Category Archives: Operation Kitchen Garden

Operation Kitchen Garden, season two begins ….

If Deb Legge’s garden were a definition in an encyclopedia, it would be listed under the meaning of “succession planting.”

Succession planting is when you design systems for planting that make optimum use of space and productivity for the crops.

Deb has been growing food and flowers for a really long time and has a well-designed space – and beautiful plants – and believes that it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Everything flows so naturally in her garden. You just know that she knows what she is doing.

When Deb moved into her current Connecticut house 18 years ago, she brought a garden with her.

I wish I had a helicopter to hover over her garden to get a photograph from above because that would be the only way to really, truly convey how efficiently she has used her home’s 1/5 of an acre – or 50’ X 150’ – of outdoor space.

The garden horseshoes her house, with the largest area in the back.

Deb has a beautiful greenhouse, amazing planting space, a birdbath, chicken coup, shed with living room furniture, outdoor hammock, bench, five water barrels (she uses four), numerous watering cans, hoses, composting, plants in the ground and in pots waiting to be planted…. and on and on.

She makes it look both easy and amazingly, impressively intricate.

One of the things I enjoyed most was how the gardening seemed second nature to Deb. Like, to her, it was no big deal.

Something she mentioned which really resonated for me is the idea that if you are going to pay for landscaping why not grow food.

Do you remember when people had gardeners? I think having a crew come in once a week or so to mow your lawn and blow your leaves is really not the same.

In another blog I might explore the impact leaf blowers and gas powered lawn mowers have on our environment. (I have already blog-ranted about them!) And don’t get me started on the use of chemicals on lawns!

Speaking of which, though, Deb does not use any chemicals on her garden. She told me some interesting trivia about this topic….

Here, I will share it with you, of course!

When I asked Deb what she put on her lawn and plants she said that she uses  clover seed.

As you might know, clover is a weed which is very healthy for our lawns and other foliage. Actually, I read recently that some people do not consider clover to be a weed – but a lot of people do consider it to be very healthy for pastures, fields, gardens and lawns.

Deb told me that clover used to be in lawn seed mixes until the 60’s, when pesticide companies began their vilification of weeds.

“They’ve done a great job,” said Deb, of the pesticide companies’ smear campaign.

I personally have found that people who are really into gardening typically know that clover is good for lawns though – in spite of what anyone says.

Does Deb have weeds in her garden?

A few.

<gasp!>

“But, it’s not bad,” she said.

<phew!>

Deb used to be a landscaper. But she gave it up when she got involved with CT NOFA (the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.)

She has been their office manager for five years now – but she still does take care of one property in North Haven – and her own, of course.

I really enjoyed seeing the fruits – and veggies – and herbs – of her labor.

Her years of landscaping and natural lawn care practice have resulted in her knowing when to plant what; how to take care of the plants; which plants should go where to best suit their needs; how to rotate “crops;” and — how to be self-sustaining with her garden.

And, that’s all it really takes to learn these things – time. And it produces dividends of satisfaction and healthy living (the two go together nicely, don’tcha think, like a horse and carriage).

Deb makes her own compost, rotating containers – alternating the three bins year-to-year. She collects water in her water barrels and uses that for her greenhouse and wherever else in the garden it is needed.

Deb insists that she doesn’t do anything fancy. And, I think it is all pretty down-to-earth but her garden is definitely designed – very well.

I don’t want people ever to look at the blogs I do about gardens and think it looks too hard for them. The reason I am doing this is to inspire people. And, one really amazing thing I have learned is that there are a lot of gardeners who want to inspire others as well.

A garden does not have to be fancy or intricate to work. But, it is one area where we can definitely learn from one another.

Here are some of the tidbits I picked up during my visit to Deb’s garden —

1. She typically starts her vegetables in her unheated greenhouse in March.

2. She has lettuce until December and then again in February (it really is a hearty plant that likes the cooler temps!)

3. Hazelnuts are apparently the one nut that grows well in Connecticut. Deb said that they take three years to establish themselves but then they do well. She is testing out this theory as we speak.

