Text and photos by Rob Danforth
Succession planting (e.g. plant bush beans every 2 weeks for a longer lasting series of fresh beans) is a good start. If you have naked soil and you feel that you must plant it all, don’t! Cover the unplanted portions in pot or plot with mulch to reduce weeds and erosion, and leave it for the future succession plantings. This saves on personal exhaustion and at the same time extends your food production over a more reasonable amount of time. You will save yourself from drowning in more ready produce than you can eat before it expires.
On a different note, remember as you work, that plants have their own defensive systems. Some are obvious (thorns on roses, berry canes, barberry shrubs, hawthorn trees, …), but many are not so obvious: increased acid in leaves, bitter taste, allergy activating, skin rashes & blistering, and actual poisons. With some plants, either in nature or in your yard, gardener protection is essential – and that is in addition to gardener protection from both sunburn and windburn!
This is a fast-growing member of the cabbage family often used in Asian cooking. You can harvest it as microgreens, or youngish plants (e.g., 6 ins /15 cms high) or let it soldier on and you practice cut-and-come-again (harvest the older leaves and leave the rest to another day). Use the leaves and stems in a slaw, a stir fry, a ramen noodle bowl or a soup (e.g. mushroom egg drop, or hot-and-sour with Asian fungus & tofu). I also use them as a base in the steamer when I steam dim sum, vegetables, or fish. It is a very good plant for succession planting – saves the long wait for that head of cabbage or broccoli to form. Note: the cabbage family is very healthy and nutritious to eat, and I have read that it supports your digestion, immune system, and cancer prevention. Options: Bok Choy, Joy Choy, Toy Choy, or Pak Choy.
There is also Yu Choy but it looks quite different – tall, skinny stalks like asparagus with green leaves and small yellow flowers. You eat the stalks, leaves, and flowers. In Hong Kong I was served Yu Choi with oyster sauce as a vegetable side dish – nice! I have grown it in Ottawa but the seeds are hard to find lately. The stalks, steamed, are more tender than some asparagus we bought and the leaves cook up like spinach. It has been referred to as “Chinese Broccoli” and one eats it all – no waste – which reminds me, if you buy head broccoli (it is in the cabbage family!) most people just eat the flower head before the flowers open; however, you can also cook and eat the thick stalks or dice them up to add flavour and nutrition to soups. Cut them in half from top to bottom to expose the inner sweet sections.
These pots are positioned around the terrace in ideal sunny positions. The pots are large so there is a little less work in maintaining them, and they have props under them to ensure proper drainage against a smooth cement or carpeted floor. They contain flowers and flowering shrubs but could easily have contained some edibles as well, mixed in to share the space.
Such greenery could add to the view, the fragrances, the privacy, and the dinner table. In the city we do not encounter as much greenery as we may need, and we could suffer from what Laurence Packer, (Keeping the Bees, Harper Collins, 2010) calls a “Nature Deficit Disorder.”
The botanist and medical biochemist Diana Beresford-Kroeger points out that “forest bathing” (common in Japan for both health and relaxation) is actually excellent for one’s health – I have always enjoyed a refreshing walk in the woods in places like the Gatineau Park, the Mer Bleue, Rockcliffe Park, various forested walks all around Ottawa (there used to be maps) or Algonquin park. The fresh air, the scents of the woods, the absence of city noise, and the intermittent sounds of nature are both calming and energizing at the same time.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we can all benefit from greenery in the city! Bush camping is greenery immersion (I highly recommend it, if possible!), but city parks, rooftop gardens, balcony gardens, back/front yard gardens, wild green spaces, and house/office plants all help. Can you add some organic health supporting greenery to your home and neighbourhood?
Bangkok is rife with canals (actual stop signs at canal intersections) and a trip in one of what I refer to as a “rat tailed boat“ (long, narrow boat with an Isuzu truck engine on the stern and a long propeller shaft extending at least 25 feet out the back) will treat you to waterside temples, museums, woodlots, and private homes.
