9117 MEN Collector Series Organic Gardening

51 48 Grafting Fruit Trees

Fuse stems with rootstocks to form fast-growing, fruitbearing plants.

51 The Dirt on Composters

If you dig composting and want a tidy setup, try hiding your heap inside one of these bins or tumblers endorsed by our readers.

54 The Historic Art

of Trellising

Colonial Williamsburg has mastered the art of using trellises in their gardens to ease the growth and harvest of everything from beans and peas to tomatoes and cucumbers.

DIY PLANS 58 Nifty Potting Bench Plans Build a convenient in-garden work surface with storage for small tools and supplies.

61 DIY Greenhouse for

Winter Growing

66 so with electric lights indoors.

Plus, you can build it with lowcost materials.

66 8 DIY Cold Frames for

Year-Round Gardening

Expand your growing season and upcycle local materials by building one (or a few!) of these simple, inexpensive cold frames.

SPRING 70 Create an Edible Landscape A garden writer gives her outdoor dining area a European feel with four table grape varieties you can enjoy fresh off the vine. Her garden is just one example in this colorful feature.

76 Expert Tips for

Growing Early Tomatoes

Want to fulfill your cravings and make your neighbors jealous?

Add a whole month to your fresh-tomato season with these proven techniques.

Growing food in this solarheated structure will be far more productive than doing

54

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78 78 Spring’s Sentinels:

Asparagus and Chives

These two perennials arrive in the garden at the same moment, which makes them natural companions on the springtime table.

83 Grow Red Peppers

Here’s how to enjoy the rich, sweet flavors of ripe red peppers.

86 All About Growing Broccoli As the most popular member of the cabbage family, broccoli pops up in everything from quick appetizers to elaborate main courses.

88 Grow Superb Strawberries

Growing your own is the best way to get first-rate flavor.

91 Enjoy Fresh Blackberries

They’re prolific and perennial – just about anyone can enjoy these tasty berries.

94 Grow Great Lettuce

This reliable crop is a top choice for any food garden.

76

88

100

SUMMER 100 Surefire Summer Squash Expert advice, plus a secret to great flavor revealed!

104 Grow Your Own

Shiitake Mushrooms

Take these steps to fruit your own fungi for money, food, and fun.

108 All About Growing

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are productive and quick to mature, making them a rewarding crop for both new and veteran gardeners.

110 All About Growing Melons Delicious and packed with nutrition, melons have delighted gardeners for centuries.

122 116 All About Growing

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard has brought color, flavor and nutrition to gardens since the time of Aristotle.

118 The Other Onions

Don’t forget about the fall varieties like shallots, bulbing leeks, and multiplying onions.

122 #1 Expert Shares

Organic Potato Tips

Professional potato producer Jim Gerritsen provides the full scoop on successfully growing and storing spuds.

126 Grow Great Garlic

Use this season-by-season guide to cultivate a treasure trove of fat, flavor-packed cloves.

128 Grow Your Best Fall Garden

FALL 112 3 Rare Root Crops

You Should Be Growing

Experience the unique flavors of crosnes, salsify, and skirret by adding these unsung treasures to your vegetable garden.

104

Here’s expert advice for the next half of the gardening season.

134 Grow and Cook With

Kohlrabi and Rosemary

Don’t be deterred by kohlrabi’s quirky appearance. Its crisp flesh

128

140 makes an excellent companion to strong herbs, such as rosemary, well into winter.

140 Fall Flavors: Perfectly

Paired Apples and Onions

Root and fruit, savory and sweet, onions and apples complement each other in the garden and in delicious autumn dishes.

146 Sweet Potatoes and

Shallots to Savor

Easy to grow and store, these roots pair well when tossed into decadent dishes.

WINTER 152 Winter Gardening: Best

Crops and Varieties

Don’t limit your harvests to summer, no matter your region.

Grow these 13 crops that have proved they can take biting winter temps.

156 Grow Veggies

With Quick Hoops

Double your garden’s productivity with these simple, inexpensive low tunnels.

146

3/4/19 10:01 AM

Maintain Healthy Garden Soil With

CROP ROTATIONS

You can increase soil fertility and cut down on plant diseases by rotating the vegetables in your garden plots on a three-year cycle.

