Mediterranean diet-healthiest and easy to grow anywhere

Garden on Amalfi coast in Italy, overlooking the sea

Sunday, January 5, 2025

The Mediterranean diet was rated as the healthiest diet again this year.  It comes out number one year after year as the best way to eat for health, a healthy weight, and longevity.  It is also yummy and easy to grow anywhere in the US.  You can grow a Mediterranean diet garden in your own small space.  Eating fresh from the garden is convenient, has the highest nutrition and saves money.  I have found that having a garden makes me plan our meals around what is ready to be picked or what I have put up for the winter.   

You may think you can't grow what they do in the Mediterranean region here in the Midwest, but you can grow everything they do outside except for citrus and dates.  Both can be grown in pots and brought indoors in the winter.  I have a Meyer lemon tree that does great spending the spring, summer and fall outdoors and winters indoors.  It is in bloom right now in my living room.  It does just as well overwintering in a well lit unheated garage or basement.

The healthiest food is the one that is "closest to the root".  Fresh produce is teaming with live nutrition and enzymes.  As soon as a fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins to die and lose nutritional value.  Eating as much fresh, organic and unprocessed is the way to maximize the nutrition you get.  Organic foods don't have GMO's, pesticides and herbicides that have less nutritional value and the toxins of the chemicals used on conventional fruit and vegetables.  What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean?  

Here are Mediterranean garden plants that you can grow in your own backyard.  A space as small as 6' x 6' can give you all you can eat spring, summer and fall.

Fruits, vegetables and nuts

Artichokes

Asparagus

Beans-chickpeas, fava beans, snap beans, navy beans

Beets and turnips

Carrots

Celery

Cucumber

Dates (needs to winter indoors or heated greenhouse)

Eggplant

Fennel

Figs

Grapes and grape leaves

Citrus (winter indoors or heated greenhouse)

Greens-lettuce, radicchio, spinach, chard, arugula and others

Mushrooms

Nectarines

Nuts-almonds, pine nuts, pistachio (Zone 7-10), walnuts

Olives (varieties available to Zone 7)

Onions, shallots and leeks

Peaches

Peas

Peppers-sweet and spicy

Potatoes

Radishes

Tomatoes

Zucchini and other squash

Herbs

Basil

Bay

Chervil

Chives

Cilantro

Dill

Fennel

Garlic

Marjoram and Oregano

Mint

Parsley

Rosemary

Saffron (stamen from crocus flower)

Sage

Tarragon

Thyme

Dates and citrus are the only things on this long list that cannot be grown in our zone outdoors year round.  You can get varieties that can be brought into an unheated garage/basement or grown in a heated greenhouse outdoors.

Here in the US, we can grow the high antioxidant berries like raspberries, blackberries and blueberries without any special winter handling since they are native here.  

The key to Mediterranean eating is eating lots of vegetables, to plan around what produce is in season, the liberal use of fresh herbs, cooking with olive oil, and very little red meat or processed foods.

What could a small space Mediterranean garden include?  

Below is a plan for a 6' x 6' space.  Feel free to substitute for the veggies that you prefer to eat.  All below can also be grown in pots as well.  Edibles that love pots

Herbs (1 each)-thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and flat leaf parsley

3 basil plants (for pesto and season)

2 tomato plants-1 Roma type for sauces and 1 slicer or cherry type for salads

2 sweet pepper plants

1 bush zucchini plant

1 eggplant

8 red onions

8 garlic plants

Arugula, spinach and lettuce scatter sown

For more info on growing herbs and a kitchen garden:

Grow a Sicilian/Italian kitchen garden in as little as 6' x 6'

Small space French kitchen garden

Start a kitchen herb garden!

Easy kitchen garden

What to plant for the January 2025 edible garden

Starting seeds in peat pods and Aerogarden

Saturday, January 4, 2025

For most of us, seeds started outdoors at this time of year will either become bird food or will stay dormant until it gets warm enough to germinate, unless started under some sort of cover.  If you have a greenhouse or hotbed, you CAN plant winter hardy plant's seeds under cover and they will germinate.  For most, January is the time to lay out 2025's garden plan, order seeds and start sowing seeds indoors for a head start on spring and summer harvests.  

For those that want to really get a head start on the spring garden, outdoor hot beds are a great way to get sturdy edibles ready to transplant.  Hot beds have been around for hundreds of years.  Before there was electricity, hot beds were heated by 18" of fresh and dried horse manure, covered by 12" of soil.  A pit was dug down so that the manure and soil were below ground level to keep the heat in.  It was covered by a wooden box with a glass angled to the sun.  Today, the same can be done.  You can also use a light bulb or heating pad to keep the temperature above freezing and below 55 degrees F.