4. Blackberries do well in Connecticut, but you have to be careful they do not take over your garden. And, they are a fruit that you can grow organically in Connecticut, too.

5. Deb stores berries for the winter by freezing them flat on a tray, then putting them in a bag and in the freezer.

6. She doesn’t do anything fancy for her composting. “I fill ‘em up, let them rot.” Just the way composting is intended!

7. With succession planting, there is always something in Deb’s garden.

8. She pulls her garlic up in July, but cuts the scapes off earlier, after a week or two, before they flower. That way the energy/growth goes towards the bulb instead of the flower – and the bulb grows bigger than if the scapes remained.

9. She does her freezing, canning and dehydrating in late summer/early fall.

10. Deb’s husband is an IT guy with Sikorsky (Aircraft) but is also a photographer.

11. She makes sure her water barrels are emptied before the mosquitoes can take up residency, about four days, she said.

12. Her shed with the living room furniture, the “sage garden,” is her “favorite place to read.”

13. Deb has lived in New England her whole life – she was born in Rhode Island, grew up in Massachusetts and has been in Connecticut for 30 years. Growing up, she spent summers in New Hampshire with her grandparents and lived in Maine in her early 20’s. The only New England state she has not lived in is Vermont.

14. She got her three chickens from an ad on craigslist and they lay 2 to 3 eggs a day.

15. The work that CT NOFA does has become more important with time. They work hard for an increase in the number of farmers in the state and to encourage their sustainability.

CT NOFA has an organic lawn care accreditation program that looks pretty amazing!

Gardening helps create a sustainable food system.

Welcome to the second season of Operation Kitchen Garden. Here are a few thoughts reprinted from my very first blog for the project after going to a garden, about why I am doing it:

“We have been stuck in artificiality. There is nothing really genuine about the way food has been presented to us in recent years. And I believe that being involved in growing at least some of our own food returns us to an understanding we have known all along. A knowing that has been clouded over. Something that has been inside of us but we have not been manifesting in our daily lives.

I believe that on an intuitive level we have a primal impulse to be involved in our food.

Becoming connected again makes us stronger in mind and spirit because we actualize what we know on that intuitive level.”

I am gearing up to begin again with Operation Kitchen Garden!

Last summer, some storms (uh, remember Tropical Storm Irene?) cut short my visits to kitchen gardens in the area… so I am excited to get back into it this year.

Any size garden, or even just a pot of herbs or tomatoes, any effort to connect with your food source works for me.

If you grow some of your own food and would like to inspire others to do the same, please email me at info @ aspetuckmedia . com (no spaces)

I hope to hear from you!!

Betty (facing the camera) and Martin.

“Hello, my name is Betty. That black pug behind me is my sidekick, Martin. He’s new to this house we share with the two humans in Connecticut so I’m trying to show him the ropes.

We like living here, chasing after deer and barking at whatever we please. It’s summer right now and the living is easy. We spend our days laying around, going for walks and being adorable. It’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it.

This year, our human pets, Mark Jude Poirier and Ed Cahill, got a few tomato plants to grow. They replaced some of the flowers on the deck with the plants.

Tomato plants.

According to Mark – who loves tomatoes – the ones you get in a store are ‘mealy and bland, not good’ and so it made sense to try and grow them ourselves.

When I say ‘ourselves’ I do mean the humans. Martin and I have enough to do with keeping an eye out for deer.

Ed brought the tomato plants home when they were just tiny babies. It was all Martin and I could do to keep from being totally gleeful. We just wished they weren’t so out of our reach.

Tomato plants on the deck. Betty in the shade.

They’re near the glass door from the kitchen area so the humans can see when they’re ready to be picked. Typically, Martin and I know before the humans. See, we are better in touch with all our senses and just know.

Mark and Ed think they’re so clever putting the plants up on the deck ‘away from the deer’ (as if that could keep them away.) What they don’t know is the deer are too scared of my protégé, Martin, and me to venture that close. They know we could take them. No problem.

Some people believe that the scent of a male dog keeps deer away. So maybe it’s just that Martin is earning his keep.

Mark's hand.

Mark, our vegetarian (can you believe that humans are still doing that), likes to make Fakin’ bacon BLTs with the tomatoes. He hasn’t had real bacon since 1990 and I have no idea how he survives. But he is loving the tomatoes on his faux meat sandwiches.

One day when Mark and Ed were moving the tomato plants a few green tomatoes fell off. Mark put them in a paper bag with a ripe red apple. And it ripened the tomatoes. That was a cool trick!

He commented that they were not as good as the ones that ripen on the branch but still worlds better than anything you get at the supermarket. I’m not sure why anyone goes to a store. We never have.  Food just seems to magically appear in our dishes a few times a day. Humans!

The herbs the humans grow.

A lady came by a couple of days ago to interview Mark for her blog about the tomato plants and herbs Ed and him grow. Mark was pretty well-spoken, for a human, and I think she took a bunch of pictures.

At first Martin and I thought she was going to ask him about the new movie he has coming out in 2012.  It’s called “Goats.” Our human, Mark, wrote the screenplay. He adapted it from his book of the same name. My partner in pugship and I went to the set of the film with Mark and we thought the director and cast were doing great. And I developed a bit of a crush on Ty Burrell.

If I’m being honest, I have had a crush on him ever since I noticed him on ‘Modern Family.’

Mango smoothies, hold the tomatoes.

So, anyway, this lady journalist wanted to write about the tomato plants and herbs that Mark and Ed have on our porch. Not television or movies. I recognized her from other visits. I think Martin and her watch television together sometimes when I take my naps.

She told Mark that every little bit counts in terms of growing some of your own food. That the tomato plants and herbs are a great step in a good direction. Mark and her drank mango smoothies and talked for a really long time about all sorts of things. Martin and I stopped listening after a while.

Well, I gotta go and see what Martin and the humans are up to now….”

Each time I do something related to Operation Kitchen Garden it is a really positive experience … and my visit to Kit Briner’s garden was no exception.

The reason I use the word “kinship” in the title of this blog is because of the ties that bind Kit to his family through his garden.

In particular, are stories surrounding his day lilies and the edible weeds he introduced me to during my visit.

Let’s start with the day lilies. This is such a great story.

Kit’s father lived in Indiana and part of what he grew (and apparently he had a very green thumb) was day lilies. Kit decided to bring some of his father’s flowers back to Connecticut to plant in his own garden.

He made a few trips, transporting the hearty plants in boxes by car and by plane.

In March, 1998, Kit brought back a unique type of day lily that blooms twice a year.

That year, Kit’s father passed away three months later on Father’s Day. And the transplanted day lilies chose that same day (an unusual time of year for them) to have blossoms.

Since then, Kit has found that they blossom during significant events at odd times. When something big happens in Kit’s life, chances are the unique day lilies that were transplanted from his father’s garden in Indiana will bloom. By the way, they also bloomed on Father’s Day this year.

Another tidbit about Kit’s connection to his father through gardening has to do with edible weeds.

I have been contending for a while now that weeds get a bad rep. We need weeds. Some of them are very important for honeybees and others, apparently – as Kit has taught me – are edible.

According to Kit, purslane is the bane of every gardener’s existence, but also a succulent treat.

In fact, I did some Googling of the green and found that there are recipes for and fans of purslane. We are lucky that something considered so high in nutrients grows wild for our enjoyment.

Actually, according to Kit, his father had a strong disdain for the weed until Kit pointed out that you can eat it. After that, it became one of his favorite foods.

I got a taste at Kit’s garden and thought it was delicious!

Other edible weeds include -

Wild Sorrel
Goosefoot

Kit's granddaughter, Annabelle, gifted the garden with this caterpillar.

Kit also mentioned to me that clover is a gardener’s friend and full of nutrients for the ground and other plants. In particular, because it is rich in nitrogen, which helps things grow.