By Barbara Pleasant Illustrations by Elayne Sears

O

ne of the rules of good organic gardening is to rotate plant families from one season to the next, as best you can, so related crops are not planted in the same spot more often than every three years or so. The purpose of crop rotation is to help the soil maintain a healthy balance of nutrients, organic matter, and microorganisms. Of these three, the invisible world of soil-dwelling micro-creatures is the one that most benefits from crop rotations.

Take potatoes, for example. In the course of a season, the fungi that cause scabby skin patches may proliferate, along with root-killing verticillium fungi (which also damage tomatoes and eggplant) and tiny nematodes that injure potatoes. If you plant potatoes again in the same place, these pathogens will be ready and waiting to sabotage the crop. Rotating the space to an unrelated crop deprives the potato pathogens of the host plant they require. Most pests and diseases can damage plants of the same botanical family, but cannot hurt unrelated crops (see “Rotate Your Families: The Nine Main Groups,” Page 22).

What if you don’t follow a crop rotation plan?

Field trials in Connecticut and Europe indicate that your potato production will quickly fall by 40 percent, mostly due to disease.

According to a seven-year study from Ontario, you could expect similar declines if you planted tomatoes in the same place over and over again.

Compared to eight different rotations with other vegetables or cover crops, continuous tomatoes consistently produced the lowest yields. Snap beans that are not rotated will turn into paltry producers, too. In a study 20 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • ORGANIC GARDENING

20-22 Crop Rotation.indd 20-21

In addition to interrupting disease cycles, rotating crops prevents the depletion of nutrients.

Nitrogen-fixing legumes often take no more nitrogen from the soil than they replace, and their presence stimulates the growth of beneficial soil microorganisms. But in some situations, the “rotation effect” defies easy explanation. For example, we don’t know precisely why potatoes tend to grow well when planted after sweet corn, but they do.

The subject of crop rotation can get complicated fast—it’s no wonder we are tempted to cheat. What if your garden is like mine, a collection of a dozen permanent beds that are planted with 20plus different crops in the course of a growing season? Not using rotations would be unwise. When researchers at Pennsylvania State University tracked early blight of tomatoes grown in the same place for four years, early-season infection rates (measured when 5 percent of fruits turned red) went from 3 percent in the first year

to 74 percent in the third. When they tried the same monoculture maneuver with cantaloupes, symptoms of alternaria blight appeared earlier and earlier with each passing season.

Questioning the Rules

Some organic gardeners point out that crop rotation guidelines developed for farmers don’t really fit home gardens. On farms, crop residue is either plowed under or left on the surface to decay, which means the soil receives large infusions of a single type of plant material. Gardeners are more likely to pull up and compost spent crops, and to dig in compost or other soil amendments between plantings, which replenishes nutrients and invigorates the soil food web in an extremely diversified way. Biodegradable mulches introduce more considerations: If you heavily mulch your potatoes with straw,

from Cornell University, snap bean production doubled when beans were planted after corn rather than after snap beans.

In addition to interrupting disease cycles, rotating crops prevents the depletion of nutrients. For example, tomatoes need plenty of calcium, the same way beans and beets crave manganese. But the exact benefits of effective rotations vary with crop sequence. Broadleafed greens are great for suppressing weeds, and the deep roots of sweet corn do a good job of penetrating compacted subsoil.

You can plan your crop rotations by using a paper template to map your crops and growing areas.

There’s ample research showing that crop rotation results in better harvests for potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and many other crops.

TECHNIQUES/METHODS • WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM 21

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Short on space? Pack pretty pots with flower and vegetable companions on your patio (above).

Play with colors and textures as the author does in her central California garden (left).

son means they’ll stick around for when pests show up.

Think Integration, Not Segregation

WISE PAIRINGS

Growing Flowers and Vegetables Together

Plant a profusion of pollen- and nectar-rich flowers among your edible plants to help control pests, boost pollination, and provide eye-pleasing pops of color.

Article and photos

by Rosalind Creasy

I

n the 1970s, when I was a budding landscape designer, I attended the garden opening of one of my clients.

