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How much of my food can I grow in a small garden area? This is the question I receive most frequently from residents interested in starting vegetable gardens. Like all things in life, the answer is: “it depends.” In this case, it depends on the size of the garden, the amount of sun, and what you want to eat.

Since sun and garden space are difficult to change, the easiest way to eat more of your homegrown vegetables, is to start eating vegetables that are high yielding and easy to grow. Hence, we discover the magic of leafy greens.

Leafy greens are a backyard food gardener’s best friend. They are easy to grow, harvest, and cook. They produce an abundance of food even in low-light conditions. Moreover, they taste great, supply excellent nutrition, and look good in your garden. If you are a brown thumb, or a novice vegetable gardener, leafy greens are a great place to start.

While there are numerous varieties of leafy greens to try, I recommend chard, kale and collards. They grow productively all winter long, and even withstand summer heat. Space your plants 1 foot to 18 inches apart, both within and between rows. If you start from seed, sow every few inches in rows and then thin out to the recommended spacing. To allow each plant more room, offset planting between rows so that each plant sits between the two in the next row over, forming a zigzag pattern. Plants can be harvested as soon as they have a fair number of medium sized leaves. It’s better to take a few leaves from each plant, rather than lots of leaves from one plant, so that all of the plants can recover quickly. Harvest with two hands, or using cutters, to make sure you don’t tug on the plant while tearing off the leaves. And the best part is, after you harvest, the leaves grow right back!

There are many ways to integrate lots of leafy greens into your diet. In addition to salad, you can quickly cook leafy greens into any combination of vegetables. Start by steaming them, or stir-frying with olive oil, garlic, lemon and salt. Add them in at the end of your vegetable stir-fries, or boil them in stocks, soups, and stews. Leafy greens go well with meat or tofu, rice, noodles, and many legumes. I like to add leafy greens into my lentil soups. When I cook red beans, I scoop some of the broth into a frying pan and use it to boil the greens with other vegetables.

Adding lots of greens to your diet is an excellent way to improve your families’ nutrition. They are rich in beta carotene, vitamin C, and other anti-carcinogens. They provide excellent sources of fiber, iron, and calcium. In fact, collard greens have the same concentration of calcium as milk. Just 3.5 ounces of chard gives you all the vitamin A and half the vitamin C that you need each day.

Growing more of your fruits and vegetables means eating more of what you can grow. If you want to eat better and grow your own food, plant chard, kale and collards in your garden this year and watch the magic unfold.

Joshua Deutsch is the founder and manager of Backyard Food Gardens, providing food garden installation and complete landscaping services to the East Bay. He can be reached by Email: josh@backyardfoodgardens.com, phone: 510-289-8712, or on the web: www.backyardfoodgardens.com.

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Gardeners:
A message from the USDA

During the holidays, people buy and send more citrus plants than any other time of the year. Whether someone is buying citrus plants online or giving a citrus plant as a gift, they could be spreading citrus greening disease. This deadly bacterial plant disease is spread by a disease-infected insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, and has destroyed millions of acres of citrus plants around the world. Since there is no cure, the best way to protect our citrus is to not move citrus plants or plant materials.

Inform others about the dangers of moving citrus.
As a gardener, people respect your expertise on plants. Help spread the word about citrus greening disease. Let people know:

• Many areas of the Southeast are under quarantine for citrus greening disease and Asian citrus psyllids. It is illegal to move live citrus plants, plant parts, budwood, or cuttings from these areas.
• Many other areas are under quarantine for Asian citrus psyllids. Get a complete list of quarantined areas for both the disease and the psyllid.
• Citrus greening is only one of many diseases threatening our citrus. By not moving citrus, you help stop the spread of all these deadly disease.
• Citrus plants and plant materials include curry leaves, jasmine flowers, and the citrus leaves on wreaths and in potpourri.

Spread the word — don’t move citrus.

The safest approach is to simply not move citrus plants, ship citrus plants, or buy citrus plants of an unknown origin. If you or someone you know owns citrus plants, make sure they are inspected regularly for signs and symptoms of the disease and psyllids.

For more information from the USDA on citrus greening disease, visit www.saveourcitrus.org.

