By Wayne McLaurin
Georgia Extension Service
Volume XXVII |
Consider building your next garden around what you eat. Kitchen gardens are an old idea that deserve a second look. They enable you to enjoy meals with a gourmet taste at homegrown prices.
Plant a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers to stimulate your taste buds and enhance your favorite recipes. Design the garden outside your kitchen door or in several large containers.
One idea is an Italian kitchen garden. Vegetables to grow could include sprouting broccoli, zucchini squash, peppers, eggplant, Romano pole beans, fava or cannellini beans, fennel, and paste or Roma-type drying tomatoes.
Herbs could include basil, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, chives, mint, summer savory, thyme and sage.
Gourmet greens such as arugula, radicchio, romaine lettuce and cutting chicory will add robust flavors to your salads. Include your favorite edible flowers, too, such as nasturtium, pansy, borage, lavender or chive.
This garden can be done for many countries. But Melanzane spaccatelle (baked eggplant) can come only from an Italian garden.
Sorry, but real spaghetti doesn't grow on plants regardless of the existence of spaghetti trees. However, spaghetti squash might be a real addition to the garden.