As I walked around anonymously, wine glass in hand, I overheard many guests

exclaiming, “Do you see that? She put flowers in the vegetable garden!”

In the United States, segregating vegetables from flowers still seems like such a hard-and-fast rule that when I lecture on edible landscaping, one of the first things I mention is that I’ve checked the Constitution, and planting

34 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • ORGANIC GARDENING

34-38 Heirloom Pairings.indd 34-35

flowers in a vegetable garden is not forbidden. Not only can you put flowers in with vegetables, you should.

I admit that, in the ’70s, I first intermixed my flowers and vegetables because I was gardening in the front yard of my suburban home and hoped the neighbors wouldn’t notice or complain

as long as the veggies were surrounded by flowers. Soon, however, I discovered I had fewer pest problems, I saw more and more birds, and my crops were thriving.

It turns out that flowers are an essential ingredient in establishing a healthy garden because they attract beneficial insects and birds, which control pests and pollinate crops.

Most gardeners understand this on some level. They may even know that pollen and nectar are food for insects, and that seed heads provide food for birds. What some may not realize is just how many of our wild meadows and native plants have disappeared under acres of lawn, inedible shrubs, and industrial agriculture’s fields of monocultures, leaving fewer food sources for beneficial critters.

With bees and other pollinators under a chemical siege these days and their populations in drastic decline, offering chemical-free food sources and safe havens is crucial. Plus, giving beneficial insects supplemental food sources of pollen and nectar throughout the sea-

One of the cornerstones of edible landscaping is that gardens should be beautiful as well as bountiful. Mixing flowers and vegetables so that both are an integral part of the garden’s design is another key. Let’s say you have a shady backyard, so you decide to put a vegetable garden in the sunny front yard.

Many folks would install a rectangular

Not only can you plant plenty of flowers amid the vegetables in your home garden, you should. should. bed or wooden boxes, and plant long rows of vegetables, maybe placing a few marigolds in the corners, or planting a separate flower border. In either case, the gardener will have added plants offering a bit of much-needed pollen and nectar.

Integrating an abundance of flowers among the vegetables, however, would impart visual grace while also helping beneficial insects accomplish more.

Plentiful food sources will allow the insects to healthily reproduce. Plus, most of their larvae have limited mobility.

For example, if a female lady beetle or green lacewing lays her eggs next to the aphids on your violas, the slow-moving, carnivorous larvae won’t be able to easily crawl all the way across the yard to also help manage the aphids chowing down on your broccoli.

In addition to bringing in more “good guys” to munch pests, flowers will give you more control because they can act as a useful barrier—a physical barrier as opposed to the chemical barriers created in nonorganic systems. The hornworms on your tomato plant, for instance, won’t readily migrate to a neighboring tomato plant if there’s a tall, “stinky” marigold blocking the way.

Create Cool Combos To begin establishing your edible landscape, you should plant flowers with a variety of colors and textures, different sizes and shapes, and an overall appealing aesthetic. After you’ve shed the notion that flowers and vegetables must be separated, a surprising number of crop-and-flower combinations will naturally emerge, especially if you keep in mind the following six guidelines.

1 Stagger sizes. Pay attention to the eventual height and width of each TECHNIQUES/METHODS • WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM 35

3/4/19 10:04 AM

2 After fruit was thinned to 8 inches apart, this 5-year-old tree still produced 84 large apples.

Prune for Small-Space

1

FRUIT TREES

By Ann Ralph

M

any fruit trees—including semidwarf varieties—can easily grow to 15 feet and taller. Anyone who has tried to manage one of these large trees in a backyard will instantly appreciate the value of small fruit trees: They require less space, are easy to care for, and produce fruit in manageable quantities. Growing compact trees allows you to tuck more varieties of fruit into corners of your property or a small orchard, and means you can choose those varieties by flavor and climate adaptability rather than by tree size. Nearly any standard and 44 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • ORGANIC GARDENING

44-47 Prune Fruit Trees.indd 44-45

Top: Saxon Holt/Photo Botanic

semidwarf tree—from pears, peaches, and plums to apples and apricots—can be trained to stay much more compact.

