Fruits of our Labor

“It is wonderful to have a piece of land on which one can propagate trees, berries, flowers, and vegetables for one’s use and the enjoyment of others.” Martha Stewart

With the terrible tariffs implemented, people will pay much more for fruits and vegetables, specifically those that are organic. If you enjoy eating fresh from the field at a reasonable price, it is time to grow an edible garden.

StarStyle® Empowerment is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Whether you have a piece of land, a balcony, or a few pots, you can grow delicious and nutritious vegetables and fruits. Grow edibles on your deck next to the grill. From tabletop pots to garden containers, plants flow seamlessly together by weaving flowers and edibles to add color, texture, and beneficial insects to a backyard.

How do you create a functional working garden, and still make it beautiful? Borrowing ideas from the French potager, we can create a sustainable garden for all seasons. Since Medieval times, the French have been combining flowers, herbs, fruits, berries, and vegetables in a “potager”, which we call a kitchen garden.

Spring is the time to start. Potagers attract pollinators while providing healthy produce. Begin by identifying what you and your family want to eat throughout the year. Besides eating fresh, will you want to grow enough to dry, dehydrate, can, or freeze for other seasons? Make a list and stick to it. When we go to the nursery, it is easy to get so excited with all the available options which may result in buying plants that you don’t want or won’t have time or the space to plant.

Since early March, I have been weeding to prepare the soil for planting. The key to easy weeding is to weed when the soil is still moist from the rain and the roots can be pulled out without much effort. Sprouted seeds from calendula (pot marigold) and nigella (love in the mist) had overtaken my potager where arugula, Swiss Chard, cabbage, kale, and lettuces had supplied greens throughout the winter. Even though I wanted some calendula and nigella to stay, it was necessary to pull hundreds of plants to make room for peas, beans, spinach, beets, radishes, and other desired vegetables that could be sowed as soon as the ground could be worked.

Vegetables require fertile soil to thrive. Before you start your seeds, improve your soil with organic matter by layering on top of your current soil. The mulch will decompose even further, adding water retention and weed suppression. Once your soil is ready, plant short rows of greens every two weeks as the weather remains cool. Home-grown salad greens can be grown over a long period and harvested with sharp scissors. Thin the leafy greens or harvest any crowded young plants as they are nutritious in soups, smoothies, salads, or sides. Home-grown vegetables are loaded with vitamins and nutrients. For example, kale and peas are loaded with vitamins A, B, and C. Beets are high in vitamins A, B2, B6, and C.

By using natural, sustainable methods, you will grow organic food that tastes sweeter with increased health benefits. You might have heard about the “Dirty Dozen”. These are vegetables and fruits that are extremely high in pesticides and insecticides. These are best grown in your personal garden organic garden.

“The Dirty Dozen” in order of the highest amount of dangerous chemical residue:

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Kale, collards, mustard greens

4. Grapes

5. Peaches

6. Pears

7. Nectarines

8. Apples

9. Peppers

10. Cherries

11. Blueberries

12. Green beans

These are vegetables that are easy to grow from seed in a pot or a plot.

Lettuce

Peas

Green beans

Radishes

Carrots

Kale

Swiss Chard

Beets

Zucchini

Mustard

Collards

Spinach

Fennel

Turnips

Edible flowers that can be grown from seed:

A delicious meal tastes even more spectacular with the added touch of an edible flower. Some tasty blooms are more well-known than others.

Calendula

Nasturtium

Borage

Sunflower

Carnations

Violas

Chive blossoms

Cornflower

Impatiens

Dandelion

Ramps

After planting my seeds, I covered them with a layer of Spartina Patens, known as Salt Hay. It is a type of natural cord grass that grows in salt marshes along the Eastern Seaboard. I was sent a sample box from www.SaltHay.com. It is advertised as a vastly superior alternative to traditional vegetable garden mulch compared to wheat straw. Salt Hay contains NO weed seeds. So far, it seems to be doing its job. The company also stocks long-leaf pine hay, but that hay resembles the pine needles that grow in our area. My preference was the Spartina Patens.

Cynthia Brian’s Goddess Gardener Guide for April

DRAIN standing water from containers, saucers, old tires, etc. Mosquitoes are already breeding, and they are the deadliest creatures on the planet.

TDAP vaccine protects against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis. If it’s been ten years or more since your last vaccine, get a Tdap shot soon. The bacteria that causes tetanus is not only in rusty nails or metals, but the spores are found in the soil, dust, and manure. If you are a gardener, this is an imperative defense, and it is effective for ten years!

TREAT Bradford pear trees with a preventative for leaf spot fungus. Avoid walking under or around the trees until the area has a chance to dry

WATCH viburnums for powdery mildew.

FERTILIZE your entire garden, including lawns, if you haven’t already done so.

HARVEST wild mustard to use in soups and salads for a tangy, nutritious meal.

CHOP the flowers and stalks of wild ramps to use in dumplings, soups, salads, and everything else. Ramps have a mild green onion flavor.

PICK UP those fallen camellia blooms. Camellias are still in full blossom but when the flowers are left lying on the ground, they can cause a fungal disease known as camellia flower blight, causing the petals to turn brown and fall off.

BOOK a session with a Honey Homes Handyman if they are in your area to get your spring chores done. Receive a $150 discount with this code: https://honeyh.me/eXEn.

MIX flowers with edibles to attract pollinators to your spring garden. Make sure to plant in groups enticing the birds, bees, and butterflies to savor the dinner you are serving.

Enjoy the beautiful month of April and the fruits of your labor.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. And may the Easter bunny hop to your garden!

For more gardening advice for all seasons, check out Growing with the Goddess Gardenerat https://www.CynthiaBrian.com/books.

Raised in the vineyards of Napa County, Cynthia Brian is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach, as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3, which was just honored as the 2024 Nonprofit of the Year by the Moraga Chamber of Commerce. https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org .

Tune into Cynthia’s StarStyle® Radio Broadcast at https://www.StarStyleRadio.com.

Her newest children’s picture book, Books in the Barnyard: Oh Deer!, from the series Stella Bella’s Barnyard Adventures, is available at https://www.CynthiaBrian.com/online-store. Hire Cynthia for writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com https://www.CynthiaBrian.com