My apologies for slow posting. I have a writing assignment for another cheese website which is taking most of the time generally used for this blog… but I shall return… in the meantime, I thought I would share with those of you interested in deck gardening and how I figured out how to make it work here in NE Georgia. (As part of my announcement of “expanding my horizons” re this blog. I began with reviewing the movie “Truffle Hunters”.)
Spring 2022 arrived and I began planning and planting my vegetable and herb garden.
One continued success here in NE Georgia has been my garden. When I came here in 2014, dad and mom were both nearing the end of their incredibly successful lives and marriage. For years I had teased them about how much time they spent “working in the yard”. Living on the West Coast for thirty years where “yards” were a lawn in front of the house and a backyard with limited possibilities. Two acres here in NE Georgia requires work and maintenance. Mom had a stone hanger in the yard that says “My garden is a thing of beauty and a job for life”… yep…
In 2011, I had gone to “Cheese” at Bra for the bi-annual Slow Food Festival. Our last side trip had been to Parma to visit Zanetti
cheese factory and aging facility. After the tour, Mr. Zanetti treated us to a scrumptious lunch at a local restaurant. The lunch was served family-style with platter after platter of local cuisine. But what caught my attention was the entryway to the restaurant. The path was lined with large planters filled with abundant, beautiful herbs. After that day, I vowed I would someday have my own herb garden. Coming to Georgia gave me that opportunity.
Mom was more into blooming plants and her yard still reflects that love. Beginning in February, there are plants blooming every week until October. The Man and I have worked hard to maintain her garden the way she loved it.
We added two greenhouses, which The Man had always wanted, to the property and then had a deck added to the back side of the house. The deck gave mom a place to sit in the fresh air, with Midas, her marmalade companion. It became the perfect place for the herb garden I had dreamed of having. I began buying eighteen gallon plastic tubs which I drilled holes in for drainage. I filled about one third with gravel and another third with cheap potting soil and then the topped the pots with high-grade soil. Next I scattered about fifty earthworms into each pot, fertilized and soaked the pots. I planted: mint. sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, dill, parsley, chives and cilantro. I dried the herbs, placed in zip bags and through them in the freezer. In the fall, we moved the planters into the greenhouses, installed heaters for the coldest days, when the temperature would drop below 30 at night.
Most of the plants survived the winter and made their way back to the deck for another spring and summer. Basil does not survive; as soon as the temperature falls below 35, the basil is toast, even in the greenhouse. Parsley, cilantro and dill are tough to get through the heat of the summer. They go to seed as soon as the heat hits 90 and in NE Georgia, we have a lot of 90+ days. Three years in I tired of moving all the pots in and out and decided to see if the rosemary and mint would survive the winter on the deck. They did.
This past winter, I also left the sage, oregano and thyme out and ta da everyone survived. Many of my herbs are now in their seventh season and heartier than ever.
Because I didn’t want an empty greenhouse, I filled six empty tubs with cut-up potatoes (with eyes) and put them in the greenhouse for the winter. Nothing happened. This spring we moved those pots to the front of the house for peppers and suddenly, potatoes are coming up all over…
In 2015, I was gifted four citrus plants in six-inch pots that had been started from seeds. We put them in the eighteen gallon tubs on one side of the greenhouses and now 7 years later, one has bloomed and produced fruit. I can’t remember what kind of citrus they are so it will be a pleasant surprise. On the other side I planted bunching onions from Baker Creek heirloom seeds and every year, they re-seed themselves, giving us green onions all year around.
This year I have eight tubs of peppers and potatoes and twelve tubs of tomatoes. Our tub count has now surpassed fifty. This year I tilled the pots, added more earthworms and topped with more soil.
I planted April 21st and here is a slideshow/video of that day.
In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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