The pruning treatment outlined in this article will create an appreciably smaller fruit tree than what you’re used to—as small as most dwarf trees (see “Why Not Choose a Dwarf Fruit Tree?” on Page 47). Here’s the key to this little-known technique: Fruit trees’ reaction to pruning is dependent on the season in which the cuts are made. The trees’ response is determined by whether the tree is actively growing (spring), gathering nutrients (early summer), preparing for dormancy (late summer), or fully dormant (fall and winter). Keep this cycle in mind when wielding your shears.

Dormancy and the First Cut

FROM FAR LEFT: SAXON HOLT/PHOTO BOTANIC; MARION BRENNER (3)

This revolutionary pruning method will enable you to grow any type and variety of fruit in small spaces. Never settle for an apple you don’t adore or a peach you can’t reach.

A knee-high heading prune (1) when planting a dormant tree is critical for size management. For the optional second cut, choose the best scaffold (2) or simply remove any duplicate buds on the same node (3).

The first step to growing a small fruit tree is to make a hard heading cut (a cut that removes the growing tip) when planting.

While such a cut may seem extreme, your planting job will only be complete when you’ve lopped off the top two-thirds of your new tree. This pruning cut is critical because it will create a low scaffold (the primary limbs that make up the canopy of a tree), and making this cut during dormancy will give the tree strength and resilience, which is especially crucial for heavy stone fruits. Most importantly, it will help keep the canopy of the mature tree within arm’s reach.

Here’s how to handle the first cut. As winter comes to an end, and the ground is workable for planting, buy a dormant bareroot tree that’s about as big around as your thumb. Plant the tree as soon as possible. Choose a bud at knee-height (about 18 inches from the ground), and make a clean, 45-degree cut that angles away from the bud (see Photo 1). Cut close enough to the bud so it can heal cleanly in a natural line, but not so close that you cut into the bud itself. Several buds should remain between the cut and the graft —the knobby place low on the trunk where the scion (the graft that determines fruit variety) meets the rootstock. A knee-high prune is reasonable for almost all fruit trees, but peaches and

3 nectarines will sprout more reliably if you cut just above a nurse limb (a branch left to absorb the tree’s spring energy and encourage sprouting). A young tree will probably be a 5- to 6-foot whip at the nursery, so in most cases you’ll remove more than you’ll leave behind. Your beautiful sapling will now be a knee-high stick.

Granted, this cut sounds harsh. Do it anyway. The compact structure of the tree to come will begin to develop as a consequence. Heading your tree while it’s still dormant will take advantage of nutrients stored in the roots, and vigorous growth and branching will occur in spring, when the plant directs its energy to the remaining buds—the perfect combination of conditions to get a small fruit tree off to a strong start. Your initial cut will awaken the buds below, and they will eventually develop into new limbs, each with a growing tip of its own. The resulting open-center tree will be shorter, stronger, easier to care for, and far more usefully fruitful.

Spring: A Balanced Beginning After the first buds start to break in early spring, examine the spacing of the branches and decide if you like the arrangement of the top buds. If not, simply prune lower to a place where the TECHNIQUES/METHODS • WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM 45

3/4/19 10:07 AM

NIFTY POTTING BENCH PLANS

2x4

square, and then install the 1-by-6 slats (H) using 8d galvanized nails. Pre-drill the nail holes to prevent splitting. The top and bottom slats should overhang the frames by 13⁄4 inches. Notch the outer two slats on the bottom platform to fit around the front legs.

4 Lay the two back legs on a solid, flat surface, and fit the bottom platform into the notches you created between the blocks. Position the top platform on top of the middle leg blocks (D).

Secure the platforms to the back legs with 3-inch exterior screws. Use construction adhesive, too, if you want to increase rigidity. Install the front legs and secure them in place with screws.

The top slats should extend just a hair past the front legs.

Note: If all you need is a potting bench, your work is nearly done. Just add open shelves to the back uprights and support them with brackets. If you also want a storage cabinet with doors, keep reading.

But first, refer to the cabinet materials and cutting lists on Page 60.

Build a convenient in-garden work surface with storage for small tools and supplies.

By Spike Carlsen

D

Plot the Potting Bench 1 Cut the 2-by-4 legs (A, B) and leg blocks (C, D) to length as indicated in the cutting list on Page 59. Use a compass to draw 3 1⁄ 2-inch-radius

Cultivate the Cabinet

These versatile plans show you how to build the entire project as shown, or you can choose to construct only the potting bench (lower section) or cabinet (upper section).

semicircles on the top end of each of the rear legs (see A in drawing on Page 59), cut the ends to shape with a jigsaw, and sand the edges smooth. Secure the legs (A, B) and leg blocks (C, D) to one another with construction adhesive and 10d galvanized nails. Make the space between the leg blocks wide enough to tightly sandwich the platform and slats that will fit between. A gap that’s too big will result in a wobbly workbench, while a gap that’s too small will mean you’ll have to persuade the parts together with a hammer, or cut

the blocks shorter after they’ve been attached to the legs.

2 Build the frames (E, F, G) for the top and bottom platforms, fastening the corner joints with 31⁄2-inch exterior screws. Double up the (G) boards on the inside of the top platform’s frame for the tubs. Check to make sure the openings on the ends of the top platform will accommodate your tubs.

(You bought the tubs first, right?) If the openings are too large, use scrap 2-by4s to fill in the extra space.

3 Make sure the platform frames are

SPIKE CARLSEN; TOP: BRUCE KIEFFER; OPPOSITE: TOM THULEN

o you wash your garden produce on the lawn with a hose? Or transplant seedlings on top of your picnic table, or on your knees in the garden? If so, this DIY potting bench will make your gardening chores easier and faster. The handy bench will let you work at a comfortable height, and will provide a central place for stashing your hand tools and supplies. The tubs will offer places to store soil, compost, waste, and other materials. You can even add a sink to one side.

Before building your potting bench, purchase the storage tubs or baskets you’ll be using for the cantilevered wings, and tweak the dimensions of the bench parts accordingly. The materials and cutting lists are divided into sections for the bench (Page 59) and cabinet (Page 60), so you can build only one component if that’s all you need.

Choose cedar or another rot-resistant lumber. Cedar board dimensions usually aren’t as uniform as those of pine, so adjust your measurements accordingly.

5 Knock together the box for your garden storage cabinet by securing the bottom, top, and shelves (K) to the cabinet sides (J) using 31⁄2-inch exterior screws. You can alter the spacing of the shelves according to your needs.

6 Check the cabinet box to make sure it’s square by measuring the diagonals (if the measurements are equal, then the box is square). Install the tongue-and-groove backboards (L). You’ll need to rip the last board lengthwise to fit.

7 Secure the cabinet top cap (M) in place. Position it so the back edge is flush with the back of the tongue-andgroove boards, and the ends overhang the sides equally.

8 Install the 2-by-2 door divider (T). Measure from the edge of the cabinet to the divider and make your doors about 1⁄4-inch smaller in width. Fit five of the 1-by-6 tongue-and-groove boards (N) together to create a door panel that’s wider than you need.

Mark out the width of the actual door on this panel before separating

58 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • ORGANIC GARDENING

58-60 PottingBenchPlans.indd 58-59

(A)

80”

½” gap

5½”

(G)

3½”

28¾” (H)

(F)

(G)

46”

24”

(D)

(G)

19”

(B)

(D)

1” 3½”

(H) 30”

3½” (C)

(E)

(G)

(C)

(B)

(D) (C)

BENCH MATERIALS LIST Ten 2-by-4s, 8 ft. long 4 decking boards, 10 ft. long Exterior screws, 31⁄2” Exterior screws, 3” 10d galvanized nails 8d galvanized nails Construction adhesive

BENCH CUTTING LIST 2 back legs (A), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 80” 2 front legs (B), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 30” 4 bottom leg blocks (C), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 31⁄2” 4 middle leg blocks (D), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 181⁄2” 2 front and back for lower platform (E), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 46” 2 front and back for upper platform (F), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 84” 8 platform crosspieces (G), 11⁄2” x 31⁄2” x 24” 16 platform slats, upper and lower (H), 1” x 51⁄2” x 28 3⁄4” decking*

*Most deck board material is a true 1 inch thick.

