Kale Season at the Chez TJ Potager

This fall I'm obsessing over kale. It began when I tasted a shredded raw kale salad made right out in the garden last spring. It was simply dressed with lemon, tamari, and sesame seeds. Strawberries added a bright garnish and flavor. It made an impression on me, so when fall approached I planned to test a few different varieties, and sowed some flats for seedlings.

Kale Likes it Cool
Kale is a cool weather crop that can be grown fall through spring in the temperate San Francisco Bay Area. It tolerates frost, as does lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and Swiss chard. Plant these in the early fall to enjoy over the winter. Cold weather and frost are said to contribute to better flavor and texture for kale.

A Rainbow of Kale 
At the Chez TJ kitchen potager, I harvested our first Lacinato Rainbow kale crop for the kitchen a few days ago. The seedlings were planted in September and they grew quickly. This pretty kale has beautiful purple-pink stems and tender frilly leaves; it's a handsome plant for the winter garden. 

I discovered that it is a hybrid made by Frank Morton who crossed Tuscan kale, (also known as Lacinato or Dinosaur kale) with Redbor kale. It looks very much like Red Russian kale. This caused some confusion, as at first I thought it had been mislabeled!

Lacinato Rainbow Kale is a cross between Tuscan and Redbor kales 

This weekend I added Tuscan kale to the garden (Dinosaur kale) that I grew from seeds at home. 

Tuscan kale is also called Dinosaur or Lacinato kale

Tuscan kale has evenly dark green, elongated leaves that have a pebbly suface. It's tender and flavorful - a popular item at my farmer's market.

Ornamental kale 

The beautiful purple, pink, and gray-green ornamental kale above is planted in my front yard bed among lettuce, onions and Red Russian kale - it makes a striking centerpiece. Ornamental kale is edible, but don't eat it if it wasn't grown organically, as it may have been sprayed with pesticides and cultivated with synthetic fertilizers.

Simple Kale Saute
A simple way to enjoy kale is to saute it in olive oil over low heat:
1. Thinly slice a bunch of kale (that has been rinsed in water  first) crosswise, leaving the stems for the compost pile.

2. Saute a clove of chopped garlic for a few minutes in the olive oil, then add the sliced kale. Toss it gently while cooking to make sure it cooks evenly. Taste after a few minutes to test if it's done enough to your liking. 

3. Season with a sprinkle of kosher salt, and add a few drops of lemon or balsamic vinegar before serving, if desired. 

You can also toss the sauteed kale with cooked pasta or rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. This dish is good cold or warm, and thinly sliced red sweet pepper is a nice addition for color and bright fresh flavor. Or serve tender white beans on a bed of sauteed kale (below).

Sauteed kale with Italian Butter beans

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

How to Prune Your Blackberries

Pruning your berry bushes can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be complicated. That's what I learned recently when I joined experienced horticulturalist Debbie Stern, head gardener for Rosiland Creasy, to lend a helping hand, but mostly to learn.

Since most berries are vigorous growers and will happily spread wherever they are planted, the ideal is to keep them under control from the beginning. I've been hesitant to plant any because of the potential for a berry take-over of my garden. But I got over my berry fear by learning hands-on how it's done.

See below for the basics you need to know and the four-step pruning method:

Debbie Stern finds the old fruited canes and makes the first cut

Pruning Cane Fruits - the Basics
In general, cane fruits (also known as bramble berries) such as blackberries, raspberries and hybrid berries, are pruned by cutting the canes down to the ground after they have finished fruiting.

New fruit is produced from new canes, so you must be careful to identify which canes haven't fruited, and save those for next year's crop of berries. If you wait to prune in late fall or in winter, you'll be sure to get the all of berries for the season.

Exception: for "everbearing"raspberries that fruit in summer and fall, then again the next spring, you only prune the top of the canes that have fruited, because those canes will be the spring fruting canes. Refer to:  Edible Landscaping, Rosiland Creasy, 2010.

If you can, take advantage of the thornless cultivars of blackberries, such as Black Satin, Arapahoe, Apache and Navaho. Black Stain is the variety in these photos, and a favorite of Rosiland Creasy.

You might recognize the colorful wall below from photos in Creasy's excellent book on edible landscaping. The are kept well under control in her front yard (below) by yearly pruning and produce lots of luscious berries.

Thornless "Black Satin" blackberries against a colorful wall

Pruning Blackberries in Four Steps
By pruning the canes every year and digging out any suckering canes, and uprooting any that have rooted when they touch the ground, the berries can be prevented from unwanted spreading.

