Last fall I wrote about starting a new garden. This is a permaculture-inspired keyhole garden designed for picking ingredients for salads.
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| Chives and Upland Cress |
It’s coming up chives. And perennial onions, lovage, and upland cress. And some cilantro. Around the edges some giant red mustard are starting up. Perennials and reseeding annuals will anchor this garden. Things we won’t have to plant every year.
Gil has put in seeds for lettuces, arugula, epazote, cilantro, and root parsley, increasing the diversity.
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| Cilantro and Chives |
I'm thinking of moving some ramps in too. Ramps are wild garlic. Years ago I planted a garlic clove from the supermarket. It grew, but as a spindly, single tiny bulb, not cloves. The plant went to seed and more bulbs grew, and the clump spread a little more every year. I was told it was no good as garlic. I ignored both the advice and the clump. Now, I find in places like Bon Appetite magazine recipes calling for ramps. Isn’t that funny. So I think I will move some into the salad garden.
The little keyhole garden makes me happy. Not just that it is bordered on two sides by roses and peonies, but also that I like to walk into it. And then out of it on the same pathway. It will be fun to pick salads here this summer. What a clever idea it is. Really quite the place already. It’s growing on me. -jmm