The upper platform’s slats should extend slightly past the potting bench’s front legs (Step 4).

DIY PLANS • WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM 59

Illo: Bruce Kieffer

3/4/19 10:09 AM

when it reaches 6 to 8 inches.

That will keep production going. As the stems grow, the little overlapping scales at the tips will start to open in an effort to make branches, but try to pick them while the scales are tightly closed. That’s when the spears taste best.

The fresher, the better: If possible, pick asparagus at mealtime, on the way to the stove. But if you must hold it, store spears upright in the refrigerator with the cut ends in a glass of water.

You can eat asparagus raw, but the heat of cooking brings out more of its flavor.

Maintenance of your asparagus bed is crucial. It’s an easy thing to neglect when so many summer crops need tending, Use a sharp knife to cut 6- to 8-inch asparagus stalks at ground level to avoid injuring the asparagus crowns. but weeds must not be allowed to take hold.

A thick mulch of hay, straw or seagrass, dandelions, wild blackberries weed (which asparagus loves) will and other stubborn invaders. If any minimize annual weeds, add fertility of these become established, they’re as it decomposes, and give protection hard to grub out without damaging in winter, but it will not deter witchthe asparagus roots. You may need to

Lemony Asparagus with Chive Blossoms This simple dish depends on the quality of its main ingredient, so try to use the freshest asparagus spears. Serve it as a side dish at any meal, or as the centerpiece of a light supper along with toast and scrambled eggs. Yield: 8 to 10 servings as a side, 6 to 8 as a main course.

1 large bunch, about 2 pounds, asparagus 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 1⁄2 tsp coarse sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 chive blossoms After trimming, place the spears in a steamer over simmering water for about 8 minutes or until just tender. Drain well and arrange on a platter or on individual plates.

Combine the lemon juice and olive oil in a small glass or pitcher and whisk vigorously, or shake together in a small, covered jar.

Pour over the asparagus. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pluck the individual florets from the chive flower heads and scatter them over all. Serve at room temperature.

80 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • ORGANIC GARDENING

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brush aside the mulch to get the weeds out, but keep at it.

Adequate moisture is needed to ensure an abundant crop the following year, so irrigation in dry weather is important, too.

It’s often necessary to support the plants when they become tall. I use 4-foot grade stakes, available at lumberyards and hardware stores, strung together with jute twine. Steel T-posts also work well.

Planting and tending an asparagus bed is admittedly a more ambitious project than sowing a row of lettuce, but people who commit to it find that the investment of time pays off in years of harvests.

Consider it a landscape feature as well as great food. At summer’s end the foliage will turn a handsome gold before it’s time to cut it back to the ground for the winter, top dress with compost or manure, and reapply a thick mulch. And, at last, there’s that magical day in spring when the asparagus wakes up again.

Asparagus as Your Best Dinner Guest Simplicity is best, and brevity is essential. The tips of spears are fragile and will fall apart if overcooked. The stems are a little sturdier, and you’ll sometimes want to peel extra-thick ones, or even pare them down a bit, so they all cook uniformly. I try to pick them at—or trim them to—about 6 inches long.

My favorite cooking method is to steam asparagus over simmering water for 8 minutes (more or less, depending on size), or until just tender when

pricked with the tip of a knife—not mushy and not hard. The spears will bend but not droop when you pick them up from the middle, and can be easily cut with a fork. Often I’ll butter the warm spears, and serve them just like that. Or, I’ll blanch them by plunging the spears immediately into a sink filled with cold water for just a second or two to stop the cooking, but not to chill them. This will help the spears retain their bright green color if they’re not going to be eaten for a little while.

Try grilled asparagus, too, or roast it in the oven with garlic and olive oil.