Read through all of the steps first before beginning:
1. Find the fruited canes by looking for signs of fruiting (you'll see where the berries were attached and have been harvested, or find old berries the weren't harvested) and cut the cane by several feet.

2.  Find each cane that you cut and trace it back down to the ground; cut it off at the ground. Do this for all of the fruited canes. Be careful not to damage tender non-fruited canes, as they're usually all tangled together.

3. You should now have only canes that have new growth and no sign of fruiting; they are usually very green and supple. Choose three healthy canes to leave for next year's berry crop. Pick canes that are not too thin, but not too old and thick either so that they will develop vigorously.

Leave only three canes for next year's crop

4. Cut down to the ground and remove all non-fruited canes except the three that you picked. Tie these onto your trellis using twine in a figure-eight loop to create a little space between the trellis and the cane. Done!

From just three canes you will get lush growth. You may be tempted to leave more, but it may lead to more work than you planned for next fall to untangle and prune your berries. Experiment and see how your particular berries grow.

Tie the three remaining canes to the trellis - done!

For more about pruning berries and lots of other valuable information on growing edibles refer to:
 Edible Landscaping, Rosiland Creasy, rev. ed. 2010.
Pruning and Training, Christopher Brickle and David Joyce, the American Horticultural Society, rev. ed. 2011.

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Rosalind Creasy's Garden: Edible Landscaping with Color

Anyone familiar with Rosalind Creasy's landscaping design savvy knows that she is a champion of color in the garden.  As the guru of edible landscaping - her first book on the subject was published in 1982 and she has since published numerous others - she integrates edibles beautifully in stunning arrangements throughout her front and back yards. 

Recently, I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a few weeks working in her remarkable gardens and meet Creasy and her knowledgeable, amiable staff.

Rosalind Creasy welcomes APLD members on a tour of her garden

It Takes a Village 
When the opportunity arose to assist her regular gardeners in preparing for a tour of her garden by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) last September, I jumped at it. My friend and budding landscape designer, Susan Stansbury, and I were welcomed warmly to the prep team. 

The Creasy prep team (left to right): Valerie Williams, Susan Stansbury, Debbie Stern (Gudi Riter in background)

There we met head gardener Debbie Stern, intern Valerie Williams, and Gudi Riter, gardener and personal assistant to Creasy. Besides meeting and chatting with Rosalind Creasy, making new gardening friends was the highlight of my time spent in these beautiful gardens.

Detail of front arbor with hops

Our mission was to prepare the substantial garden beds, including every nook and crany, to be inspected by knowledgeable landscape designers. Many of the designers were not likely to be familiar with landscaping with edible plants, therefore the pressure was on to impress and demonstrate that edibles have a place in the suburban landscape. 

Entry to front yard garden

A Feast of Color
Creasy has devoted her career to educating others about the the beauty and utility of including vegetables, fruits and herbs in the home landscape, including the front yard. Creasy's gardens are lovely, and although the various garden "rooms" are lush with edible plants, they are not immediately obvious since the first thing you notice are the brilliant colors. 

The hybrid Enchantment tomato is a Creasy favorite for sauces

She has a special talent for using edibles in unexpected and delightful ways, like the hops that frame the front yard arbor, and another arched arbor covered in  luscious climbing "Enchantment" tomatoes, gorgeous hybrid roma-type tomatoes, of which Creasy is particularly fond (seeds available from Burpee).

Front yard feature: an archway of trellised Enchantment tomatoes

Flowers are bountiful throughout, and besides a riot of color, they provide food for pollinators and a lush habitat for birds, elements that are important for a balanced, healthy, ecosystem for the garden.

The Queen Elizabeth heirloom iris blooms twice a year

Gardening for a Small Planet
Why such passion for landscaping with something you can eat? As resources such as water and fuel become increasingly precious, and our agricultural lands are burdened with serious pesticide and herbicide contamination, producing food locally increasingly makes good sense.

Creasy has been determined to spread the message of gardening (and cooking) with edibles since the 1970's when it was not fashionable to show off the veggie garden in front yard suburban landscapes.

Creasy has designed a serene sanctuary in her heavily shaded backyard

I asked her how she had the fortitude and sheer guts to keep up her work when it earned her a reputation as an oddball in landscape design circles. She stated flatly that she simply "knew it was the right thing to do".

Rosalind Creasy's head gardener Debbie Stern, and APLD tour group

Not one to rest on her laurels, Creasy is as busy as ever, gardening, lecturing, and writing.  And as she enjoys the rising popularity of gardening with edibles in suburbia, she has every right to shout from the rooftops: 

I told you so!

A cleverly designed "tomato house"makes a surprisingly lovely feature in the backyard

Just call me the "hedge whisperer"

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke