Edible Mexican Garden. Rosalind Creasy
When I choose my flower varieties I lean toward bright primary colors and include lots of orange and hot pinks. I plan out where the flowers go by determining their final height at maturity. That means I usually put the tall sunflower varieties and tithonias in the back of the border in among or in front of the corn and tall amaranths (choosing the north side of the garden so they won’t shade the other plants). I use the full-size cosmos, tall zinnias and marigolds, and most sages in the middle of the border, often among tomatoes and tomatillos; and I interplant the dwarf marigolds and verbena among the peppers and herbs. Dwarf nasturtiums I use for the borders of beds and in containers, and the large vining ones I use to cascade out of planter boxes. Morning glories are great on arbors, sometimes interplanted with chayotes or jícama, and I like to cascade them over a fence.
A garden full of bright-colored flowers speaks to Mexico. As a bonus, it also gives you armloads of flowers to bring in the house for bouquets.
mini mexican herb gardens
I have many colorful containers of Mexican herbs decorating my garden, even though I live in a mild climate, USDA Zone 9. Part of the reason I plant them is that they look great and I can keep them near the kitchen, but mostly I grow them because my climate is too cold to overwinter most of them. My solution is to grow the tenderest of them in containers and then either put them in my cold frame or bring them inside to my windowsill.
The Mexican herbs I’ve tried in containers are: cilantro, culantro, epazote, Mexican oregano, hoja santa, spearmint, and Mexican tarragon.
I was not always successful at growing plants in containers; in fact, at first I lost most of them before winter even set in. Through trial and error, I’ve found what I call the secrets for growing herbs in containers:
1. I use only soil mixes formulated for containers. Garden soil drains poorly and pulls away from the sides of the container, allowing most of the water to run out, and it often is filled with weed seeds. Straight compost is too fine and plants will drown.
2. Containers must have drainage holes in the bottom to prevent the plant from drowning. At planting time, I cover the holes with a piece of window screening or small square of weed cloth to keep dirt in and slugs out. (New evidence indicates that gravel or pottery shards in the bottom actually interfere with drainage.)
One of my favorite patio designs included a chair from Mexico designed by Roberto Matias from Oaxaca. Around it I cluster containers of ‘Super Chile,' a yellow ornamental pepper, a container of Mexican oregano, and a pepino plant native to South America. A tall chiltepín chili plant was very productive and by the holidays was covered with red fruits. I added marigolds, sunflowers, and some blue statice to give color.
3. I now use only containers large enough to provide generously for the plant’s root system and hold enough soil to avoid constant watering. I find most herbs grow best in large containers 18 inches, or more, in diameter. My southern friends report that in their climate, large containers are mandatory because the roots on the south side of small pots bake in the hot sun.
4. After years of pale plants, I found I need to fertilize frequently and evenly. For me, biweekly doses of fish emulsion work well, as does granulated fish meal renewed every five or six weeks.
5. I find the most difficult aspect of container growing is to maintain the correct moisture in the soil. Cilantro and mint suffer if allowed to dry out, but the Mexican oregano, Lippia graveolens, is drought tolerant and succumbs to root rot when overwatered. When I learned how to water properly, I was on the road to success.
6. When I bring the herbs in for the winter, I give them a half day of shade for a few weeks to prepare them for darker conditions. Before bringing them in, I wash the foliage well. I then locate them in a bright, sunlit spot away from heater vents. I water them less indoors than when they are actively growing in the garden. I keep them barely moist and I fertilize only when the days get longer in the spring.
A further note on watering: All gardeners need to learn to water container plants properly. Even in rainy climates, hand watering containers is usually a necessity, as little rain penetrates the umbrella of foliage covering a pot. I find that it is most helpful to water the container at least twice—the first time to moisten the soil (I think of it as moistening a dry sponge.) and the rest to actually wet it. To prevent the opposite problem, overwatering, I test the soil moisture content with my finger before watering.
Watering container-grown herbs is critical for all gardeners, but it’s of particular importance for those of us who live in arid climates. After years of parched-looking plants, I finally installed a drip system. What a difference! I use Antelco’s emitters, called shrubblers (available from plumbing-supply stores and via mail order from The Urban Farmer Store, listed in the Resources section on page 104), as they are tailored so each container on the system can have the exact amount of water it needs. My drip system is connected to an automatic timer and scheduled to water every night for four minutes from spring through fall.
I enjoy planting Mexican herbs in colorful containers It’s also an advantage when growing the tender varieties like culantro and Lippia graveolens as they are more readily brought inside when the weather gets cold.
Here, in the blue pot, is Mexican tarragon; in the purple, an ornamental chili; next, a large pot of cilantro; and in the red pot, a Mexican basil. My patio a number of years ago was filled with herbs and chilis The chili plants included, from the left, a tall ‘Chili d’Arbol,’ a serrano, and a shorter chilipiquín all grown in a large wooden planter box. Another chilipiquín grows in a large blue pot.
interveiw
the Anderson garden
That I grew a Mexican garden in California wouldn’t be big news to most gardeners. But I knew most Mexican vegetables and herbs could be grown in northern gardens as well, and I needed a demonstration garden to prove it. Vermont sounded convincingly northern, so I approached Kit Anderson, my good friend and, at the time, managing editor of one of the country’s finest gardening magazines, National Gardening, in Burlington, Vermont. Kit and I had worked on many projects together and I knew of her great interest in both Mexico and, of course, gardening.
We did some initial planning together, Kit did the ordering and the labor, and, after the harvest, I asked her to write a detailed account of her Vermont Mexican garden. It tickled me to invite one of the country’s premier gardening writers to contribute an essay to this book. Kit loved the idea. Here’s what she wrote:
“The eighteen-inch-tall statue of the Mexican corn god must have suspected something when I wrapped him in a blanket for the trip back from his native land to icy Vermont. Little did he know, but he had his work cut out for him. After all, our New England climate is not exactly suited for tropical crops. That’s why we started planning the garden by crossing off those vegetables that wouldn’t mature in a brief season. It meant we had to leave out chayote, jícama, and some of the southwestern flour corns and day-length-sensitive chiles. But we still had plenty to choose from: many chile peppers, tomatillos, bunching onions, cilantro, Mexican pinto beans and corn for drying, plus such necessities as tomatoes and squash.
“Growing heat-loving crops in Vermont isn’t as absurd as it sounds. We grow fine peppers and tomatoes just about any year, and I’ve even had okra produce