Terra's Garden
Monthly Column by Terra Hangen

Are you already a dedicated vegetable gardener? Experienced garden warrior or novice sprouter, find a sunny garden spot and plant a few easy to grow veggies, like tomatoes and zucchini, and enjoy the results. Like me, you may stick with some tried and true types, like Early Girl tomatoes, while looking for new and delicious vegetables to grow, like last year when I discovered the wonderful Ping Pong tomatoes and the old timey Trombetta di Albenga Italian summer squash.

Here are some suggestions for a colorful symphony of delicious veggies. Ping Pong tomatoes are tasty, and have attractive perfectly round ping pong ball size fruits that are a pretty medium pink. Due to their small size they ripen early and thrive in areas, like mine in coastal California, that aren’t as hot as some areas where tomatoes love to bake in long hot days. Ping Pongs are praised by gardeners in Alaska and Montana too.

Stupice, pronounced Stew Peach Ka, is an heirloom tomato from Czechoslovakia that is highly recommended, even for difficult climates, so I planted one this year. People rave because it is so early, juicy, and has 2 to 4 ounce fruits. It loves being against a south or west wall where it enjoys extra heat. Stupice grows in the form of a 3 to 4 foot bush, giving tomatoes in 60 days from transplanting.

For the note of trombones try Trombetta di Albenga, the climbing heirloom Italian summer squash. This 6 to 8 foot climbing vine yields fruits best harvested when they are 10 to 12 inches long and as thick as a cucumber. The squash have a curved trombone shape, are seedless and firm, and love full sun and warm temperatures. Plant the seeds when night temperatures are above 50 degrees. Sauté or stuff these beauties, available at www.reneesgarden.com

Baby Pak Choi “Green Fortune” forms 6 to 8 inch mini-heads, is heat resistant, prefers cool growing conditions, and its crispy sweet heads are tasty steamed, in stir fry dishes, or chopped up and cooked in olive oil and garlic. Provide plenty of water and fish emulsion or other fertilizer, and plant in spring or fall.

“Bright Lights” Rainbow Chard is strikingly handsome in the garden or on a plate, with green leaves and bright yellow, orange or red stalks. This chard can take some frost, even over-wintering in mild climates. Chard does best when planted in early spring for summer eating or in late summer for a fall crop. Chop the leaves and stalks and sauté them in a little olive oil and some chopped garlic, and a splash of soy sauce, or steam them.

Radishes are easy to grow from seed, and I recommend the Easter Egg mix, colored pink, purple, white and rose red with white flesh. Early spring and late summer are ideal times to plant the seeds, sowing seeds a week apart to extend your time to harvest radishes. Children enjoy planting and harvesting radishes, partly because they are ready to eat in only 28 days after sowing the seeds. Radishes are sweeter and crisper when they receive plenty of moisture. Sold by www.johnnyseeds.com.

Melons, although fruits, are grown in vegetable patches, and a delicious watermelon with seedless yellow flesh and a high sugar content is Lemon Ice. Described as “as cool and sweet as Italian ice on a summer’s day”. Sold by Parks Seeds www.parkseed.com.

Try the Purple Haze carrot, purple on the outside and orange on the inside. These make handsome and tasty sliced carrots and are best enjoyed raw since cooking fades the purple color. Purple is the original color of wild carrots, still found in Turkey, and developed by Dr. Philipp Simon, using traditional non-GMO methods.

All the tastes and colors of the plant world await you, from purple to sun yellow, as you venture into the world of vegetable gardening, and take chances on some new to you varieties.

About the Author: For more of Terra Hangen's garden tidbits, fun garden photos of her black squirrel friend, tips for beginning writers, and a glimpse into her own journey as a writer visit her blog at http://terragarden.blogspot.com. She is celebrating the publication of her first book, Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts, written with 6 Christian writer friends, and scheduled for publication Oct. 2008 by Leafwood Publishers.