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Garden Notes: 1) I plant rows east to west. 2) For taller crops, I plant to the north side of my garden so they don’t block the sun. 3) Trellising is a space-saver. 4) For dry beans, I’ll plant them in early April and in July for a fall crop. 5) After the peas are done in June, I’ll come back and plant dry beans in their vacated row.
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"Gardening is enjoying fresh, flavorful produce from heirloom seeds with interesting histories that I grow without insecticides and chemicals. It’s good," says Garden Guy Matt Sabo.
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"All year I compost to augment the soil. I add manure in winter or early spring and toss in locally sourced worm castings at planting," says Sabo.
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"A pesky pair of box turtles show up every July to munch on my low-hanging tomatoes. I have no clue where they come from or how they know to come to my garden," says Sabo.
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"I start my seeds indoors in seed trays about 8-12 weeks before transplanting. They’re under grow lights and on warming pads," says Sabo.
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Sabo's grandson James with sugar snap peas.
The seed companies got me again. Take my money, seed companies. They perfectly timed the two bright seed catalogs. Winter doldrums yield to visions of rows of tasty vegetables in my sun-dappled garden. The luscious veggies I’m sure to grow will go from my garden, to my Instagram feed, to my table. The seed catalogs are a shot of dopamine.
My history with gardening is complex, however. It’s a journey full of rapturous moments of amazement, like when I part the tomato leaves and behold the 20-ounce Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter tomato in all its mouthwatering perfection! And agonizing despair, like when the squirrels destroyed every single one of my 50+ heirloom corn sprouts.
Let’s go back to 1990, the spring of my junior year in college. I visited my future wife Julie’s family home in Canby, Oregon. Canby is near Portland in the verdant Willamette Valley, noted for its fertile soil, salubrious climate, glorious fields of fruits and vegetables and rolling vineyards. It could double as the Garden of Eden in summer.
I stuck some corn seeds in a strip of dirt in Julie’s backyard. I was curious about what would happen. Later that summer, the loamy soil yielded tasty ears of sweet corn. Who knew!
I was hooked, amazed that you could plant a little seed in the ground and in weeks it’s a 7-foot corn stalk with sweet ears of corn.
Gardening in the (Vegetable) Desert
Gardening wasn’t always so easy and fun. I grew up in Bend, Oregon, where the chlorophyll-free zone of Oregon’s vast, arid high desert meets the piney slopes of the majestic Cascade Range. It’s gorgeous in Bend; from the house of my childhood friend you can see nine snow-covered mountain peaks.
But Bend sits on rocky soil at 4,000 feet of elevation. It’s prone to garden-killing frosts. I shivered through Fourth of July fireworks in my winter jacket as a kid. My dad “gardened” in my youth in the 1970s and ’80s. Green beans, beets, peas, carrots, sweet corn, potatoes. Those are veggies I remember he tried to grow.
By the mid-1990s, Julie and I had a fast-growing brood in Prineville, 40 minutes east of Bend at a slightly lower elevation. We had a little yellow house on the rimrock above town with a peekaboo view of the county courthouse and a nice sunny spot in the backyard for a garden.
I planted onions, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, squash and short-season sweet corn. And prayed and hoped they’d grow. It was rough. A killing frost once hit on June 20. Another year I had frost in August. Some summers a 90-day growing season was pure fantasy.
We’d have 40- to 50-degree temperature swings on an average summer day. For example, last July 22 the area had a high of 85 degrees and a low of 39 degrees. Frost always lurks. Its menacing, freezing scythe plays with your mind. I reckon that the annual central Oregon gardening heartbreak prepared me well for Virginia.
The Truth About Gardening
I say often here, “Gardening will break your heart.” So many things can go wrong in your garden. Voracious bugs, persistent weeds, suffocating heat and humidity, devastating diseases, choking mildew, apocalyptic thunder-storms, periods of no rain, hurricanes that mow down entire rows of veggies … have I missed something? Oh yeah, ravenous squirrels and bunnies and ravaging turtles.
Yes, turtles. This pesky pair of box turtles show up every July to munch on my low-hanging tomatoes. I have no clue where they come from or how they know to come to my garden. I caught them mating in there once. One of my young sons was with me. He asked me why they were wrestling. Their behavior is truly shocking. I don’t recall tomato-eating, amorous box turtles in the Oregon desert.
Yet, I persist and persevere. I hope. I pray. I mulch, fertilize and menace bugs. I get down on my belly and speak encouraging words to my sprouts, like James Dean in “East of Eden.” As you do too, probably.
Because when, by some miracle of cultivation and divine intervention, I pick dazzling heirloom tomatoes and peppers from my garden to make spicy salsa, or enjoy tender rattlesnake green beans for dinner, or make a soup in winter with succulent butternut squash or borlotti dry beans, everything is right in my gardening and gastronomic worlds.
