What's Grown in EC Grows Community Garden?
CARROT
Daucus carota sativus
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Width: 6-15 inches wide
Classic orange-root carrots have been joined by new varieties in a rainbow of colors, ranging from red to white, yellow, and purple. They also come in a variety of shapes, including small, almost round, very large, and more cylindrical.
Carrots are loaded with vitamin A and beta-carotene, both known as antioxidants and cancer fighters. Use carrots raw in salads, or explore their uses in Indian salads. The juice from carrots is the health-buff's staple. And they are, of course, fabulous in soups and stews or as a side dish. Cooking carrots makes the calcium in them more available, another nutritional bonus.
Harvest Tips: Begin pulling carrots as soon as they develop full color. This thinning process allows the remaining carrots to grow larger without becoming misshapen. For winter storage, wait to harvest until after the tops have been exposed to several frosts. The cold will increase their sweetness. You can also overwinter carrots in the ground by mulching them heavily with straw. Dig them throughout winter or in early spring before new growth starts.
Daucus carota sativus
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Width: 6-15 inches wide
Classic orange-root carrots have been joined by new varieties in a rainbow of colors, ranging from red to white, yellow, and purple. They also come in a variety of shapes, including small, almost round, very large, and more cylindrical.
Carrots are loaded with vitamin A and beta-carotene, both known as antioxidants and cancer fighters. Use carrots raw in salads, or explore their uses in Indian salads. The juice from carrots is the health-buff's staple. And they are, of course, fabulous in soups and stews or as a side dish. Cooking carrots makes the calcium in them more available, another nutritional bonus.
Harvest Tips: Begin pulling carrots as soon as they develop full color. This thinning process allows the remaining carrots to grow larger without becoming misshapen. For winter storage, wait to harvest until after the tops have been exposed to several frosts. The cold will increase their sweetness. You can also overwinter carrots in the ground by mulching them heavily with straw. Dig them throughout winter or in early spring before new growth starts.
CHARD
Beta vulgaris cicla
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: From 1 to 8 feet
Width: 10-30 inches wide
If you're tired of the same old vegetable side dishes, grow Swiss chard. You'll find dozens of different ways to serve it. The classic preparation is to lightly saute; it in olive oil and garlic. But also use its greens raw in salads. Or sliver the leaves and stems and add several handfuls to a pot of soup.
Swiss chard is an attractive plant, and the newer "rainbow" Swiss Chards available are very striking -- and still taste great. You can even include them in a flowerbed! Although flavor is best in cool weather, chard tolerates the heat of summer quite well.
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Beta vulgaris cicla
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: From 1 to 8 feet
Width: 10-30 inches wide
If you're tired of the same old vegetable side dishes, grow Swiss chard. You'll find dozens of different ways to serve it. The classic preparation is to lightly saute; it in olive oil and garlic. But also use its greens raw in salads. Or sliver the leaves and stems and add several handfuls to a pot of soup.
Swiss chard is an attractive plant, and the newer "rainbow" Swiss Chards available are very striking -- and still taste great. You can even include them in a flowerbed! Although flavor is best in cool weather, chard tolerates the heat of summer quite well.
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KALE
Brassica oleracea Acephala_ group
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: From 1 to 8 feet
Width: 12-36 inches wide
Kale is an excellent green vegetable for cold-weather cooking. It's best known as an attractive garnish, but the mild-flavor greens are also a highly nutritious addition to salads, stir-fries, steamed vegetable dishes, soups, and stews. Unlike so many other greens, they keep much of their shape even when cooked, adding texture to any dish.
Leaves may be blue-green, green, or burgundy in color, and ruffled, curly, deeply cut, or flat in form. Color and flavor improve with cool weather; plants can survive to 0 degrees F with protection.
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Brassica oleracea Acephala_ group
Light: Part Sun, Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: From 1 to 8 feet
Width: 12-36 inches wide
Kale is an excellent green vegetable for cold-weather cooking. It's best known as an attractive garnish, but the mild-flavor greens are also a highly nutritious addition to salads, stir-fries, steamed vegetable dishes, soups, and stews. Unlike so many other greens, they keep much of their shape even when cooked, adding texture to any dish.
Leaves may be blue-green, green, or burgundy in color, and ruffled, curly, deeply cut, or flat in form. Color and flavor improve with cool weather; plants can survive to 0 degrees F with protection.
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WATERMELON
Citrullus lanatus
Light: Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Width: 5-20 feet wide
Grow a summer feast! A single homegrown watermelon makes a refreshing hot-weather dessert or special snack for a crowd. And there's a vast array of different types of watermelon out there to grow, too. They may be round icebox types or oval picnic types. The flesh may be red, yellow, orange or pink, and the size ranges from a few pounds to nearly 200 pounds. Watermelons require heat to germinate and grow well. Wait until two weeks after your last frost date to sow seeds, or in short-season regions, start seeds indoors four weeks before the last frost date. Provide plenty of room for plants to sprawl, and keep them watered well to speed development.
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Citrullus lanatus
Light: Sun
Type: Vegetable
Height: 1 to 3 feet
Width: 5-20 feet wide
Grow a summer feast! A single homegrown watermelon makes a refreshing hot-weather dessert or special snack for a crowd. And there's a vast array of different types of watermelon out there to grow, too. They may be round icebox types or oval picnic types. The flesh may be red, yellow, orange or pink, and the size ranges from a few pounds to nearly 200 pounds. Watermelons require heat to germinate and grow well. Wait until two weeks after your last frost date to sow seeds, or in short-season regions, start seeds indoors four weeks before the last frost date. Provide plenty of room for plants to sprawl, and keep them watered well to speed development.
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