The balcony rail gardens on these private homes remind me that we want or need and benefit from having plants around us. For some, house or office plants have to suffice, but if you have a sunny space, grow plants, and if some are edible, even better!
Gardening is a relaxation from a hectic day. Plants do not demand your immediate response via email or phone (put these somewhere out of sight and earshot), and plants can slow down your day, brighten the view, augment a meal, and maybe reduce your blood pressure.
This garden offers a look at various toxic plants so we can see living examples up close – but not too close! A number of botanical gardens keep a corner (Montreal Botanical has one) for these plants to remind us that plants have defense systems that may also hurt people. Quite a few houseplants are toxic if eaten (some pets have succumbed), and then there are the usuals: poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, rhubarb leaves, potato leaves, etc.
Stinging nettles, common in the city and possibly distributed by birds, are not toxic (great in your compost and as added flavour in some beers) but they remind us to wear garden gloves. One never knows when a plant’s defense system will produce an allergic or painful reaction. A park naturalist I met in Algonquin Park pulled poison Ivy bare handed for 10 years. In year 11, he was hospitalized with a very severe reaction. One canoe trip on the Ottawa river, my brother and I foolishly set up camp in the dark; my doctor says I must avoid all poison ivy from now on.
A pair of gardening gloves is highly recommended for work in the soil: keeps dirt from your nails and skin cracks, protects from potentially harmful bacteria or possible pathogens in manures, and saves hands from grabbing plants that might bite back.
This pair has long sleeves for raspberry picking and working with roses or poison ivy, but a standard pair of gloves with coated palms (rubber or nitrile) and breathable backs will do just fine, but wear long sleeves for pulling toxic plants (stinging nettles, poison ivy, wild parsnip… If you encounter skin blistering giant hogweed, you must report it). Of course, a pair of leather gloves will save blisters from heavy tool work (e.g. shovel, fork, etc.) and protect from thorns. I keep 3 kinds for various needs: all-leather, rubber coated palms with ventilated backs, and long sleeved.
While I discourage everyone from using poisons and chemicals, if you resort to them, heavy duty all-rubber gloves are recommended. My all-rubber gloves were retired after the chemical heydays of 1960’s, 70’s, and early 80’s, when we decided to go organic for lawn & garden, and especially food gardens. We were tired of and exasperated with the careful storage, the complicated planning, the dedicated equipment, the personal protection, and the many negative issues in nature associated with quick-fix chemicals.
This plant is on demonstration at the poison gardens in the Montreal Botanical gardens, but I had only to look at the back of my neighbour’s yard to see a poison ivy patch that just appeared one year.
They had it removed professionally. Note: Montreal Botanical has a number of toxic plants on display, including giant hogweed – out of reach, of course.
I like nettles in my composters – they are an excellent compost activator and nutrient additive. There is a common weed that looks similar; however, note the hairy stems – a distinguishing feature of stinging nettles. I suspect that birds brought these and a reckless, hurried, barehanded weeding helped me find them! I do not hurry any more, and I take the time to go-get-gloves.
One year, deadly nightshade appeared on my fence, and on a neighbour’s arbor. Now I see it in various places in the city (e.g., all through another neighbour’s cedar hedge, and at a lockmaster’s station on the Rideau Canal). If one does not recognize the plant for what it is, one could be tempted to admire the dark coloured vine, the nice green, odd shaped leaves, the mauve flowers, and the colourful red fall berries. To some, it may seem a fine ornamental plant. Please remember that some children and pets like red berries, and the more berries around for the birds to eat helps spread the plant when they poop the seeds elsewhere.
Reminder: tomatoes are in the nightshade family along with potato, eggplant, peppers (hot & sweet), and tobacco. We do not eat their leaves.
Reminder: if you have google on your phone, in the box with the microphone where you ask google a question, there is a second symbol slightly to the right – a box shape with a dot in the middle. Tap it and point the camera at an unknown plant/object close up and google will tell you what google thinks it is.
Happy Calm, Collected, Informed, and Gloved Gardening!