By Dana Ecelberger

Welcome to summer with its long hot days, perfect for refreshing salads and the delicate flavors of pesto and pasta. Wouldn’t it be great to pick most of the ingredients you need from your own garden? Well, you can do it with 2 planter boxes, six 5-gallon pots, organic potting mix, clean sand and some creativity!

You’ll want to grow Roma and Cherry tomatoes, Italian basil, chili peppers, oregano, chives and a mix of lettuces and radicchio. If you have room, carrots and radishes are always a big hit with kids. I like Easter Egg radishes and a mix of carrot colors such as Snow White, Purple Dragon, Yellow and Red-Core Chantenay. Food is so much more fun when it is colorful, don’t you think?

For a family of four, two Roma tomatoes and one Cherry should be plenty. You’ll need three 5-gallon pots for the tomatoes…one for each. There are a number of different varieties of Cherry tomatoes, but some of my favorites include “Matt’s Wild”, “Sun Gold”, “Sweet Million” and “Currant”. “Sun Gold” is a staking variety, which makes it handy for growing in a pot. An organic potting mix will be fine. Trim off the lower leaves and plant the tomatoes deep, leaving about 3 inches of the plant above ground. (Always water immediately after planting any new plants.) Tomatoes sprout roots all along their stems and planting them deep will make for a sturdier plant. You don’t want soil that is too rich because your plant will make lots of beautiful leaves and no fruit. Similarly, don’t over water the plants and take care to avoid getting water on the leaves to minimize the incidence of disease. One way of watering a tomato is to take a one-liter soda bottle, remove the cap, fill with water, and with the opening down, twist into the soil 4-5 inches deep next to the tomato. When the bottle is empty, repeat. The tomato will draw the water it needs from the bottle. Trimming the large leaves every few weeks will make it easier to find the ripe fruit, and will both minimize disease and help the tomatoes to ripen. Staking your tomatoes can be fun for the entire family. My favorite idea is to use a bicycle tire rim mounted on an umbrella stand with chain or twine strung down from the rungs to create a kind of chamber for the tomatoes to climb up. Get creative! You want your tomatoes to have something to climb up on to a height of at least 6 feet. Or, let them drape down over a deck or window box where it will be easy to pick them. They behave more like vines than shrubs. Each tomato plant will need a circumference of 3 feet; if you are planting in pots, then one plant per standard 5-gallon pot.

Chili peppers are small fruiting and quick to mature. Cayenne are prolific and pretty. Mini red bell peppers are also quick to ripen and fun for kids to pick. Each plant will need a 2-foot circumference and an organic potting soil mix. Peppers, like tomatoes and basil, love sun and heat but the smaller fruiting chili and bell peppers will also grow in cooler northern climates as long as they are in a sunny spot and not exposed to strong winds.

Basil is a must for an Italian Garden. Use it in pesto, with tomatoes and mozzarella for a yummy salad, or minced on gazpacho. The large leafed Napoleatano is a prolific variety that will keep you in pesto all summer. You can plant 5 or 6 plants around the edge of your pepper pot or give the basil its own pot and plant 6 inches apart. Six to ten plants should be sufficient for a family of four, unless you are like me and could eat pesto every day of the summer! Basil likes to be watered regularly and won’t be happy if you let it dry out.

Recently I have started direct sowing a lettuce mix for baby lettuce greens and I may never go back to planting single heads again. It’s easy. Fill a pot or window box with organic potting soil and water well. Pour approximately 50 mixed lettuce seeds into the palm of your hand (I like Encore lettuce mix from Johnny’s seeds: www.johnnyseeds.com). Spread evenly on the surface of the damp soil. Cover lightly with more potting soil and water. Wait 6-7 days for the first leaves (cotyledons) to appear and then another week to ten days to clip your salad. I just use scissors to shear the baby greens. They will grow back 2-3 times. If you let them grow a bit longer you will have larger greens. I like to mix in a little Radicchio seed in my mix for a more truly Italian flavor. If you live in a hot climate, I suggest putting your lettuce box in a slightly shaded or cooler spot in the garden as they are not fond of high temperatures or blazing sun. They will need to be watered every day.

If you still have room left, plant some carrots and radishes. Similar to herbs, carrots and radishes like a sandy, well-drained soil. This is easy enough to make by mixing 1/3 clean sand thoroughly washed of any salt residue (sandbox sand is perfect) to 2/3 organic potting soil. In a cup or the palm of your hand, mix together your carrot and radish seeds and broadcast loosely over the surface of the damp soil and cover lightly with more of the soil mix. The radishes will sprout weeks before the carrots and will automatically space your carrots. Water daily.

With the same mix of sand and potting soil, plant an oregano plant, thyme, chives, and tarragon. These are all perennials that will come back each year to reward you with the fragrant aroma of the Italian kitchen. In the winter you can use them in hearty marinara sauce and bean soups. Herbs like a warm spot, regular but light watering and good drainage. Once they flower, just cut them all the way down to the base so they can sprout fresh growth. The best time to cut your herbs for use is just before they flower. You can create herb oils by finely mincing the herbs and adding olive oil. Keep refrigerated for use later. Many herbs can be frozen or dried.

Enjoy, and happy gardening!