There’s more to harvesting and drying sunflowers than many professional growers realize. How soon you decide to harvest them will depend largely on energy costs, temperatures, and whether you prefer them to dry naturally. Ideally, your sunflowers won’t be exposed to insects and diseases, and the temperature will be warm enough to allow them to dry on the stem. However, those circumstances are rare. In reality, most crops will be vulnerable to some level of pests and diseases. And depending upon where you live, the temperature can cause your sunflowers to freeze.

In this article, I’ll explain some of the benefits of harvesting your sunflowers early. I’ll also describe how they’re dried and why the moisture in the air can affect your crops.

Benefits Of Harvesting Early

With energy expenses escalating, you might think that allowing your sunflowers to dry naturally is a good idea. But, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider harvesting them early. First, if the temperature is close to freezing during the evenings, your sunflower crops are not actually drying. The moisture is being sealed inside. But, even if you’re not growing your sunflowers in freezing temperatures, there are still many advantages to an early harvest.

For example, the weather can often be harsh for sunflowers. Rain and strong winds can pummel your crops and prevent them from drying properly. Also, keep in mind that the longer you allow your crops to stay outside, the more vulnerable they’ll be to insects, birds, and other pests. What’s more, they’re more susceptible to mildew, mold, and diseases.

Sunflowers also have to cope with weeds, which can become a problem if they’re not managed. You can use chemicals to control them, but their effectiveness is often limited, depending upon the weather and soil. If you own a high-power dryer that can output high temperatures, consider an early harvest to dry them yourself.

Temperature And Moisture

There are many places where the air has increased capacity to hold moisture during the harvest season (for example, South and North Dakota). When this is the case, your crops will dry more quickly. Sunflowers, because of their ability to take advantage of past crops’ residual fertility, can be especially resilient in this type of weather. And the higher the temperature, the more capacity for moisture the air has. In that case, you might be able to allow your sunflowers to dry on the stem a little longer. Of course, you’ll still need to be vigilant about protecting them from critters, insects, and weeds.

Harvesting Your Sunflowers

Years ago, growers harvested their sunflowers when the backs of the heads began to turn brown. However, many crops today come from hybrids and should actually be harvested when the heads are still yellow.

When your crops have a seed moisture of about 35%, you should consider harvesting them. You can actually wait until the moisture level is approximately 12%, but you’ll run the risk of a fire in your combine. This is another benefit of an early harvest. The damper the seeds, the less likely a combine fire will occur. Plus, damp seeds are less likely to break apart while threshing. When the seed moisture is around 10%, there’s far more breakage.

Even though letting your sunflowers dry naturally tends to cost less and be lower maintenance, it’s no longer always the best choice. Today, the combines and high-temperature dryers we use allow us to harvest early and thereby further protect our crops from insects, disease and bad weather.

This sunflower information is brought to you by The Sunflower Guy, the best way to send sunflowers anywhere, check us out at http://www.sunflowerguy.com

More information on Growing and Cultivating Sunflowers

Even experienced gardeners will often ignore the fact that their gardening efforts can extend well into the fall season, while in certain sections of the world; gardening is virtually a year round endeavor. Extending the gardening season is becoming more critical to all of us because of the changing dynamics in the world’s food supply. This is a situation that we will have to live with for an extended period of time, so it is a good idea to do our bit. The victory gardens of World War II provided 40% of the country’s food supply, proving that we can make a difference.

It is hard to think about planting more vegetables at a time when fresh produce is so abundant in our garden, but late July and early September are good times to plant cool weather crops. Fall plants such as broccoli and cauliflower usually taste better when grown in the cooler weather, while others such as kale and Swiss chard reach their peak flavor after the first frost.

Fall planting requires less work because the soil was worked up in the spring, so a light cultivation is usually all that is needed after removing all the previous crop waste. Place the debris into your compost pile after being sure to remove any diseased vegetation, Top dress the garden with some compost or organic mulch and work it into your soil. Then you can proceed to plant according to recommended methods.

Examples of good fall plants are: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, endive, kale, lettuce, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, mustard and spinach. Do not plant the same crops back in the exact same place, but rotate your crops to reduce potential disease problems.