The weeds attracting honeybees encourage cross pollination of plants, which is a good thing for your garden.

Edible and nutritious weeds can also crowd out the harmful ones and discourage growth of things like mold.

And I actually think many of them are soft and cushiony for walking.

Here are some more photos – and a few thoughts – from Kit’s garden … sit back and enjoy …

Below, the wide shot of the garden … Standing there since the ’90s, Kit chose the spot, built the approximately 22′ X 22′ structure and then brought in some top soil to improve the quality of the land.

I like that Kit made parts of the sides of his garden into trellis’ for his vegetables…..

Baby cucumber ….

Kit says that cucumbers start losing their flavor as soon as they are picked. So, he likes to keep them close by to pick when he’s ready to eat!

And here are some tomatillos on the fence ….

It’s time for your close-up, little tomatillo ….

Kit peruses ….

Another view from the inside ….

Kit loves tomatoes and has many types in his garden.  He grows red, yellow and an “extremely sweet grape type.”

He believes that the best way to eat them is fresh and so he grows his own.

Another component of Kit’s food (he’s a vegetarian, by the way) is lettuce. He was on his second planting of the (long lettuce) season when I was there last week. He plants them to be shaded by the day lilies ….

Let’s take a look around Kit and his wife, Geri’s, yard…. Their self-built stone path encircles their home.

One last look back ….

How nice to have a pond!

And two tiny baby flamingos?

Kit keeping an eye on those feisty young flamingos from the safety of his self-built deck ….

Good signage ….

Peaceful setting ….

I like the bridge and stone walls. Very New Englandy (I just made up that word.) ….

Cheerful chimes ….

…. And a nice place to sit in the shade and visit ….

Thanks for sharing your garden with my blog, Kit!

One of the things which really struck me during my visit with Kiko Teed last week was how much she likes to be outdoors. She told me she needs to feel the outside air on her face each and every day, no matter how hot or cold it is that day.

Kiko and canine family member present their herb and greens garden.

In the summer, she will roam her gardens and pull out weeds without even thinking about it. To her, the gardens and chickens and being outside is a lifestyle. Or, perhaps, second nature.

It was really great visiting her as my first stop for Operation Kitchen Garden. I saw in her characteristics that I imagine will be common threads – to one degree or another – among my other victims….er, subjects … in this exploration I am doing.

There is a self-sustaining attitude, or theme, that is present in Kiko’s life.

I initially met her about three or four years ago when I was writing for the local newspaper and doing stories on issues like getting better food into the schools and recyclable plates for children’s parties at school. She went above and beyond trying to make a difference for her kids and the other children.

To her, it was not about filling time or fitting in. It was just who she is. Someone who cares about the planet – because she has always lived connected to her environment.

A firepit to gather round in the outdoor living room. In winter, Kiko maintains an ice rink in her backyard.

During my visit, we mused about this past – brutal – winter. And how we were both out there shoveling snow and prowling about as much as we could. She was even up on her roof getting rid of the massive amounts of snow.

I could totally relate to her feeling of accomplishment and remember how it made me feel like a pioneer woman when I used the pool skimmer to move snow off the mansard part of my roof.

But now it is summer and Kiko’s outside space is even more of a fun zone…

I loved how much there is to do in Kiko’s yard. She has a trampoline, tree house, two gardens, blueberry bushes frame the sides of the path leading to her front door, there’s a chicken coop, three dogs, and a fire pit (I now need to have one of those).

The other thing which got a visceral response from me at her house was the way that Kiko reminded me that food is not just a commodity. It is not just something we exchange money for and it is a way to nurture.

Another one of Kiko's gardens.

One of the best parts of growing food is giving it away. I know this will sound corny, but that’s kind of like love. Don’t they say that love isn’t love until you give it away.

Nothing is more nurturing than good, healthy food. It can build bonds. Eating together is a deeply-engrained part of our society. A way to be sure to connect with one another.

Kiko growing the food her family likes most. But, then, maybe some of her food-growing neighbors and friends like to grow other food. She will swap with them. And that is a really nice way to interact with the people around you.

It brings the world together in your own backyard.

Keep going for some more photos I took and quotes and inspiration from Kiko and daughter, Caroline, 9….

“Gardening *is* hard work but I think it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do, on a primal level. … It’s a lifestyle thing. If you’re not passionate about it I don’t think it’s going to last very long.” ~ Kiko

Kiko spent a lot of time planning her garden. She watches the area where she wants to plant to see where exactly gets the most sun.

Young blueberry bushes.

Kiko grew up with a vegetable garden, but also with chickens, “so feeding them every day in winter is just something I do.”

Her family has fresh eggs all-year-long!

When Kiko put up the fencing for her gardens she also lay some on the ground – about two feet out – with staples. This keeps the burrowing animals out (I almost typed “borrowing” ha!).

Grass has now grown to cover the fencing that Kiko laid on the ground but it still keeps the animals from digging.

Here is Kiko showing my blog readers what the staples she used look like…

There are three canine members of Kiko’s family. Here, one found a nice, shady spot on a hot summer’s day….

While, of course, there is always time to play …

Kiko has a place to relax in the shade among her vegetables …

But there is no rest for the mind of this gardener. She is always trying to improve things. “To figure out ways to be more efficient. It’s like a puzzle.”

The puzzle includes string beans, snow peas, tomatoes, asparagus, squash, blueberries, raspberries, wineberries, strawberries, herbs and lettuce – and she was growing the lettuce last season until late in the year.

“We were eating lettuce until mid-December,” she remembers.

Kiko covered her lettuce with a dome and the crop required very little else to remain hearty in the cold.

“If you stuck your hand inside the little tent you could feel the heat the plants were generating.”

It also contained moisture so there was very little watering necessary.

Following in her mom’s footsteps is daughter, Caroline. She is out there picking raspberries twice a day.

“Once I had a whole shirtful of raspberries,” reports Caroline.

Caroline with a bounty of raspberries!

The hardest part, she says, is keeping away the Japanese beetles, dogs and chickens.

But, there are many advantages of growing your own food, according to the young gardener.

“You don’t have to go to the store and waste money to buy food. All I have to do is go outside and get food.”

And, there’s more…

“Another good reason [to have a garden] is you can just invite your friends over to pick food to take home with them.”

And on that note, I will leave you with some more images of the food Kiko and her family are growing….

Caroline and twin brother, Carson, with their raspberry plants ….

The season’s first cucumber! …

Kiko’s husband, Geoff, makes the dirt each year for the raised beds. Here is this year’s string bean crop …

Summer is being very generous with its bounty this year. And so is Kiko. She gave me a giant zucchini and let me pick some string beans and snow peas to take with me. Thanks for a great visit, Kiko!!

Today I went on my first visit to a home vegetable and fruit garden as part of Operation Kitchen Garden.

It was really fun and I can’t wait to share Kiko Teed’s story. I will have it posted in the next couple of days.  She is right up there in the self-sustaining category. And I have always  liked her as a person, too.

Kiko and her wineberries.

A couple of thoughts on why it is important to look at growing some of our own food as part of a move back towards a simpler and healthier way of living.

If you are reading this blog you probably already understand that farms are important. And that’s great. But they are not the entire picture. It is not just the small, family farms that matter (although they do matter a lot) … it’s a whole way of living and thinking about the world around us.

We have been stuck in artificiality. There is nothing really genuine about the way food has been presented to us in recent years. And I believe that being involved in growing at least some of our own food returns us to an understanding we have known all along. A knowing that has been clouded over. Something that has been inside of us but we have not been manifesting in our daily lives.

I believe that on an intuitive level we have a primal impulse to be involved in our food.

Becoming connected again makes us stronger in mind and spirit because we actualize what we know on that intuitive level.

I am looking forward to sharing the stories of the people I visit during Operation Kitchen Garden!