What to plant? It's a good question when you consider in all the factors: time of year, size of the garden, and conditions most beneficial to the crop being planted. Then there is what you like to eat and a lot of times what we like and what can grow are in conflict. And for us, with limited space, and a smaller winter garden due to the shade of a neighbor's tree in winter, the consideration of rotating crops with a very limited light source in winter makes planning somewhat difficult for an all year around organic garden. But we do it and always seem to have something for the table that night.
Here, we have found garlic grows very well started in January-Febuarary and can be planted close together for space saving and is ready to harvest in June or early July. If interested in this make sure you use only organic cloves of garlic otherwise you'll have a problem getting them to start. On commercial produce, they spray garlic and potatoes with something that retards them from sprouting. You don't get that with organic products. We have enough garlic left over from last year to start this year's crop.
We plant beets at the same time, which are ready for harvest by April when we put in the tomatoes. But the trick is to rotate our crops otherwise the plants grow poorly and that requires, at times, to grow something new to eat to see how it works with our conditions. A mutual garden friend of ours that lives in another area of the city can grow things we can't and the same for him.
And for us, broccoli doesn't do well but kohlrabi does, leeks were a disaster but onions, garlic and beets are plentiful, and due to the loamy soil after so many years of cultivating, carrots grow long and straight and are particularly sweet and carroty. We also did well one year with okra, a beautiful plant related to hibiscus with delicate white flowers on a very nice bush-type plant.
Our grape vines will need to be cut back soon. Wonderful plant, if you want to smoke something, chicken, pork, fish--whatever, get a hold of some dried grape vines and use them instead of the usual hickory or mesquite. I think you'll find, as we did, that there is no better flavor imparted on smoked meats than grape vine cuttings. The entire grape plant can be used. the leaves, and of course the grape which we had hundreds of pounds of this year and then finally the precious trimmings of the vines. Nothing wasted. We also have guava, four different varieties growing under the grape harbor which gives us assorted guavas during the year. They love the winter sun and once the grapes sprout again after the cutting, the shade of summer to protect them in our desert climate.
It's like having your very own laboratory in your backyard, experimenting with this or that, trying something new, there is always something to consider when working the soil for food. And we love it. Nothing is more satisfying than to sit in the backyard with drink in hand and wonder at all the growth that an organic vegetable garden has to offer through the year.
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