Trying new plants, just because you can

I think for a lot of people, their gardening trajectory starts with houseplants, then moves to edibles when you finally get a yard or a balcony, then outdoor ornamental plants, and finally overwintering tender plants in your living room and trying to convince your spouse to turn the garage into a greenhouse. 

That pothos from the grocery store is a slippery slope is what I'm saying.

I’ve had that Philodendron ‘Goldinia’ for 20 years?

 
One of the things I love most about gardening is how you can move between interests and it all ultimately makes sense because it’s the same end goal: you want to grow things and maybe learn something new in the process. Maybe the things are indoors, maybe they are edible. Maybe they save you money or maybe they scratch the itch to do hard things. Maybe you can’t help yourself. They’re all viable reasons to send money to a stranger so you can get something that might not survive in return.

As our garden has evolved I've prioritized ornamental plants over edible ones, though I still grow a lot of herbs in pots, because I like to cook. I picked up Crocus sativus last year from Illahe Rare Plants, after listening to Mark Akimoff talk at the HPSO Fall Plantfest. He’s a great speaker.

Crocus sativus in my sage pot.

I didn't do anything with the stigmas last year, mostly because you have to act fast when you see them out, and I move slowly when I’m sad about the state of the world. I wanted to harvest them this year, and luckily this handy guide appeared in my inbox from Mark's mailing list:

Drying is tricky and I’m sure some scientific method of exacting standards is laid out somewhere in google land. I do what I can with what I have and here is my method: open the oven so that the door is set ajar by several inches, the temp is raised to the lowest setting possible which on my oven is 170' deg F. the stigmas spread on the parchment lined cookie sheet to not touch each other as much as possible are occasionally shifted through shaking the sheet and the whole process usually takes less than 20 minutes until they are dry to the touch and almost crispy.

It's been sort of a silly affair, sometimes harvesting two or three blooms at a time, but it takes very little time to pop them in a warmish oven and dry them. It's been sort of a fun distraction, and it makes me feel responsible, especially when grocery prices are all over the place. What if we called today a success because we harvested nine stigmas of saffron? Mediocre men are frankly doing less.

 Now I have a tiny supply of saffron! I think the technical amount would be a "goodly pinch."
 

That’s like, $20 worth of saffron, right?

As far as growing notes, I have them in a wine barrel planter with my sage and they get watered maybe once a month during the summer. As soon as the rain starts again they break dormancy and everything moves very quickly. Mark advises planting them 6-8" deep in well draining soil. He doesn't give his any summer water. Harvesting can start as early as September or end as late as December. I harvested this goodly pinch over a two-week period.

Illahe grows an impressive array of tough little alpine plants that survive harsh conditions, should you find yourself in need of horticultural inspiration.

If you have any recommended recipes using saffron, drop them in the comments!

It's a Christmas miracle!

Somehow my Zea mays 'Variegata' that I got for purely ornamental value has self-pollinated. We have an ear of corn developing.

It almost makes up for the fact that right after I bragged about how good our veggie garden was looking, all the lettuce bolted, the cabbages were attacked by aphids, and the chard wilted. Before pride goeth a fall . . . but then after the fall there's corn! One ear of corn! Hallelujah!

The edible garden

When I tell people of my age and station in life that I garden, they always assume I mean food production. They seem so disappointed that I don't grow a lot of food and that I get more excited by flowers or grasses. Don't I know I could be canning? Raising chickens? Making my own artisanal chutneys or whatever?

We have these two small raised beds for edibles. I love to cook and I've been known to make my own mustard and ketchup (so delicious) but I prefer ornamentals because I hate harvesting. I would rather weed my lawn than pick strawberries. I don't know why. Thank goodness for Greg. He doesn't mind harvesting and it's a pretty good way for him to blow off steam if he's had a frustrating day at work.

A lot of our edible garden is frankly ornamental this year. Cabbages we probably won't eat (though I love cabbage and all its relatives), amaranth we'll never consume in any way, and one stalk of variegated corn in the middle. It's just pretty.

So what do we eat? A lot of lettuces. If you are a man in my life please know that I'm actively worrying about how much you poop. I want you to eat more salad (and quit smoking already). I'm firmly in the camp that believes half your dinner plate should contain veggies and we eat enormous salads every night.

The worst part of growing your own lettuce is that those pre-washed bags of lettuces taste terrible forever afterward. And once you start making your own dressing? You'll gag if someone tries to give you that crap out of a bottle. I am not a food snob except when it comes to vegetables (though I love those crappy salad bars with the iceberg lettuce and the thousand island dressing and the pickled beets). So we're growing a lot of lettuce and it never goes to waste. (LeAnn gave me the tip stuff my sink with as much lettuce as will fit and let it have a good soak in salt water to kill all the slug and crawlies. Then it all gets washed and spun in batches in the salad spinner.)

Weaving in and out of everything are strawberries. In the lower bed are my strawberries: 'Hood.' In the upper bed are Greg's strawberries: 'Albion.' Hoods are sweeter and better but Greg still claims that he likes his better.

Our rhubarb is happy and getting too large for the tiny corner I gave it. We also grow kale and chard, a winter staple at our house (this kale salad will change your life). 

In the area where we pulled out the tree stump I put in three blueberries ('Sunshine Blue').

I'm very interested in growing this thornless blackberry, possibly at the new entrance to the gravel garden. Has anyone grown these? They claim you get 10-20 gallons of fruit per plant. !!!

I'm trying to be good about rotating my tomatoes, so this year they're getting set up in the gravel garden. I refuse to buy $8 tomatoes so we wait all year to eat the ones from our garden. In August and September we grill bread and eat bruschetta every night. It's also one reason we grow so much basil; I've got five kinds this year.


The other reason to grow basil is my favorite dressing, adapted from LeAnn's recipe.

About half a cup of unflavored Greek yogurt (I like Fage's full fat version)
The juice of one lime
1-2 T of white balsamic vinegar
half a shallot
one bunch of cilantro
one bunch of basil
Olive oil
a smidge of honey if you need it.

Whirl the first six ingredients in a food processor, streaming the olive oil in until it reaches the consistency you like. Taste and adjust with honey if it's too tart. When we use basil from the garden we don't need honey but the stuff from the store usually isn't as sweet.

It's totally adjustable to your tastes: swap garlic or red onion for shallot or whatever herbs you have on hand for basil and cilantro or red wine vinegar for white balsamic. It's good.

I completely blanked on planting cucumbers this year. Greg loves them and I love making pickles. How will people know we're from Portland if we don't make our own pickles from cucumbers we grew? Are you growing any good edibles this year?