Greenhorn to Green Thumb: Grow your own veggies and make a beautiful salad to boot

There’s something almost magical about growing your own food. You plant, you harvest, you eat, using the nourishing soil of Mother Earth and your own skills. Of course, it’s not entirely simple; there’s a lot to learn about gardening, but that may only be the opinion of this greenhorn.

My neighbors have a fenced-in garden area, measuring about 30’ x 30’ with 16 rows for planting. This is the second year they’ve kindly let me loose in the garden plot to grow anything I want. Navigating the travails of getting things right has been quite a “growing” experience; one can learn about soil components and amendments, crop rotation, companion and succession planting, pest recognition and treatment, and you still never know how your harvest will turn out.

It all begins with the right type of soil, the right soil and air temperature and the right plants for the season; then, of course, the right amount of water is crucial. Tomatoes don’t like wet feet, you know! I use drip irrigation on an automated timer system, which does the job beautifully.

You’ve heard about people talking to their houseplants in the belief that it will help them grow. I’m the same way with my garden. I feel a bit like the vegetable whisperer when I see yellowed leaves or stunted plants. “Would you like some fertilizer today?” “How can I help you grow?” “You have beautiful leaves, but where are your blooms?” They say when you talk to your plants, they respond because of the carbon dioxide you exhale, which, of course, they take in. It must work; after all, would “they” lie?

There’s always more to learn about gardening. I’m regularly researching the Internet, reading gardening books, needling my friends who have gardens and going to the information desk at the local nursery with plastic bags of bugs and sick plant leaves needing identification and diagnosis. By the way, my “go-to” book for gardening information is the incredibly useful Back to Basics – A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills – recommended reading for aspiring green thumbs.

Then there’s folks like my father, Charlie, who now focuses on growing tomatoes. He simply pops the seeds in the ground, waters occasionally, adds some mulch, and then proceeds to harvest more than he can eat, with nary a complaint about blossom end rot or hornworms (things I have had to learn about the hard way.)

Between putting into practice what I’ve learned over the last year and getting some nice rains this spring for a change, my garden is coming along better this summer than last. The only real drawback is battling weeds, but I’ll conquer them, too. I’ve managed to produce about 30 tomato plants of all varieties, eggplant, peppers, melons, squash, several varieties of beans and peas, onions, radishes, basil, cucumbers and okra. The plants seem to relish the nearly 100 degree heat - much more than I do!

I can grow a lot of vegetables in 900 square feet, and although I don’t plant the entire area at once, I end up with enough seasonal vegetables to feed a whole football team at times. Thus, I am often seeking ways to use up excess vegetables, even after giving some away to my garden benefactors, neighbors and friends. I created this recipe after helping a catering friend with a large backyard buffet dinner in which he cooked nearly the entire meal at the outdoor kitchen, including a grilled corn salad. That salad inspired this recipe. Try it and enjoy!:

GRILLED CORN & GREEN BEAN SALAD

• 4 ears of corn
• ½ lb fresh green beans
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• ½ t ancho chili powder
• ½ yellow onion, grated or minced
• 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½ c chopped almonds or whole pine nuts

Pull corn husks down to stalk end. Remove silk. Replace husks and tie together with kitchen string. Soak in water for 30 min. Place on grill, medium-high heat, turning occasionally, for 20 minutes. Remove husks and let corn cool. Blanch beans in boiling, salted water for 3 minutes. Drain well.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut corn off the cobs. Add corn and green beans to sour cream mixture and stir. Serve cold or at room temperature.

(Photo credits to Scott Wilson)