There are cole crops that can be placed in hot beds and seeds sown even at this time of year.  Winter gardening in hot beds is successful even in Zone 4.  For Zones 6 and higher, you can sow things like spinach, kale and mustard greens in greenhouses and they will germinate, although slowly.  Be sure to keep the seedlings close to the ground for more consistent warmth.  For the edibles you have been overwintering in your greenhouse, come January 17th at my latitude in Kentucky, growth will really start picking up.  10 hours of daylight signals to most plants that spring is coming and it is time to start growing.

If you are transplanting seedlings from indoors to outdoors, be sure to harden them to the conditions they will be transplanted to.  If in a greenhouse, cold frame or hot bed, you can take outdoors when temperatures are warm or maybe an unheated garage if the temps are close to the covered location you will be placing them.  "Hardening off" seedlings 

For more on cold season gardening, see Cold season crops for your edible garden and Winter edible garden.

January outdoor hot beds
Winter hardy lettuce transplants

Cauliflower transplants

Strawberry transplants

Cold hardy lettuce, kale, mustard seeds

Carrot seeds

Radish seeds

Spinach seeds

Austrian winter pea seeds

January yard, garden bed

Bare root fruit trees and bushes

For more on edible gardening in cold weather, How to extend the garden season.  

More popular is to start seeds indoors in January.  There are many seeds that can be started this time of year.  Take a look at your frost date and seed packet for the best time to plant for the variety you have seeds for.  Earlier is not always better!  If left indoors too long, the seedlings just get spindly and weak.  The seed packets share the earliest to start your seeds.  It is fine to wait until later.  In our Zone 7, the last spring frost date is forecasted to be April 12, which is 14.5 weeks from now.   Frost date look up

January edible plants-indoor seed starting

12-16 weeks before last frost

(Our last frost is April 12 so this would be Dec 21-Jan 18 in our area)

Cabbage

Celery and Celeriac

Corn Salad (Mache)

Onions

12 weeks before last frost (Jan 18 in our area)

Artichokes

Parsley

Peas

10-12 weeks before last frost (Jan 18-Feb 1)

Endive

Escarole

Leeks

8-12 weeks before last frost (Jan 18-Feb 15)

Eggplant

Kale

Kohlrabi

Mustard

Spinach

Sprouting broccoli

There are many flower seeds that can be started in January as well.  Butterfly weed, Chinese lanterns, Drumstick flower, Angel's trumpet, Delphinium, Sweet William, Foxglove, Eucalyptus, Blanket flower, Helianthus maximilliani, Hollyhock, Lisianthus, Lupine, Pansy, Petunia, Prince's feather, Black-eyed Susan, Snapdragon, Stock, Verbana, Yarrow are a few that can be started indoors in January. 

I find this planting calculator helpful Planting calculator  to see what crops and flowers to start seeds indoors, outdoors and when to transplant.  You just plug in your last frost date and it will calculate the dates for you.

You can also grow sprouts and wheat grass indoors to keep yourself in fresh greens if you don't have a greenhouse going.   Grow super nutritious sprouts indoors

Collards and black eyed peas for prosperity and luck in New Year

Black eyed peas and collard greens

Monday, December 30, 2024

It is a Southern tradition to have black-eyed peas and collard greens to usher in the New Year. My grandmother was originally from the hills of Tennessee and moved to southeast Missouri as a young girl.  Everyone I know that grew up in southeast Missouri has 'em on New Year's Day.  

History of black-eyed peas and collards

Black-eyed peas were first domesticated in West Africa and widely grown in Asia.  The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas for the New Year go as far back as Babylonian times (2500 years ago).  The tradition then was to have bottle gourd, leeks, black-eyed peas, beets, spinach, and dates as they were all symbols of good luck. 

This Jewish tradition was brought to the southern US in the 1700’s.  Today, the good luck Southern meal includes peas for prosperity (coins), mustard greens for money (green backs), and pork for moving forward.  Cornbread is also part of the meal and represents gold.

