into. The plot gets full sun and late afternoon shade so I’m not sure if it’s the heat or the sun itself. My dad is always amazed at how this happens almost every year. We tried new soils, less watering, more watering, miracle grow, pest control etc…BUT, never the sunscreen. So that might be something new for me to try this year. I really do want this garden to have excellent tomato results this year. It is embarassing to be Italian and not be able to grow good tomatoes 😉 Thank you for the excellent advice. Wish me luck!
P.S. Ann makes the BEST jellies and jams around! A jar of one of them is worth gold in my book!
Thanks Anna! Have you tried building a sun screen for the tomatoes? Is it the sun or the heat? What about planting in an area where the get some shade to cool them off in the hot weeks? Also I love your garden. It’s a delight to visit. (Anna happens to be an excellent Italian cook. She has so much talent.) I’m sure you and your dad have discussed and tried different approaches. Have you checked with Master Gardeners in Livermore to see how they handle it?
I have many Italian friends who’ve grown up jarring their own tomato sauce and have wonderful gardens of their own as adults and spectacular skills in the kitchen and Anna is one of the best!
Hi Kathi and my dear friend Ann,
I love your blog! I live in Livermore, CA, just northeast of Silicon Valley where it gets on average 5-10 degrees hotter in the summer and the that much colder in the winter than San Jose where I grew up. I too love to grow vegetable gardens, it’s in my Italian blood as well, and I learned from my grandfather, a master (not in the formal degree sense) but truly a master in the garden. My dad has continued his tradition in San Jose and has an incredible smaller plot that yields enough tomatoes for my mom and he to preserve in mason jars for the whole year. I have some trouble with tomatoes where I live. They always start out beautifully until we hit a week of 100plus degree weather in July. They just look like they suffer too much. Then I water them thinking that will help and they get worse. Maybe I’m overwatering? Any advice on how to handle the scorching heat from killing my labor of love? I also have quite the herb garden, and that never suffers from extreme heat. This year, I decided to try again with eggplants, bell peppers, basil (always), 3 sunflowers for fun and 10 tomato plants (2 are patio varieties in pots) the others in raised beds. I hope to have better results and make some salsa like you advise. Good luck in your blog venture. I look forward to your posts…
This is great. I’m really pleased Kathi and I were able to put the bees in your bonnets! Looking forward to tomorrow.
Julie – we grow cilantro and it rocks when it is so fresh!
Great idea Kathi and Roger! His is awesome salsa! Okay, only one hint on the peppers ladies. A true story, when we first moved into San Jose, I wanted to make my own salsa. I went to an awesome gardener who had delicious peppers. I made the best salsa, and canned it. I gave some away to my pastor and his wife, it was so good! She loved it and the next season she commented how much she had enjoyed it. Well, I had thought “Why am I buying from someone else when I can grow my own tomatoes and peppers right her in my own backyard?” So, I planted several rows of different varieties of chili peppers. when ripe I took peppers and tomatoes to my pastor’s wife and gave her my recipe. She canned her heart out. Funny thing, a while later I asked how they were enjoying their salsa…she sheepishly told me that it turned out so hot they could not eat it. Lesson learned, never plant different heat levels of chili peppers near one another, heat travels. It really does, I can attest to it!
Have fun gardening ladies! I still do, even after all these years. This year we have put in several raised beds, but we are experimenting with our own version of the earth box. I will have to let you know how it turns out. They are very expensive, but our homemade version is way cheaper.
Up here near Sacramento it gets pretty hot in the summer – perfect for the 6 tomato plants that went in last weekend. My 6 & 8 yr old kids love to go harvest them every day. I also planted two basil plants and just need some mozzerella cheese and a little balsamic vinegar for the summer. We also have three blueberry bushes and just planted a raspberry and boysenberry plant – we’ll have to see how they do. Maybe I can throw a couple pepper plants in to make a salsa garden. Anyone ever grown their own cilantro?
I live in Tucson, AZ. My yard doesn’t even grow grass. I love the sound of this salsa garden! If I can’t grow Reese’s PB cups, then I would grow salsa! 😉 Looking forward to your next post.
