Carol Michel plans to grow Burpee’s Dragon Tails radish this year. She trialed the radishes in her garden in 2017. (C) Photo courtesy Carol Michel/MayDreamsGardens.com
Heat-loving vegetables, herbs and other edible plants are ready for planting outside on Mother’s Day, which is usually the last frost date. I checked with some local gardeners to see what’s on their gardening menu.
On Indianapolis’ south side is Carol Michel, probably one of the most avid vegetable gardeners I know. One of her favorites to grow is the radish.
“You can sow seeds for them early, when you are itching to plant in the garden but frost still threatens. Some varieties are ready to pull after about 30 days. And you can keep sowing seeds for them through early May, and then start again in mid-August for fall crops,” said Michel, who blogs at MayDreamsGardens.com.
“There is a radish grown for the edible seed pods called ‘Dragon’s Tail’, which is fun,” she said. Seeds for this radish should be sown after the last frost.
‘Blue Fortune’ anise hyssop will be in the garden of herb expert Julie Iverson this summer. Photo courtesy PerennialResource.com
“Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is the 2019 Herb of the Year, so I’ll be growing it as a trial this summer,” said Julie Iverson, immediate past president of Marion County Master Gardeners and a popular instructor on herbs and edible plants. She’ll use the fresh leaves and flowers of this perennial in salads, as well as a garnish or tea.”
Lettuce tops the list for Kate Franzman, farm manager and beekeeper at Public Greens, part of Patachou Inc. “I love to eat it and it doesn’t get any more tender and sweet than when you grow it yourself.”
Public Greens Farm Manager Kate Franzman loves growing lettuce because of its fresh taste. Pictured here harvesting allium, this year in the farm garden in Broad Ripple, she’ll grow the traditional Three Sisters, corn, squash and beans.
Photo courtesy Kate Franzman
This year at the farm along the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple, Franzman is going to plant Three Sisters, the ancient method of growing squash, beans and corn together. She said she’s going to substitute a few sunflowers in the mix, too. “We get hundreds of visitors to the farm, mainly kids on field trips, and I love showing the relationship between the plants, how they work together, and provide each other a benefit.”
Irvington gardener Amy Mullen said she’s strayed from growing vegetables because she was terrible at harvesting them. “I planted sorrel last year, though. I love that it’s perennial, and it has a fresh, zingy spring flavor,” she said. Considered a green or an herb, varieties with red veining, sometimes called bloody sorrel (Rumex acetosa), are ornamental as well as edible. Use in salads, on a sandwich or as a fresh tang to cooked vegetables.
Irvington gardener Amy Mullen grows the perennial sorrel for its tangy, lemony flavor. (C) Hans/Pixabay.com
Based on his criteria of ease of production, nutrient density, flexibility of use and ability to store it, Waltham butternut squash and Beauregard sweet potato made the list, said Hancock County Extension Educator Roy Ballard, who is involved with several local food and specialty crop programs. His third choice, Hammer green beans are the real story, though. These heirlooms came from the Hammer family and Ballard has been growing them for decades.
‘Beauregard’ sweet potato is a favorite of Roy Ballard, a horticulture educator at Purdue-Hancock County Extension. Photo courtesy GardensAlive.com
“Hammer is not the true name, but that of the family who shared them with me as a teen over 40 years ago,” Ballard said. A string less, broad-pod, bush bean and prolific dry bean, it has excellent flavor. He shares the seeds at regional Purdue Master Gardener meetings and occasionally elsewhere.
“I think every gardener worth their salt should accept the responsibility to the next generation to preserve at least one heirloom variety and the story that it bears,” Ballard said