George Washington Carver encouraged the planting of black-eyed peas because they fertilized the soil, are nutritious and very affordable.  Black-eyes peas are chock full of nutrition.  They contain protein, calcium, vitamin A, folate, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, manganese, and lots of fiber.  black eyed peas nutritional info

Recipe for your good luck peas

To cook black-eyed peas, I add some ham and diced onion and simmer in chicken broth.  I simmer until tender.  You can add vinegar or some hot peppers for a different taste.  If using your own homegrown beans, here are tips for using dried beans Use dry beans instead of canned

Growing your own "peas"

Black-eyed peas are a subspecies of the cowpea and is also known by the name of goat pea.  They are not actually a pea at all, but a bean.  Black-eyed peas are a warm season crop that is not susceptible to pests or disease.  Beans should be planted after all danger of frost has passed and the soil is warm.  They are very drought tolerant so little watering is needed.  I start my beans indoors in April and set out around Memorial Day.  They are easily grown directly in the garden.  Just plant seeds after the soil is warm.  Growing beans

If using just for fertilizing the garden soil, legumes (peas and beans) should be cut before they start producing pods as the production of the seed pods use up a lot of the nitrogen fixed in the roots.  Even if growing to eat, leave the roots when removing the vines at the end of the season.  Those nodules you see on the roots are stored nitrogen.  To increase the nitrogen in the roots, an inoculant of rhizobial bacteria should be coated on the seed at planting.  You can mix a little syrup (1-10) with water to dampen the seed before dusting with the inoculant.  This will greatly increase your harvest.

A side benefit of growing black-eyed peas is that the flowers produce copious amounts of nectar for pollinators, like bees.  Be sure to not use any pesticides on your black-eyed peas as they will kill the bees, too.  Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays

For fresh peas, you harvest the beans when the peas have just begun to swell in the pod and are 2-3" long.  After harvesting, simply shell the peas into a freezer bag (don’t forget to label with type and date).  By harvesting the fresh peas, it will encourage more pods to be formed, giving you a larger harvest.

For dried beans, wait until the pods have dried completely on the plant.  Pick the pods and shell.  I use a quart jar to store my dried beans until needed.  When ready to use, rinse the beans then boil on low until tender with 4 cups of water to 1 cup of beans.  The time needed will depend on the age of the dried bean.  The older the bean, typically the longer it takes.  You can also soak over night to reduce cooking time.

Growing your own collards 

Collards are a southern favorite and also chock full of nutrients.  They come from the same family as kale and were likely cultivated 2000 years ago by the Greeks.

Greens like lots of nitrogen so they are great to interplant with your summer black eyed peas.  They are best planted in spring and fall as they prefer cooler temperatures.  Spring planted collards will produce all summer.  Fall planted collards will continue to produce into winter and will survive down to 0 F.  

Plant in rich soil 1/4" deep, 18-24" apart and keep moist until sprouted.  Use collards how you would kale, from adding to salads to steaming and sautéing.  

For more on growing beans, Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer.  For more on growing collards, Grow a southern favorite-collards.  For preserving, Freezing the extras for winter

Try some good luck food for your New Year's!

January 2025 Edible Garden Planner

 

Sunday, December 29, 2024

As this year closes and a new year begins, gardeners dream of the possibilities for their spring and summer gardens.  Big box stores have seeds in stock and all the seed starting supplies you need to get a jump on the spring season in January.  My biggest issue is paring down all the plants and edibles that look fun and fabulous to grow to what can actually fit in my small space garden and pots and is easy to manage.

Grow what you love!

The easiest way to fall in love with gardening is growing what you love to eat and look at.  There is nothing like strolling out to the garden to see what's ripe and tasty for dinner and gathering blooms to bring inside for the table vase.  If you have ever wanted to plant a kitchen garden, but weren’t sure if you had the space or skills, you may be surprised.

We grow all we need for fresh eating and putting away for the winter in our flower beds and pots.  Just mix in greens, herbs and veggies with your flowers and bushes.  Add edibles to your decorative pots.  It looks great, flowers attract beneficial insects for more veggie production, and is so easy to run out and get what you want to eat that day right outside your door.

If you aren't sure you can grow veggies, start with herbs.  Herbs thrive on neglect so are a great choice for dipping your toe into the edible gardening arena.  This is how I transitioned from a purely ornamental garden to integrating edibles into my flower beds.  A bonus is many herbs are perennials so only have to be planted once and come back year after year.  

Start a kitchen herb garden!  

Herbs come in all different sizes as well.  I love growing creeping thyme between stepping stones and around the perimeter of the garden.  Oregano and tarragon are taller and have a tendency to fill out a space so better for the back of the garden.  And there are many in between.  Pick herbs that you use a lot in cooking and use those in your flower bed as a start.

You can grow a lot in a small space

It is common for Italians and French to have a small kitchen garden where they grow herbs, greens and vegetables year round.  It is amazing the amount of food you can grow in a very small space!  How to decide what to plant for small spaces?