I live in Fort Lewis too. We have strawberries that we grow and rosemary. The person who lived in our house before planted them. We are reaping her harvest. However, I was asked about what I want for Mother’s Day. We saw a square foot garden at the local spring fair. We talked to the master gardeners and well they gave us the blueprints for the garden. It is a garden on legs. I will post pictures when it is built for me for Mother’s Day. We are planting; Corn, cucumbers, cantalopes, green beans, onions, carrots and watermealons. The corn and carrots will have to be grown in the ground, everthing else will go in the box.
Being that I have a 4 year old I think it will be a great learning experience for her and us. It will be our 1st garden, the best thing about the garden is we can move with it!
Native Texan transplanted to Central Arkansas here! I’ve planted a few flowers, and my husband grew some tomatoes and squash in the past, but not much in recent years. Would love to begin again with your Salsa Garden. I’m looking forward to the journey.
OK – who else wants to live with Antonia?!?!
Living in the country, outside of Mineola, Texas, we have a large garden every year. We have six kinds of onions, tomatoes and peppers of all sizes and colors, snap peas, spinach, lettuce, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, watermelons, giant sunflowers, and potatoes. Lining our half acre garden are peach trees, raspberry,blackberry, and blueberry bushes. My husband built a large raised herb garden right outside my kitchen for easy access. I haven’t made my own salsa in the past, but look forward to trying my hand at it this summer. Having a garden has helped raise vegetable lovers in our house. They each have their own section of garden to plant their favorite veggies and they are learning how to care for their veggies, just as my grandmother taught me.
Good Luck with the salsa garden!
Antonia Reisinger
I grow herbs in the pockets of a large strawberry pot.. It looks so pretty, smells good…and is handy on the edge of the patio for when I’m cooking ! (Different herb in each pocket)
I also grow tomatoes every year…tho’ our back yard has gotten so shaded, we don’t have much sunny space left to plant stuff now. SOOO…last year I found a sunny spot- in the front yard (don’t laugh !)- and decided to plant them on that hill…away from the street…hoping the tomatoes would appear to be red flowers from far away ! WELL….we got the best crop we ever had !!! We had fresh tomatoes until November…when I picked the green ones, brought them in and let them ripen on the window sill 🙂
Needless to say, this year we planted them out in the front again and they seem to love it there !
I will post some pics but I LOVE my new garden. This is my favorite year so far – I feel like I now know better what will work and what won’t – the big secret for me is actually WATERING!
kathi
Gardening seems to fall on our “But we had the best of intentions…” list each year. It just gets too hot to step foot outside! So this year we started small and have a little herb garden in our kitchen window sill. Easy to maintain, and easy to use!
Kathi,
This is awesome. We are here at Fort Lewis WA and I am learning what grows here! Liberty is trying to plant pumpkin, sunflowers, and squash, so I will try my little garden! I love salsa and homemade is always better. I would love to be able to grow vegetables to make my own!!! Believe me, it is with only God’s help is this going to happen. 🙂 Hoping that I have a little bit of my grandma Franny’s green thumb. Ann says I only need four vegs, I think I will let Liberty pick, she’s good at that!
Ok, Kathi, this sounds like a yummy idea, but I think you must put a warning label on any salsa recipe Roger comes up with–I’ve tasted his, and 5 alarm would be understating it. LOL!
I live in the Silicon Valley, too, but I couldn’t tell you what grows well here! I am the WORST when it comes to keeping plants alive! BUT- I will attempt this salsa garden thing…I think my 3 yr old would LOVE to see things grow, and it might actually encourage her to eat some veggies, too!
Since we live in PA Dutch Country, we grow meadow tea in a container on our deck. I would love to grow veggies but haven’t made the commitment yet…
Ann and Kathi! You are the answer to my prayers I haven’t even had a chance to pray yet! I’ve reeeeeally been wanting to start a garden but had NO idea how. This is PERFECT. Simple, easy, cheap, DELICIOUS. I can’t wait to get started!!
What a great idea! I have a six year old and three year old and they love the dirt. I try to plant with them every year but never thought about “theme planting.” I am loosing my creative mind (actually that already happened, that is why I didn’t think of this). Thank you so much. I will be planting the salsa garden for me, salad garden for the family and a dessert garden for the kids. I am going to try the container thing this year. We obtained some wine barrels and they will contain these things and some flowers too. Oh, we live in Northern Brentwood where we have shade cloth over our garden so it does not fry! Thanks again!