Deb Denison is ready to start the 12-step program — 12 steps to vegetable gardening, that is.
Denison, a Lindenhurst resident, learned about the step system from Rory Klick Monday during an Earth Week presentation at the College of Lake County on edible landscaping, i.e., how to grow your own fruits and vegetables.
Klick, department chair for horticulture and sustainable agriculture at the college, told Denison and others wanting to get tips on edible landscapes that “it’s simple,” and you don’t need a lot of space. A couple of containers, a sunny spot in your back yard, some good soil and proper watering are all it takes.
“You can have just a few square feet and still grow your own food,” she said.
Klick added one sure way to get children to eat their veggies is to have them grow their own.
Denison said she and her husband bought a home with room for a large garden a few years ago, and she’s getting ready to plan her edible landscape this year. She’ll plant marigolds to attract bees that will pollinate the blossoms of vegetables like zucchini she’ll plant from seed, she said.
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The seminar on edible landscaping is one of several planned at CLC during Earth Week, which runs until Saturday. Denison also planned to attend a seminar on native landscaping later this week.
“I like what CLC does environmentally,” she said.
Klick said growing food in suburban yards “is going through a resurgence.”
It was popular during World War II, “but then we got disconnected from our food.”
Indeed, Klick has taught urban and suburban vegetable gardening programs for children, and the youngsters are often incredulous when they see her pull a carrot out of the ground that came from seeds they planted months before.
According to the Texas-based Masters of Horticulture, 43 million households in the U.S. had a food garden in 2009, an increase from previous years.
Step by step
Klick grew up on a farm in Scotland and has lived with her husband, Ken Klick, and their children in Lake County for more than 20 years. They grow vegetables and fruits — including tomatoes and green beans, which she said are actually fruits, not vegetables — and raise backyard chickens.
Her 12-step program includes choosing what to grow, picking the site, creating a plan, improving the soil, planting the crops, watering, mulching, weeding, monitoring for pests and disease, supporting with stakes if necessary, and, finally, harvesting and processing — which includes eating, cooking, giving it away or freezing, drying or canning it.
The selected space requires at least five to six hours of full sun every day, she said. That’s a problem for Corey Rudolph, a CLC biology student, who said he has lots of shade in his Lake Forest backyard. He’s solved the problem, though, but growing tomatoes in buckets that can be moved around to follow the sun.
He learned from Klick at the seminar, he said, that he can do some companion planting in his buckets, maybe adding some herbs or onions.
“I really liked her salsa garden idea,” Rudolph added, which means planting foods that go into homemade salsa, such as tomatoes, onions, herbs and hot peppers.
For those who have young children, Klick suggested growing unusually colored plants, like rainbow chard or green beans that are purple until they’re cooked.
After choosing the crops and the sunny spot, prepare the soil, which needs to have good drainage. Most soil in Lake County contains clay and will need an addition of compost to add nutrients and provide better drainage, she said. Klick creates her own compost in her yard.
Color your world
Her edible garden is filled with color and texture, she said. She might have mixed lettuce greens in a container, then invite her family to make their own salad with edible plants such as nasturtiums, which are orange. She’s grown various tomatoes in hanging baskets. And she’s planted onions and peas with squash. The peas get harvested early and are gone just in time for the squash to take over the spot.
“I did our first harvest of peas for Easter Sunday dinner this year,” she said.
Klick said the edible garden can be planted from seed or plants purchased at garden shops. Spinach, lettuce and carrots can easily be grown from seed, she said.
It’s time to start planting spinach, lettuce, broccoli and peas now during the cooler weather, she said. But don’t plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumber or squash until after the last frost, which typically arrives around May 15, Klick said.
Water less often and more deeply and add mulch such as shredded wood or pine needles to keep out the weeds, she said. Monitor the plants for pests and choose the least toxic method first, Klick said. Dish soap and water can be sprayed on aphids, for example, or hornworms can be picked off the plants by hand. Indeed, Klick said she’s enlisted neighborhood children to get rid of her hornworms, paying them for their work.
Klick said she and her family enjoy harvesting and eating their garden — but sometimes they do end up with more than they need. In that case, she invites children from the neighborhood to make some salsa from items in her garden, or she gives produce away to neighbors and the Avon Township Food Pantry.
“Growing your own food is fun,” Klick said. “It’s easy. It’s good for you and it’s good for the planet.”
At the end of the session, Denison said, “This seminar really got me going. I got so much great information.
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With the sun shining on a 68-degree day, Denison headed home to plan what to grow, where to grow it and which new herbs she will plant in her edible back yard this season.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.