It is a good idea to consult with your local garden center or your local county extension service for advice on correct planting times for your growing zone.

As the fall season nears, protection for these crops has to be considered. One method is to cover the crops with sheets, plastic sheeting, or mulch which will trap the radiated heat from the ground and raise the temperature enough to protect them from a light frost.

Some crops such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, potatoes, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage and kale are not affected by frost or even moderate freezes and can be left in the garden until the hard freezes set in. Root crops such as beets, carrots, parsnips and turnips can be re-mulched, left in the garden and dug up as needed.

If a hard freeze is predicted, pick the green mature tomatoes or pull the entire plants.

Store them in a dry cool (65 degree) place where they will ripen in about two weeks. Delicate plants such as squash, peppers and eggplant should be harvested and stored in a comparable location as the tomatoes.

After harvesting and while the weather is still pleasant, many chores can be accomplished in anticipation of spring and next year’s garden. Cleaning up garden refuse, adding soil amendments to your plot and making a planting plan of your garden to decide how you want to rotate your crops while this year’s garden is still fresh in your mind, are just three jobs to get out of the way.

Now you can kick back in your easy chair, read the seed catalogs and dream of those prize winning vegetables you are going to raise.

Dick Murray loves to write about growing fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables at http://www.vegetable-gardening-basics.com and has created an information packed web site dedicated to gardening basics and designed for families who care about their food supply. Gardening Information for all Seasons

I have been growing tomatoes in patio containers and pots this year with some success. I also have my beloved plot with tomatoes growing in the ground. I know the ones in the ground will work fine – they have done for thirty years. But growing my tomatoes in containers is anew departure for me.

The comparison between the pot grown tomato and those in the ground.

I grew 2 varieties this year moneymaker and an Italian cherry tomato variety. I cannot remember the name but they came free with a magazine. I sowed the seeds in March 2008 and grew them on in my conservatory in 6 inch pots. As Always I grew too many tomato plants and gave 20 away. I planted them out as 2 – 3 foot high plants in early June and a month later picked the first tomatoes. As I speak in late august I still have many fruits to pick so it has been a good year. The plants grown in containers have had similar results but I have noticed 2 differences.

Firstly the moneymaker tomatoes were slightly smaller than the ones grown on my plot.

Secondly there were not quite as many cherry tomatoes in the containers.

Other than that the results were very similar. The taste is uniformly excellent and the texture and color very appetizing. For the container grown tomatoes I did treat them differently and with a bit more care.

1. Make sure you put tomato plants in a really big pot.

I like the root systems to have plenty of room and not become pot bound. You also need a big container to have enough depth for the support canes. I use standard clay terracotta pots but any wide and deep container will work fine.

2. Water your tomatoes even if it rains.

We have had a dreadful summer in the UK this year and it has rained constantly. I still found that the pot grown tomato plants were wilting a bit if I didn’t check them for watering. The plants in the veg plot did not need this. The reason for this is that the leaves of the tomato plants deflect much of the water away from the pot. Very little water gets to the root of the plants. This is why I check them daily.

3. Be ruthless with pinching out side shoots on the tomato plants.

I only pinch out once or twice a season when growing tomatoes in the ground because they seem to do fine. I have learned this through trial and error. The moneymaker plants in pots were pinched out once a week to ensure that the fruits I did get were big enough and juicy enough. I never bother pinching out cherry tomatoes. They take care of themselves and always give plenty of harvest.

4. Remove excess foliage once you have the tomato fruits.

I have always done this to tomatoes and do not know where I picked this tip up. Once you have all the tomatoes set on the plant remove any leaves that are hiding the fruit from the sun. I prefer the tomatoes to ripen on the plant and this helps speed up the ripening process. Removing the leaves also gives you slightly bigger tomatoes.

If you have missed this tomato season then I encourage you to plan ahead for your tomato growing in 2009. Grow some in pots and containers as well as in the ground. They are a lot of fun and be grown on any sunny spot you have.

You can grow plants in containers very easily and without a large garden. Tomatoes are particularly suitable for growing in containers. For more gardening tips you can visit http://www.your-gardening-tips.com
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