If you have only a 6’ x 6’ space, a Mediterranean kitchen garden could include the following:

Herbs (1 each)-thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and flat leaf parsley 

Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

3 basil plants (for pesto and seasoning)  

Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

2 tomatoes-1 small fruiting and 1 slicer type 

Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

2 sweet pepper plants  

Peppers are for every taste and garden

1 zucchini (look for “bush” types as they are more compact)  

Everything you need to know to grow squash

1 eggplant 

Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

8 red bunching onions 

Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em

8 garlic plants 

Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

Arugula, spinach and lettuce scatter sowed  

Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

For more details on a compact French garden:  Small space French kitchen garden

For an Italian garden:  Heirloom Sicilian kitchen garden  To entice the little ones, chose a theme like "Pizza or Spaghetti Garden".  For those that lose interest in waiting, plant crops that have something for little ones to snack on from spring through fall.  

Pizza garden for the kids

How to keep children interested in veggies and the edible garden

Use your patio to grow edibles with flowers 

If you also have room for pots on the patio, you can grow zucchini, eggplant, peppers and cucumber in pots  (only 1 plant in each pot) and add 3 bush or 6 pole bean plants in the garden bed or pot with a trellis for them to grow up. Look at the descriptor on the seed package to see which type the bean plant is.  Personally, I stick with the pole beans you eat whole as shelled beans you do not get as much food per plant, and less food per space in a small garden.  Pole beans produce all summer and fall.

Decorative container gardening for edibles

If you have more room, you can add almonds (yes, they survive Midwest winters), beets, chard, fennel, chickpeas, figs (grows well in a pot too), asparagus, cardoon, chicories, radicchio, endives, broccoli, cauliflower, or artichokes.  

If you are just beginning a garden, do start small!  You want the garden to be fun and relaxing, not overwhelming.  Don't be afraid to begin.  The force of life is strong and really doesn't need much from us.  Buy a few plants in the early spring and just put them in the ground in a sunny spot with a natural fertilizer and you will be amazed at how they just go to town all by themselves!

What crops give you the biggest bang for your time?

Vintage WW2 poster

For seed catalogues, the ones that have the best chance of thriving in your garden are the ones that do their trials in your area of the country.  The seeds and plants they carry are the ones that have performed the best for them in their trial gardens.  Baker Creek is fun because they specialize heirlooms and rare seeds from around the world and are here in the Midwest.  Territorial Seeds has a good summary in each section of growing tips and their seed farms are mainly in the Northwest.  I have had very good success with both.  I look for key words in the packet description that reflect our growing conditions here in the Midwest summers.  This year, I also ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange as they carry many varieties that can stand our summer heat and humidity.

My favorite catalogs are the ones that the links are on the right.  I have ordered from them all and been happy with their selection and how well the plants and seeds did.

After you have the list, pare it down to your space 

If you are like me, your list will be much longer than what you can grow in your space.  The hardest part for me is crossing off what I will NOT grow this season.  Split out what you want to grow by when they are producing in your garden, your cool season crops from your heat lovers.  If you start in early spring, you will want to plant the crops that grow well in cool temperatures like lettuce and spinach.  Spring edible garden  When all chance of frost has passed is when you will plant the heat lovers.  A summer edible garden  If you are just starting, start small and only try 2-3 of your favorites so you can easily care for them and learn about gardening.   

Here's how my garden fared in 2024, what I learned and my garden plan for 2024  Reflections on the 2024 edible garden and the 2025 plan  I ordered my seeds and plants for my 2025 garden and have updated my plan with the new varieties that I think I'm going to try.  My 2025 Edible Garden Plan  I'm sure my plan will continue to change slightly with how well my seeds come up and what looks enticing from the seeds I already have.

This year I am going to start onions from seeds which will need to get started this month.  I'll have more seed starting in February and then my biggest month for seeds is March.  For more on what you can start indoors and outdoors in January:  What to plant in the January 2024 edible garden

Still having trouble deciding?  Well, you have some time before the season starts.  Heck, you can procrastinate all the way to June..........  It is not too late to start a garden in June!  You can use this time to make your plan based on what you eat this winter.  Use this winter to figure out what to grow in the ...

For more on steps on putting in a garden: Easy ways to make a new vegetable garden bed  

Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds  Easy kitchen garden

My 2025 Edible Garden Plan

Saturday, December 28, 2024

It is that time of year as winter is setting in and the dreary days seem endless; the time to dream of warm weather, spring breezes, and green things sprouting once again.  Can't you almost smell the fresh cut grass and turned earth?  

