Homegrown herbs, produce and fruit might just be easier than you think

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

Forget for a moment the most compelling reasons to grow your own vegetables, fruits and herbs—rising food prices and spotty government inspections and regulation—and instead consider the conveniences that can be had by at-the-ready lemons, limes, rosemary and thyme: No more last-minute jogs to the store when your bite-sized Trader Joe’s lemons only yield two tablespoons of lemon juice (not four). Gone are the days of buying plastic-packaged containers of herbs, only to toss out the unused portion (generally three-fourths) after it spoils. And salmonella? Not on your watch.

Backyard gardening doesn’t have to mean just flowers and greenery—or cacti and succulents. For a relatively small investment, you can attempt an equally colorful array of potted and planted edibles, and, with the right care, see a return on your dollars.

Those at the biggest advantage here are obviously you fortunate homeowners, with actual backyards and actual soil and actual garages where you can store shovels and hoses and the like. If you fall under this category, think about fruit trees, like peaches or apples, or plant berries, like raspberries and blueberries, says Janice Shibata, manager of Lakewood’s H & H Nursery.

Currently, H & H—which sells everything from pots and soil to corn and cucumbers—stocks Mid-Pride peach trees and Dorsett golden apple trees, as well as Cara Cara pink navel and Moro blood orange trees (five gallon pots for about $28). There’s also kumquats, grapes (wine grapes available, too!), avocados, cherries and plums.

The only downside? Depending on the ripening periods, it may take some time before you see any fruit—as in the case of the Cara Cara pink navel oranges, which are good from January to May. (Star ruby red grapefruit, on the other hand, produces fruit from May through October.)

But what if you don’t have a backyard—or if your “backyard” is a concrete back patio, or a stoop, or a deck? There are options for you as well, including building a planter for “square foot gardening” (learn more at squarefootgardening.com). Shibata recommends also focusing on limes and lemons, which are everbearing (providing fruit year-round) and can be potted, in some cases (depending on the size of your pot) surrounded by vibrant flowers (Shibata says typically, the bigger your pot, the better your chances for a healthy, thriving plant).

Or—and this is where you can have some fun and get creative—you can plant your own bundled herb pots ($1.99 per herb). Shibata says many customers bundle Italian herbs, with basil, parsley and oregano, for example. Or, you can let your eye—and not your cookbook—dictate your pot, matching chives with silver thyme (a purplish hue) or mint (which can have yellowish leaves). Whatever you decide, Shibata advises that you skip the seeds in favor of herbs that are already sprouted, which also allows for greater ease in deciding what goes where in the pot.

If you have none of the above—no backyard, no stoop, no deck—don’t resign yourself to cruising the supermarket aisles just yet, at least not for tomatoes (not that you’re likely doing so at the moment, anyway). Websites like cleanairgardening.com offer tomatoes-in-a-bag gardening kits. The Tomato Magic Grow Bag Kit (available for $16 on cleanairgardening.com) promises year-round tomatoes that can be grown indoors, with the seeds, soil and peat moss starter pellets all included.

Want herbs and greens? Try the even more space-agey Aerogrow Indoor Kitchen Garden (retails for $140 and above on various websites), which allows indoor gardening courtesy of special automatic, timed, energy-efficient light bulbs, and a dirt-free growing method that suspends roots in the air inside a 100% humidity, highly oxygenated chamber.

Whether you garden outdoors in the sun or indoors under light bulbs, however, the goal is a glimpse at self-sufficiency. Like all worthy DIY projects, there’s an element of chance at play here—but with any luck, the proof will be in the pudd . . . I mean pasta sauce.

H & H NURSERY 6220 LAKEWOOD BLVD | LAKEWOOD 90712 562.804.2513 | HHNURSERY.COM

Tags: gardening, h and h nursery, lakewood, Shelter