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
I used to work in produce yet I've never heard of ramps before. Sounds fascinating. My chives are going gangbusters, too, and I've got the kale, chard and baby green lettuces started in little containers. Can't wait to stop buying greens at the market and pick them fresh from the garden.
ReplyDeleteThe keyhole garden sounds magical!
Ramps are a wild plant found in forests, and so they would not likely be in a supermarket. The nice thing is that our garlic is far from ready to harvest, and we can use the ramps now instead. You are right, picking things from the garden is definitely the way to be...!
ReplyDeleteWould I find ramps in my forest around here in Maine, do you think? I guess I can always google it! :)
ReplyDeleteI want to create an apple tree guild based on permaculture principles this year. I like this idea of a salad garden and had thought of doing keyhole design at the front of my house...I chose instead to install some more garden boxes for the time being simply because I didn't prepare the soil in the fall and I MUST have some fresh greens and whatnot growing this year. But perhaps I will convert the boxes into keyhole gardens in the fall, when I can build up some soil with the compost and fallen leaves, etc. I will go read your earlier blog now. Inspiring photos and blog!
ReplyDeleteKate - We haven't found them in woods, but they might be hard to find because they will blend in with other stuff, but good luck!
ReplyDeleteShelley - An apple guild sounds like a wonderful idea. It seems like your boxes will start converting sod to dirt over this summer(?) And yeah, fresh greens...!!!