Every gardener looks forward to the spring growing season.  In the fall, we reflect back on what went well, not so well, what we want to learn more about over the gardening lull in winter, and sketch out our thoughts on next year's garden plan.  Then comes the seed catalogs as winter moves in.  Time to go back to that fall garden plan and get ordering the seeds to make it happen!

Reflections on the 2024 edible garden and the 2025 plan

My garden consists of four parts: the perennials that come back year after year in the same spots and pots, the self-seeders that pop up in different spots, the stand by annuals I plant every year, and the new varieties I try each year.

 

Perennials

The perennials in my garden are herbs (thyme, tarragon, oregano, garden chives, garlic chives, spearmint, lemon balm, horseradish), the vegetables (Egyptian walking onions, sweet Egyptian walking onions, potato onions, shallots, garlic, asparagus, sorrel, rhubarb, the fruits (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, Aronia bush, goji berry), and the flowers (daylilies, peonies, hydrangeas, daffodils, hellebore, surprise lilies, gladiolas, coreopsis, hollyhocks.

 

Self-seeders

 There are some self-seeders I can count on and others that are a nice surprise.  The ones guaranteed to pop up are zinnias, amaranths (Love Lies Bleeding and Chinese Bicolor), Cocks comb, carrots, celery, chard, Giant Leaf mustard, my purple sprouting broccoli, Hummingbird vine, Morning glory, Red Malabar spinach, and Giant Blue Feather lettuce.  I will also get different varieties of other lettuces popping up here and there and usually Chinese Hilton cabbage.

 

Stand bys

Pole Beans-Blauhilde purple snap beans, 1500  Year Old snap or shelled beans, Christmas speckles lima beans, Purple or Red Chinese Noodle beans, Urizun Japanese winged beans.  All but the winged bean will be in the garden bed.

Okra-Red Burgundy (2)

Tomato plants (10) -Italian Pear paste, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Pear, Brandywine, an early variety and a fun one or two

Eggplant (3)-AO Daimura, Antigue or Rotanda Bianca or Rosa, Shiromaru or Amadea in pots

Cucumber (2) – bush varieties in garden bed

Summer squash-Trombetta since it is resistant to vine borer and squash bugs.

Winter squash (2) – Butternut from saved seed and a new one

Snow peas in pots with peppers and eggplants

Dragon Tail radish in pot by sprouting broccoli

Hilton Chinese cabbage (2 plants)

New Zealand in pot (1)

Lettuce (Royal Oakleaf, Grand Rapids, Butter King, Bronze Beauty, Yedikule, Red Sails and a couple new ones) and spinach in pots

Snow peas in pots with peppers and eggplants

Dragon Tail radish in pot by sprouting broccoli

Hilton Chinese cabbage (2 plants)

Greens that stay sweet in summer-Orach, New Zealand spinach in pot

Sweet and hot peppers-variety to make chili powder (3 plants), Jigsaw and Baklouti hot pepper plants, and 3 sweet pepper plants

Herbs-Dill, Basil (Nunum, Genovese, Cardinal), Cilantro, Lion's Ear, Rosemary, Parsley, Garden Sage, Chervil, Multicolor Sage, marjoram

Cantaloupe-Tigger melon

Flowers-zinnias, alyssum, marigolds, Cock's Comb, peach hollyhocks, blue morning glory, Love Lies Bleeding

 

New Ones

Greens-Purple Stardust Iceplant, Komatsuna, new lettuces (Marvel of Four Seasons, Hao Shan, Spotted Aleppo, Chadwick’s Rodan, Chinese Narrow Leaf?)

Onions-Australian Brown, New York Early, Rossa di Milano

Potatoes in the potato boxes - Yukon Gold, ones from saved seeds (yes, some potatoes actually develop seeds from their flowers)

Sweet potatoes-Purple, orange and white variety pack from Southern Exposure

Dwarf Tamarillo-small orange fruits

Giant Red celery

Pumpkin-Ayote Green Flesh for pies and bread

Melons-Maybe Prescott Fond Blanc, Kajari or Lemon Drop?

No watermelon, beets, heading cabbage or broccoli

 Vole repelling plants around the perimeter of all my beds

I will also need to thin my Hummingbird vines, Morning Glory vines, celery, Red Malabar spinach and Giant mustard plants out as they come up next year.

 

I have to be stern with myself about what I will not plant.  In the past 5 years, I planted much less than usual and had plenty for fresh eating and preserving.  My eyes are always bigger than my space or need!!