More Than Gardening
But gardening is more than that. I work remotely. I see my garden from my home office. I often wander into it, pulling weeds and talking to the plants for short, rejuvenating breaks.
Gardening is enjoying fresh, flavorful produce from heirloom seeds with interesting histories that I grow without insecticides and chemicals. It’s good.
My kids join me in the garden, learning about heirloom produce and the fruits of our labor. Many of my 14 kids—yes, 14—have gardens of their own when they leave the house. Some kids show more interest than others, pitching in with planting, weeding, harvesting. Everyone pitches in with eating.
Gardening’s also an adventurous, creative outlet. I think about what I want to grow, how to improve quality and the new veggies to try. I create recipes with them. I dream about triumphing over the rain and heat and bugs and disease and outfoxing those wily turtles, my Homeric journey that ends at the dinner table with a satisfying meal.
My Gardening Plan
I plan in winter. Virginia Cooperative Extension has a gardening guide that’s useful. Sow True Seed has a gardening schedule for our zone (7b for me at Gloucester Point).
My mainstays include heirloom tomatoes, green beans, peppers, onions, butternut squash, dry beans, sugar snap peas, sunflowers and zinnias. I pick eye-catching veggies that we love to eat. I rotate the crops, sowing varieties that will grow best in our almost tropical coastal Virginia climate by checking information on varieties in the seed catalogs and browsing online reviews.
All year I compost to augment the soil. I add manure in winter or early spring and toss in locally sourced worm castings at planting.
I start my seeds indoors in seed trays about 8-12 weeks before transplanting. They’re under grow lights and on warming pads. I have several sources for heirloom, non-GMO seeds and supplies:
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (fabulous selection of heirloom seeds)
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (experts in Virginia gardening)
- Sow True Seed (love their mission and selection)
- Uprising Seeds (love their focus on heritage foods)
- Green Planters Landscape and Garden Center in Hayes (Manager Kenny Weakland is a gardening savant and very helpful)
- Gloucester Supply and Ace Hardware in Hayes (love my neighborhood hardware store for gardening supplies!)
I plant peas in mid-February, potatoes in mid-March and onion seedlings in late March. I plant beans, corn, flowers (I love pollinators and they love my flowers!) and summer squash around April 10, watching the forecast for frost. Consult the planting guide. I’ll transplant tomato and pepper plants later in April and May. Beauregard sweet potato slips arrive mid-May.
I’ll have an update on my garden for the summer issue in mid-June and expand more on how and what I grow—and why. You’re probably wondering, “What’s his thing with dry beans?” I can’t wait to tell you!
My Partial List of Go-to Veggies:
Tomatoes
- Mortgage Lifter (big, productive, suited for our climate)
- Cherokee Purple (classic, tasty heirloom)
- Midnight Roma (striking dark purple variety that’s great for sauce)
- Amish Paste (king for making sauce)
Peppers
- Carolina Wonder (nematode-resistant plant that produces fruit until the fall frost)
- Buena Mulata (lovely spicy purple pepper that can be an ornamental plant)
- Fish (heirloom hot peppers grown by Black families around Chesapeake Bay for seafood seasoning)
Green Beans
- Rattlesnake (productive, tasty and long bearing; leave some in pods and let them dry to use in soups)
Dry Beans
- Tiger’s Eye (earthy and wonderful in soups)
- Pescia/Sorana (classic Italian bean great in soups or for beans and toast)
- Borlotto/Borlotti (the quintessential creamy Italian bean)
Peas
- Sugar snap (productive, sweet and delightful)
Butternut Squash
- South Anna (downy mildew resistant variety)
Garden Notes:
- I plant rows east to west.
- For taller crops, I plant to the north side of my garden so they don’t block the sun.
- Trellising is a space-saver.
- For dry beans, I’ll plant them early April and in July for a fall crop. After the peas are done in June, I’ll come back and plant dry beans in their vacated row.
My Planting Timeline:
Pole Beans (April 10)
- Rattlesnake
Dry Beans (April 1 to July 1)
- Pescia (Sorana)
- Borllotto Gaston
- Tiger’s Eye
Tomatoes (Transplant in late April or May)
- Cherokee Purple
- Amish Paste
- Mortgage Lifte
- Midnight Roma
Flowers (April 10)
- Zinnias
Sunflowers (April 10)
- Chocolate Cherry
- Evening Sun
Peas (February 15)
- Sugar Snap
Butternut Squash (Late April-May)
- South Anna
- Waltham
Herbs (April 10)
- Basil
- Thyme
- Cilantro
Onions (Late March)
- Yellow
- Red
- White
Peppers (Late April)
- Carolina Wonder
- Buena Mulata
- Fish
Sweet Potatoes (Mid-May)
- Beauregard
Look for Matt Sabo’s Garden Guy update in the summer issue of The Local Scoop.
