So we’re in the thick of the quarantine, where all across the country (and the world), we try to shop as little as possible and limit social interactions to people we live with. I’d like to remind everyone that the quarantine does not mean locking ourselves indoors. In fact, sunshine, walking and gardening have been my saving grace in this time.

One of these days, when our local supermarket ran out of greens (one day, all they had was iceberg lettuce), I realized that I have many in my garden that are popping up ~ I’ve either planted them or they’ve overwintered from last fall, or they’re perennials. I’m also reminded that this very simple act of growing your own food as a means of self-reliance started back during World War I with Victory Gardens. It’s inspiring to think that growing food in a difficult time can help lift our spirits as well as do something practical to help feed ourselves. It’s especially helped me get a variety of foods from the garden (kale, arugula, cilantro, sorrel, parsley) as an option vs. iceberg, which I can tolerate but isn’t my favorite for sure.

There’s nothing more amazing than picking radishes a few weeks after you’ve planted them, seeing spinach grow their second set of leaves, or seeing your relentless kale give and give and give. It’s a true blessing. So here, I hope to show you how easy it is to simply create a back up system, where you an start growing your own food. Not only is it a fun hobby, it’s easy, and it’s something that you may continue to do, after the quarantine is lifted.

How To Get Started

You can use a pre-established garden if you have one, or dig up some sod, add in some compost, and get to work. Buckets with holes drilled underneath and other containers are just fine also. Just purchase compost and organic dirt that is meant for growing veggies, give them sun, water, and you’re good to go.

Here’s a quick summary of this article:

Free pop ups: dandelions and violets

Overwintered plants: kale, cilantro, parsley

Quick to grow now: spinach, radishes, lettuce, arugula

More advanced crops: kohlrabi and carrots

Perennials: all herbs, asparagus, herbs, berries

My favorite crop: peas

A crop for late spring: beans

SO here we go. Here’s what’s growing in our garden:

The plants that pop up just because

Beautiful violets and dandelions pop up on their own and are free food! Violet flowers (below are two colors) are edible and delicious, provided they’re not growing somewhere where there is loads of traffic and exhaust to pollute them. Same goes for dandelions. Dandelion flower and leaves are edible, and I love adding the flowers to salads or just munching (have you seen the youtube videos of bunnies eating dandelions?)

The plants that overwintered:

The kale overwintered nicely from last fall. In fact, it loves cooler months and even weathers a snow or two. The flowers are also edible and make great garnishes, or just simply throw them in salads. The flowers eventually become seeds, so I cut them off to help the plant produce more leaves instead. Here’s a bouquet of the flowers.

Cilantro (first below) also overwintered well, and is delicious in guacamole, salsa, baked beans, tacos, anything you can think of. Parsley (second below) is a biannual which means it comes back a second year, but not past that point. Both are loaded with vitamins and add SO much flavor. I have little parsley bunches all over the garden, about 10 of them, and I just pick the big stems first and allow the smaller ones to grow. For the cilantro, I pick about 3/4 of it, and then the rest of it I leave to become flowers and seeds so I can grow it again in the fall.

Quick and easy things to grow:

Radishes, spinach and lettuce are great things to grow quickly. Radishes are probably in my two two favorite crops to grow. I personally sow about 3 in a bundle, every inch. Spinach, you can grow in rows and allow maybe 2 seeds per inch. I’m not terribly mathematical about it, honestly. I just put a bunch of seeds in my hand and spinkle as I go. Always label your rows if you can, since you may forget what you sow and where. I’ve done it before, where I sowed cilantro and broccoli rabe in the same spot! Not a biggie, but I could have been a bit more organized.

I personally sow arugula densely, but you can decide to sow it in rows. These aren’t as fast growing as radishes or spinach, but they will be harvested hopefully before summer hits. In the summer, it typically bolts into flowers (which are also edible), which then become seed pods. Save those seeds for the fall, when you can plant them again.

A more advanced crop:

If you’re feeling adventurous, kohlrabi takes a little more work but is a fun crop. They typically like to be about 5 inches apart, so when these seedlings grow a bit more, I’ll separate them. The greens and bulb at the bottom are both edible. Kohlrabi is one of my favorite veggies! I love to peel and cube them and make them into a hearty soup. You can also eat them raw!

I recently learned that carrots are a spring crop - I’ve always failed to grow them since I seed them too late, but this time I seeded in March, and I hope to get a good spring harvest. This is one carrot that was left in the ground last fall, and due to the mild winter, it’s now growing nicely.

Don’t forget perennials! Most of my herbs are perennials, including chives, garlic chives, sage, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, echinacea, and mint. Strawberries are also some of my favorites, and they do the work on their own! Asparagus is delicious, as are currants, blueberries, walking onions, there are so many that come back every year as long as I take good care of them. We’ve consolidated our berries to one bed and we cover it with bird netting, as the birds are a bit selfish about these beauties. And I guess, with the netting, so are we.

My favorite crop:

I’m going to end with probably my FAVORITE thing to plant (after radishes). Peas! I love to eat the leaves, the pods, and the peas inside ~ it’s pretty much all edible. I typically soak the peas overnight in water so they plump up, and then I plant them (sometime usually around St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th). They need something to climb on so put them closer to a fence or a trellis. They’re mighty and will give you loads of food too, loaded with protein and sweet from the spring sun.

A crop for late spring:

There’s also a crop you can plant about 2 weeks after your last frost date (check the Farmers Almanac online for that): Beans! Here’s a fun video you can watch to help get you started. You can help them grow the classical way using the three sisters method: squash, corn and beans. Corn grows upright, which makes a great trellis for the beans to grow upward, and the squash below helps shade the ground to keep it moist.

That’s it for now! Hope you enjoy these adventures in planting, and let me know if you give it a try!