After a week or two of buttered asparagus heaven, a cook might like to branch out and make composed salads, such as the one with shrimp below. You can also serve asparagus on toast, or in rice pilafs and risottos, or in endless pasta dishes, from primavera with other early vegetables to a cheesy rigatoni. A creamy sauce, a lemony sauce, a Mornay sauce, a hollandaise—asparagus wears all of these very well. You can tuck asparagus into an omelet, add it to a stir-fry, simmer it in a soup, or bake it in a quiche or a gratin. Asparagus will keep for a week in the fridge and can

Asparagus and Shrimp Salad with Honey-Saffron Dressing Topping asparagus and lettuce with shrimp turns a salad into a luxurious appetizer, or even a light meal in itself. I find this a good way to end the day in early summer, topped with a honey and saffron dressing that lends a bright golden color as well as rich flavor. You can sprinkle this dish with either scallions or chives. This dressing is also good on cold lobster or scallops.

Yield for salads: 4. Yield for dressing: about 2⁄3 cup.

cent, about 11⁄2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Both the asparagus and the shrimp can be cooked ahead and refrigerated for a short time until ready to serve.

Distribute the lettuce among four plates. Arrange the asparagus on top, then the shrimp. Pour the dressing over all, letting it make a bright yellow pool around the edges, then scatter on the scallions or chives. Add salt and pepper to taste.

About 32 medium-sized asparagus spears 32 raw shrimp, deveined, with head and shells removed 3 tbsp olive oil 1 large butterhead lettuce, washed and torn into pieces 2⁄3 cup Honey-Saffron Dressing (instructions at right) 2 scallions, green tops only, chopped, or chives Coarse sea salt Freshly ground black pepper

To make the Honey-Saffron Dressing: Heat the vinegar, honey, and saffron together in a small saucepan over low heat, just enough to liquefy the honey. Pour into a small, lidded glass jar, add the olive oil, and then cool to room temperature. Shake to mix thoroughly before drizzling over the salad.

Honey-Saffron Dressing 2 tbsp white wine vinegar 2 tbsp honey Pinch of saffron 6 tbsp olive oil Trim the asparagus to about 6 inches long, and steam or simmer for 8 minutes or until just tender. Blanch by plunging into cold water to stop cooking, drain, and set aside.

Dry the shrimp thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan until fragrant and medium-hot. Using a pair of long tongs to protect yourself from spatters, quick-sauté the shrimp in batches, dropping in 6 to 8 at a time. Don’t crowd the pan. Flip them with the tongs, cooking only until translu-

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In the Kitchen

Cucumbers are 96 percent water, so they are low in calories but do provide abundant vitamin C and fiber if eaten with their skins. For a refreshing summer drink, grate cucumber and a bit of onion into a glass of cold buttermilk. Cucumbers quickly pick up the flavors of marinades to become “refrigerator pickles,” and they partner well with any type of salad dressing. Gazpacho, a cold vegetable soup from Spain, is always in order if ripe cucumbers abound. You can make cucumbers into pickles by canning them in various brines using a water bath canner, or by fermenting them in a salt brine. To find great pickle and gazpacho recipes, search for “pickles” or “gazpacho” at www.motherearthnews.com.

CUCUMBERS

By Barbara Pleasant Illustrations by Keith Ward

T

he crunch of fresh cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) has helped cool down summers for more than 3,000 years, and cucumbers were likely one of the first vegetables to be preserved by pickling. Growing cucumbers is easy in fertile, organically enriched soil. Productive and fast to mature, cucumbers are a rewarding crop for new and veteran gardeners.

Cucumber Types to Try American slicing cucumbers are the oblong, dark green cukes you see in supermarkets. Varieties of this type have been bred for uniformity, productivity, and strong disease resistance.

Pickling cucumbers bear smaller fruits with bumpy, slightly wrinkled rinds that make them naturally crisp and firm. Some varieties resist bacterial wilt, a widespread cucumber disease.

Asian cucumbers are long and slender with small seed cavities. Nonbitter Asian cucumbers are easy to

digest, and are also not preferred by cucumber beetles.

Greenhouse cucumbers produce self-fertile female flowers, so you can grow many varieties of this type under row covers or in high tunnels.

Other Cucumis species include ‘Armenian’ and ‘Indian Poona Kheera’ cucumbers (both C. melo), ‘West Indian’ gherkin (C. anguria), and jelly melon (C. metuliferus), which is also known as African horned melon.

