The Juicing/ Smoothie Garden

You’d have to be inside the Mars Rover to have not heard about the benefits of smoothies and juicing. Many of us get the vegetables, fruits and herbs we can not fit in during the day, in one delightful glass every morning. It is the pinnacle of both convenience and organic, just-harvested goodness to be able to collect your ingredients directly from the garden. And it just so happens that the seasonal winter garden produces many of our favorite Juicing/Smoothie veggies and herbs.

What we can grow.Greens are a mainstay of juices and smoothies as they are cancer-preventing, energy-boosting, stress-relieving and all-around alkaline. Your homegrown greens can include spinach, romaine lettuce, chard, kale and beet greens. And if nitrate-high, performance-boosting beets are good enough for the Olympic athletes to guzzle, then they are good enough for us. And the color is fantastic!Celery is a surprisingly healthy vegetable but, fair warning, a bit difficult to grow. It requires copious watering, fertilizer and compost, however, the homegrown stuff tastes unlike anything at the grocer’s. Broccoli is a rewarding vegetable whose sweet calcium-rich stalks are a wonderful addition to vegetable drinks. Carrots bring a different flavor and an immunity boost to juices and its partner in crime, the Radish, will add a nice spicy bite to your drink, the kind we often get from the fairly expensive Ginger. Add the folic acid-rich radish leaves too.Fennel is another fantastic taste booster and as a cousin of celery; it has terrific health benefits. Fennel actually grows wild in Los Angeles, and be aware, if you plant it at

home, it will re-seed everywhere. Our wild fennel does not produce a bulb like grocer fennel. You (yes, you!) can forage wild fennel stalks and juice the fronds. Fennel is a great digestive aid and skin brightener. Bon Appétit!

How we grow it.There are a variety of ways to plant your Juicing/Smoothie Garden. You can place your veggies in-ground, in pots or my favorite way, in raised beds. I’m going to give you several plans for a 4’ by 8’ size garden. But you can use the ideas outlined here to create a Juicing/Smoothie veggie garden anywhere.

In the table below, our seasonal Juicing/Smoothie veggies are sorted by the space they require in the garden. These measurements take into account the space the plant needs to grow, as well as the space needed between plants. Using this guide, you can evaluate your own space and see what’s possible!

Herbsand flowers can fit in the corners and between rows in your raised bed. Plant your choice of Parsley, Dill, Basil, Cilantro, Tarragon and Mint for juicing and smoothies. Plant Sage, Rosemary and Thyme to deter the cabbage worm. (A discussion on these little buggers is coming up.)

Flowers are important in the vegetable garden as they draw pollinators to our plants. Simple annuals such as edible Pansies and Poppies (float one on top of a smoothie for your love), Sweet Alyssum and Cosmos are my favorites for the winter garden. All of these annual flowers come in 6-packs and I’d pick two for the 4’ by 8’ garden.

For each letter, you can choose any veggie from the appropriate list. By using a square-foot gardening grid, a 4’ x8’ bed can fit any number of choices. For example, A,B,B,C,C could be Broccoli, Beets, Kale, Lettuce and Spinach.

You can also plant combinations like A,A,B; A,B,B,B; A,A,C,C; A,C,C,C,C,C; B,B,C,C,C,C,C; B,B,B,C,C,C; B,B,B,B,C,C. The fun never ends! (Examples of each of these designs can be found here.)

Next to each veggie listed on the table, I’ve made a suggestion on how to purchase it. For those that say both seedling and seed, I am recommending succession gardening: plant seeds alongside of the seedlings. This is a great way to keep plants coming all season long AND a way to experience different varieties. There is a far greater variety of vegetable seeds available online than there are vegetable seedlings at the garden nursery.

JUICING/SMOOTHIE GARDEN VEGETABLE CHOICES TABLESize  Requirement Vegetable How  to  Purchase

List  A  (3’x  4’) Broccoli Seedling  (6-­‐pack)

Carrot/Radish Seed

Celery Seedling  (6-­‐pack)

List  B  (2’  x  3’) Beet Seed

Kale Seedling  (6-­‐pack)  &  seed

Swiss  Chard Seedling  (6-­‐pack)  &  seed

List  C  (2’  x  2’) LeMuce  (Romaine) Seedling  (6-­‐pack)  &  seed

Spinach Seedling  (6-­‐pack)  &  seed

You can tuck your herbs and flowers in the corners and between rows. Mint is a wonderful additive to juices and smoothies, but its invasive growing pattern needs to be relegated to a separate container.

Your Planting Tips

BEETSBeets are beautiful in the garden. Both the striking greens and the root of this vegetable are delicious. You can harvest the greens off a beet plant 2 times before harvesting the beets underground. These grow well from seed or seedling. Harvest the beets when they are young. They dry out easily during our temperate winter.

