It’s Still Just Dirt – The Tillsonburg News, September 2014
by Penny Esseltine

When Ken Brown came to talk to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society he was right in the middle of harvesting amazing vegetables grown from seed at home in his 50 foot by 50 foot Zone 6 backyard garden on the North shore of Lake Erie. Ken has taken to growing vegetables vertically so that the yield keeps increasing in his limited, mind you quite large, amount of space. That’s what he came to tell us about. Ken says that growing all kinds of vegetables from seed each year probably costs less than the last pair of shoes he bought. “Growing from seed is all about variety and choice.”

Ken says sugar snap peas are the most wonderful vegetable in the world. “You can eat the whole thing.” He plants sweet peas with sugar snaps and soaks the peas overnight before he plants them. A free standing circular wire cage gives the peas a place to climb high on.

“Put things together that you wouldn’t necessarily think go together.” Ken says. “Beans and morning glories for example.” Try sinking an eight foot tall, four by four inch post in the centre of a 12 inch square frame on the ground. Run strings from the frame on the ground up to the top of the pole and the beans and vines will grow right up the strings.

“With a little encouragement you can train cucumbers to grow up an obelisk,” Ken says. “They will climb as high as eight feet and there will be no slug holes and no yellow spots on them.”

Similarly if you have a fence along the back of your garden you can lean two by twos on the fence and let melons grow up the two by twos. They’ll take up less space and again, no yellow spots or slug holes.

Continuing with the vertical gardening theme, you can grow squash up a lilac bush and it will use the branches as a natural support.

As well, Ken suggests gardeners get as much vegetation out there as you can so that the sun can’t get to the soil and therefore weeds won’t grow. Use lettuce as a filler all over the place. Broadcast beet and carrot seeds over the soil. No weeds will grow and you can constantly thin so more vegetables will come up.

Asparagus planted in the back of a bed becomes lovely asparagus fern in the back of the bed later in the season. Ken says if you plant asparagus once it will grow for 30 years. The first stalk up each year goes straight into his mouth.

Ken says potatoes are not part of the root system. They grow on lateral branches off the potato stem and that is why it’s important to hill the dirt up around the stem as the plant grows. Potatoes flower and the colour of the flower matches the colour of the potato. A 13” X 18” pot will grow 15 pounds of potatoes. Remember to water them daily after the middle of July and fertilize every second or third time you water.

If you’re wondering about Ken’s advice on growing tomatoes I’m going to suggest you look on line. It seems pretty complex. Something about trimming the plant to a single stem and getting that stem to grow up a rope. Visit www.gardening-enjoyed.com for more details.

Here are a few simpler things to wrap up.

• Brussels sprouts that have been frosted a few times are much sweeter. This should be the last crop you pick.
• Always have rhubarb. A nice tart rhubarb pie is the world’s best breakfast.
• A garlic plant needs six to eight inches of space all to itself. Plant individual cloves in the fall and harvest them the following August.
• How about Swiss chard and parsley growing together in a public garden in a town park? “Very pretty,” Ken says. He figures people walking by are slow to recognize these as edible greens.

Ken is enjoying his harvest now and looking forward to gardening again in January (when he starts studying seed catalogues) and in February (when he orders seeds). As he gets older Ken says, “Every year is the year I’m going to cut back.” It’s a hard thing to do. Although he works two to three hours in the garden each day it’s never work. It is pure pleasure.

Check out Ken’s Dallying in the Dirt weekly e-zine on line. And for more information about the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca. We’ve had a few enquiries about how old you need to be to join the Horticultural Society. Perhaps because we meet in the Senior Centre Auditorium some think members need to be older adults. Not so. Anyone 18 years and up is welcome and very much encouraged to check us out. Again, visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca.