Text and photographs by Kevin West
Spring dawdled in 2020, with snow flurries the day before Mother’s Day and a frost on May 21. My Berkshires vegetable garden, which at summer peak is a riot of colors and flavors, looked hopeless. How could such little plants, nearly smothered by mulch, ever grow into a bountiful harvest? I fretted to my mother, a lifelong gardener who first taught me how to pick backyard cherry tomatoes at an age when I called them “tommy toes.” Don’t worry, she told me, saying, “a seed wants to grow. Nature wants to bring it forth.”
Of course she was right. By Memorial Day that year I had salad bowls full of lettuce and arugula. By July 4, there were new potatoes to eat with the last of the English peas. And August walloped me with bushels of tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. But I don’t believe I have a “green thumb.” Instead, I believe what my mother taught me: that many of our favorite backyard vegetables are robust plants, eager to grow, productive, and tolerant of less-than-perfect care. It’s reassuring for any home cook who wants to experiment with growing vegetables and herbs at home. A seed wants to grow.
My gardening philosophy is simple: sow flavor and gather meals. By selecting varieties with the most flavor—see my suggestions opposite—I get the most good eating out of the least garden work. Then, by following the old dictum that “what grows together, goes together,” I make a meal from whatever is ready to harvest that day: baby lettuce plus fresh tarragon leaves, or cherry tomatoes plus basil, or cucumbers plus dill. It couldn’t be simpler or more satisfying.
When you’re just getting going, start small. If you can set aside 10 minutes a day plus a half-hour on the weekend, you can cultivate a garden with lettuce, herbs, chard, and cherry tomatoes. Not enough to feed a family, perhaps, but enough to brighten many meals with your homegrown vegetables. And if the gardening bug gets you, you can always go big next year.
And So It Grows
For any cook tempted by the thought of brightening a meal with garden gems—or any parent who wants to see real-life proof that kids will eat what they grow—here are the basics. These simple guidelines will work with a raised bed, a container, or a small, in-ground patch.
1 SUN
Vegetables and herbs need as much sun as you can give them. Place your garden, bed, or container where it will receive eight hours a day of direct, unobstructed sunlight. Six hours at midday (9 a.m.–3 p.m.) will do. Plants will struggle with four hours or less.
2 SOIL
Good soil makes good flavor. There are many paths to gardening nirvana—rich, well-drained soil—and they all lead through the compost pile. When starting out, you can buy bagged compost wherever you buy seeds or plants. Mix it with equal parts native soil when refilling the hole around a transplant. Mulch with more compost. Use a two-inch layer for seedbeds, and fill your containers with it. For a mid-season fertilizer boost, scatter another inch of compost around the growing plants.
3 WATER
Most vegetables need the equivalent of one inch of rain per week. I water every three or four days unless there has been a good, soaking rain. Poke your fingertip into the ground: if the top inch of soil is dry, it needs water. Containers dry out more quickly; check daily.
4 TIME
A garden takes time in both senses of the phrase. Check your plants daily—give them a few minutes of your time—to make sure they are well watered and happy. But also be patient, because a garden needs enough time to grow at its own pace. Baby lettuce, arugula, and radishes can be ready to harvest in as little as three weeks after sprouting. Some types of corn and winter squash, however, need three months or more to mature.
Delicious Choices
Begin with herbs, which are easy to grow and available in spring as potted “starts.” Lettuce, arugula, and radishes are rewarding when sown from seeds. A half a dozen chard plants will keep you in cooking greens all season because as you harvest the larger outer leaves, inner leaves unfurl to replace them. And two cherry tomatoes, one red and the other yellow, will fruit continuously until frost. Here are recommendations for a flavor garden.
Herbs: Basil, cilantro, dill, chervil, chives, and tarragon are fragrant kitchen allies.
Radish: Red ‘Cherry Belle’ and pink ‘Lady Slipper’ are crisp and mild with peppery tops.
Lettuce: ‘Little Gem’ is a crowd pleaser, weedylooking wild arugula has spicy flavor, and frisée is subtly bitter.
Chard: The rare ‘Perpetual Spinach’ is mild and sweet, with ‘Silverado’ in second place.
Cherry Tomatoes: Yellow ‘Sungold’ tastes like tropical fruit and red “Sweet 100” is prolific.