When to Plant Sow seeds directly into prepared rows or hills one to two weeks after your last spring frost, and make a second planting a month later. Where summers are short and cool, start seeds indoors under fluorescent lights two weeks before your last spring frost.

Cucumber seeds should sprout within five days. Set out 3- to 4-week-old seedlings after your last frost.

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How to Plant Choose a sunny site with fertile, welldrained soil. Grow cucumbers in rows or hills spaced 6 feet apart, or try increasing yields by training vines up a trellis.

Mix a 2-inch layer of rich compost into the planting site, along with an organic fertilizer. Thoroughly water the soil before planting seeds half an inch deep and 6 inches apart. When the seedlings have three leaves, thin them to 12 inches apart, which is the spacing you should use if transplanting seedlings.

double in size in just one day. Snip fruits with a short stub of stem attached, then lightly scrub, pat dry, and refrigerate harvested cucumbers right away.

Depending on variety, one cucumber plant will typically bear 10 to 20 fruits, which would total about 2 to 3 pounds.

that have accumulated at the bottom of the pail and spread them out on newspaper or paper plates. Allow seeds to dry at room temperature for two weeks before storing the plumpest in a cool, dry place, where they should stay viable for at least five years.

Saving Cucumber Seeds

Growing Tips

Allow perfect fruits from open-pollinated varieties to ripen on the vine until they develop leathery yellow or brown rinds. Slice away the rinds without cutting into the seeds, place the cores in a pail of water, and mash them with your hands. After two days, remove the seeds

Grow cucumbers under row cover tunnels for pest protection. After plants begin blooming heavily, remove the covers so insects can pollinate the flowers.

You can control cucumber beetles using yellow sticky traps, but the traps may also snare small beneficial insects.

Cucumbers for Your Garden Type

Description

Recommended Varieties

American slicers 50 to 65 days to maturity

Uniform, oblong shape with dark green skin. Plants tend to produce all at once. Good fresh or pickled. ‘Marketmore 76’ offers some genetic resistance to powdery mildew.

‘Marketmore 76’ (OP) ‘Straight Eight’ (OP) ‘Sweet Success’ (F1)

Pickling 52 to 65 days to maturity

Small, oblong fruits with thin skins that are often bumpy. Plants produce all at once and must be picked daily. Good fresh and great pickled. ‘County Fair’ and ‘Little Leaf’ are varieties resistant to bacterial wilt.

‘Boothby’s Blonde’ (OP) ‘County Fair’ (F1) ‘Cross Country’ (F1) ‘Little Leaf’ (OP)

Asian 52 to 65 days to maturity

Long, slender fruits with small seed cavities and sweet flesh.

Skins usually lack the bitter compounds that attract cucumber beetles. Need trellising.

‘Shintokiwa’ (OP) ‘Suyo Long’ (OP) ‘Tasty Jade’ (F1)

Greenhouse 52 to 65 days to maturity

Produce self-fertile flowers, which do not require pollination by insects. Fruits have thin skins and small seed cavities. Produce best if trellised.

‘Beit Alpha MR’ (OP) ‘Cool Breeze’ (F1) ‘Diva’ (F1) ‘Green Finger’ (F1)

Other species (‘Armenian,’ jelly melon, others) 55 to 120 days to maturity

Rampant, heat-resistant plants bear distinctive fruits that hold their flavor and pickling quality in hot weather. Best in warm climates.

‘Jelly Melon’ (OP) ‘Poona Kheera’ (OP) ‘Yard Long Armenian’ (OP)

Harvesting and Storage Cucumbers self-regulate how many fruits they carry at a time, so harvest fruits as soon as they reach picking size.

Pick daily, because cucumber fruits can

In large plantings, perimeter trap crops of ‘Blue Hubbard’ winter squash can be an effective control strategy. Nearby plantings of borage may also help suppress cucumber beetle populations.

Bacterial wilt and powdery mildew are two diseases that can wreak havoc on your cucumber plants. Your best bet is to grow resistant varieties (see the chart below) and practice good crop rotations.

Use a trellis to increase yields of flawless, flavorful fruits that are also easier to pick.

Mulch beneath cucumbers with organic material to further increase yields.

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