FEATURE — The sweet, juicy tang of a warm, ripe peach just picked off a tree takes me back to warm summer days climbing our family’s peach tree, looking for the vibrant red-orange hue. Nothing beats a peach when it’s ripe and ready to eat, warmed by the sun!
I grew up in a garden. My mom never let a year go by without planting and harvesting. After moving to St. George, I had to learn a whole new way of gardening. But in spite of my many gardening failures, I just keep trying to figure things out in an unfamiliar climate.
If you are new to gardening, you can do things the hard way by trial and error, which I must admit to doing fairly regularly, or you can talk to local experts and allow them to help you get started. I have listened to speakers at our local library, read and watched videos online from the Utah State University Extension office, talked to people at community gardens and local nurseries and employed local gardening contractors. It’s difficult to break the mindset of the past, but I am learning the secrets of gardening in Southern Utah.
When I first began gardening here, I had some great advice about finding the best sunny spot in my yard for a garden. Then I looked for information about how to prepare and repair the soil. Nutrient-rich soil equals nutrient-rich produce. The next thing I had to wrap my head around was the growing season in this region. I was used to planting in the spring and harvesting in fall. Here, you can plant from January through late summer, depending on the plant.
My first year of growing a garden in Southern Utah was a lot of work, with little to show for my efforts. The watermelon plant I babysat for months produced two melons the size of my hand; I haven’t put a watermelon seed in the ground since! The second year was much better: the tomatoes we grew ended up blessing as many neighbors as would help us enjoy them. Those red, juicy rounds brought one lady to tears as she recalled her late father, who grew tomatoes in his garden yearly.
Then I learned about cool weather plants. In an effort to increase our intake of leafy greens, which contain powerhouse nutrients like fiber, potassium, iron and vitamins A, K, B6 and C, I planted kale, spinach and chard. By far, I have had the most success with these. To harvest, I don’t wait for the entire plant to reach maturity. As soon as the outer leaves are small to medium-sized, I pick them one at a time. This allows the smaller leaves on the inside to continue growing.
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You can eat from the plants for a couple of months or longer until the heat or cold stops their growth. At that point, I harvest the smaller, less bitter leaves of the kale and spinach, rinse and pat dry. Then I pack as much as I can into gallon freezer bags.
We eat the fresh leaves in salads, cook them with seasonings or add them to soups and pasta dishes. I use frozen kale and spinach in pureed smoothies, green pancakes and muffins. I have also used them in soups and other recipes that call for cooked greens. Our family favorite has been sweet spinach muffins. The neighbors haven’t minded them either.
Last year, we planted cucumbers from seed during the first week of August. The plants produced endless cucumbers through the month of October. My son and I delivered the excess cucumbers to neighbors, increasing their fiber and vitamin K intake. One generous neighbor returned the favor with some fresh, tree-ripened lemons and avocados from her friend’s trees in California. I could have inhaled the aroma of those vitamin C-packed lemons for hours, and the avocados made the best guacamole.
One of my favorite things about gardening is figuring out how to eat the vegetables we harvest in a variety of different ways. I have found recipe books that focus on plants and garden veggies, and an online search always yields new ideas.
There are endless health and wellness benefits to using seasonal plants and eating more plants in general, but there are other perks, as well. As I share my harvest, I get to know my neighbors better, and often, they return the favor, boosting my joy and gratitude for living in Southern Utah.
Written by ANNELIES NEWMAN, RDN, CD.
This article was originally published in the March/April 2023 issue of St. George Health and Wellness magazine.
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