veggie gardening

Gillian is my neighbor and her older brother, Michael, works at Gill’s. The other day her mom, Ann, sent me a photo of a fairy garden in a hanging basket Jillian designed and built with help from Whitney at our Alameda store. Just had to share it with everyone! I asked Jillian if I could interview her for this blog, and she cheerfully agreed, Friday at 5pm. She greeted me at the door; we quickly moved to her back yard where all the action was. Our first stop was a basil plant she was excited about; she loves basil! Her mom makes a soup in a special “bullet”, mixing squash, celery, basil, broth & topped with cheese. Gillian gardens at school too! She and her classmates are growing parsley, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and dill. We then moved to her special fairy garden, hanging from her playscape. She has a pig and a rabbit and toadstools and a fairy house that lights at night (and yes, you can get one at Gill’s!). She and her best friend, amazingly also Jillian (spelled with a J), started their interest in fairies from a book, and it’s grown from there. Finally, I asked Gillian what she thought she might like to do when she grows up. Her response was quick and sure. She wants to own her own restaurant and plans to make dishes with only garden fresh ingredients! Wow, I was impressed, and am anxious to be her first customer!  Go Gillian!

-Sally

Meet Elliott, my grandson from Denver, Colorado. Last year, at the ripe old age of 10 months his favorite thing was digging in the dirt. He’d happily dig in a plastic box of planting soil for an hour, using child sized garden tools from Gills. Now, at almost 2 years he’s advanced to planting and tending his first vegetable and herb garden.

Elliott’s garden has radishes, carrots, squash, lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, mint, and basil. Yes, he really planted them himself! The rows aren’t perfect and more seeds are grouped closer to the edges where he could more easily reach. He doesn’t care. It’s his garden and he’s already reaping and eating its bounty.

The radishes are fast growing and he loves to eat them freshly picked and washed.  He enjoys picking mint leaves to chew while playing in the back yard. Soon there will be tomatoes to snack on, then carrots to eat.

I suggested to his mom for next year’s garden, mixing carrot and radish seeds together. It’s a tip I heard on Justin Butts’ radio program. The radishes come up first and their fast growing leaves provide a living mulch for the carrots, which grow more slowly.

We’ll see what Elliott thinks about that!

-Kathy