BROCCOLIBroccoli stalks are a sweet and nutritious addition to juices and smoothies. When you are shopping for your broccoli seedlings, make sure to examine the back of the leaves, so you don’t bring any pests home with you.

Broccoli needs to be harvested before the broccoli head flowers. Watch your plant carefully for the right time to harvest. After you harvest the main head, you will get smaller broccoli heads on the sides of the plant.

Pro Tip: I’d rather you harvest a small head of broccoli than miss your opportunity. With all your vegetables, when in doubt, HARVEST.

CARROT/RADISHYou will never again take a simple carrot for granted after growing your own. It feels like a miracle when you get a long, straight carrot, and it is! Enjoy the many unique varieties of carrot seed found in seed catalogs online. Carrot seeds are TINY. Spread them down a 1/2” deep row and then thin them after they get their first true leaves. I plant radish in the exact same row as the carrot. Radish seeds are much larger than carrot seeds and you’ll be able to place them 1” apart down the carrot seed row. While the radish grows and swells it creates a roomy space which the carrot will move into. The radish will be ready for harvest in 3-4 weeks while the carrot will continue to enjoy a few months of maturing. Radishes can add the same spicy bite that ginger brings to your drinks.

CELERYCelery seedlings looks just like plain-leaf parsley seedlings and they are relatives. When grown at home, celery has a delicious, bold, naturally-salty taste. You can expect the stalks to be a bit smaller, firmer and stringier than their supermarket counterparts. They are fantastic juiced, braised, as well as added to stocks and sauces. You can use both the stalks and the leaves.Celery needs lots of water, generous compost and continuous fertilization. Pull the celery plant from the ground to harvest. From seed it takes about 90-140 days to grow.

KALEKale can be planted by seed or by seedling. Kale delivers incredible variety both in appearance and taste. A few of Kale’s varietals include the meaty “Dino” Lacinato, the uber-colorful Red Russian, and the curly, almost frilly, Winterbor and Redbor. If you plant seedlings, plant a row of seeds alongside them so, by the time you harvest the seedling, another kale plant will be on its way. When harvesting, cut the outer leaves first. The plant grows upwards and will continue to produce leaves along its stalk.

LETTUCE/SPINACHLettuce is a winter staple and romaine is the best juicing lettuce. It grows very well from seedling, as well as seed, so I invite you to experiment with different tastes and

textures. Lettuce doesn’t take up much room in your garden and can grow under larger plants as well. It is compatible to all veggies. Add a few more lettuce seeds to your garden every month for a steady supply.Harvesting lettuce is easy. Simply cut off the leaves you want to use, starting from the outside of the plant, and leave two inches at the bottom. The plant will grow back several times if you are lucky. You can harvest an entire head of lettuce this way as long as you leave 2” of the plant at the base. As part of your regular maintenance, remove browning, broken or wilted leaves from the plant. If you don’t harvest your lettuce, it may bolt and by then it will be too bitter to eat. Spinach receives the exact same care.

SWISS CHARDSwiss Chard can be planted by seedling or seed and comes in yellow, pink and dark magenta. It is one of the prettier greens to grow. (Beets and chard share the same ancestor.) If you plant seedlings, plant a row of seeds alongside them so, by the time you harvest the seedling, another chard plant will be on its way. When harvesting, cut the bigger, outer leaves first. Like kale, the plant grows upwards and will continue to produce leaves along its stalk.

PESTSThese innocuous looking cabbage worms will wipe out an entire kale or broccoli plant in a matter of days. Your best bet is to hand pick them off. Where you see one, you will see more. Check every day. They really blend in and love to rest along stems and under leaves right along the rib of the leaf. They can be much smaller than the ones pictured here and yet very destructive.

Aphids love winter veggies. They are easily destroyed by wiping the offensive buggers off with your fingers, with a spray from the hose or use some trusty dishwashing liquid spray all over them. Cutting off badly infected areas is a good idea and often times, the whole plant has to go for the good of the garden.

Powdery mildew is a year-round problem. Try not to wet a plant’s leaves at night and remove and discard affected leaves quickly. Watch chard as it is often affected by this problem. Try to keep it in full sun.

Your best defense against problems with your garden is simply paying attention to it. Enjoy your garden. Spend time in it. Harvest often and replant those succession seeds. Your veggies, and your renewed health, will thank you!

My Juicing/ Smoothie Garden Oct, 2012:Broccoli, Red Russian Kale,

Lacinato Kale, Romaine Lettuce, Cosmos(A,B,B,C,C)

Get our the juicer! This makes 3 glasses of juice and lasts in the fridge 2 days.

MY FAVORITE GREEN JUICE

6 large kale leaves

2 large fuji apples

2 lemons

2-3 pieces ginger or radishes

1 yellow bell pepper

2 broccoli stems

2 large cucumbers

6 leaves romaine

1 bulb fennel

4 stalks celery

Really, really yum. Now clean your juicer.