The beginnings

Originally inspired by dreams of an herb garden for tea, I have launched a mini edible garden with plants for tea, cooking, and beyond. It’s nothing special yet, just the beginning adventures of testing out my green thumb, but I plan on expanding it.

After combing the web for advice, frolicking around SF gardening stores, and playing in my beautiful backyard, I have a hodgepodge of herbs and vegetables planted. I found a good selection of starter plants at Cole Hardware and Sloat Garden Center.

Here is a list of plants I gathered, suggested uses, and growing advice:

• Chocolate mint: Great for tea, mixed drinks, or with strawberries. A hardy plant that requires full or partial sun and moist soil. Mint tends to aggressively take over garden space, so I keep it in its own planter.
• Spearmint: Great for tea, mojitos, or mint juleps. See above. Generally same instructions for growing all mint varieties.
• Lemon balm: Great for tea or in chicken, seafood, herb butter, etc. Related to mint, but with a lemon aroma. Partial shade and dry soil.
• Rosemary: Great for tea or with roasted potatoes, chicken, or Mediterranean dishes. Requires full sun (but can handle some shade) and drained soil. Little water once established. Needs a lot of room for root growth, upward growth, and to breathe.
• Sage: Great with tea, poultry, or in white bean dip. Full sun and moist soil, but not too particular with soil.
• Green onion ‘bunching’: Requires full sun and well-drained soil.
• Baby Spinach: Requires full sun or partial shade and well-drained soil.

Planting options

My backyard can go from sunny to shady in a step or two around it. Since the tree coverage and shade is a bit scattered, I’ve decided to keep my edibles in planters then maybe plant them later after testing different spots in the yard. Per shopping at different stores around SF, I’ve found that circular planters are plentiful but rectangular planter boxes are scarce. After searching for planter boxes all over the city, I decided to purchase one and then buy materials (1″ x 12″ redwood panels) to make a second. I found all my planter box items at Discount Builders Supply. [Stay tuned for a later post for DIY Planter Box project.]

Harvesting

From researching the plants, I’ve learned that harvesting generally involves cutting leaves an inch or a few above the base of the stem or right above the node. Harvesting should be done occasionally to maintain the plants. Green onions should be harvested young, at 6-8″ height, by cutting 1″ above the root. Then, cover with an inch or two of soil and the plant should re-sprout.

I went to the HVF ‘Work Party’ last Thursday (February 11th) and learned a little about the process of a sustainable farm. The HVF team was very knowledgeable and many of them come from a strong background in permaculture. Permaculture, the basic theme behind HVF, is the process of designing agriculture systems to mimic nature.

Here’s the bit I learned about the initial steps of creating a nutritious soil at HVF:
i. To begin, cardboard was placed at the foundation of the farming area to kill all plants and weeds below it as well as add nutrition to the soil.
ii. Next mulch was transferred over to the space – this is where I participated. Wheelbarrows, tarps, and, later on, the back of a pickup truck were used to transfer eucalyptus-scented mulch to the farming area.
iii. Then mulch was smoothed into rows on a hilly area at the southeast edge of the site. Each row needs enough space so you could walk through and do work without trampling over spots dedicated to seeds and plants.
iii. Once the mulch is order, next on the to-do list is to plant fava beans and clover. Both of these items will add nitrogen to the soil.
iv… TBD! I’m not sure what happens next but I’m excited to learn more.

HVF will also be offering workshops & classes, and its first course will be on Greenhouse Basics. I heard HVF will eventually take workshops into the backyards of community residents, to show people how to transform the space into edible gardens. I’d love to be involved in something like that.

On another note, San Francisco hosts an established 4.5 acre organic farm in the southeast part of the city called Alemany Farm. I’ve heard great things about this farm and plan on checking it out myself one day.

Expect to see posts in the future about Alemany Farm and perhaps some of my own gardening efforts.