"gardens" news and stories

Forget valet parking and a wine list the size of the Empire State Building. The hottest restaurant trend of the year, according to a survey of chefs, is decidedly more down to earth.

More than a third of the nearly 2,000 chefs surveyed by the National Restaurant Association picked kitchen gardens as the top trend of 2010, which dovetails nicely with another of the survey's findings. Chefs were also given a list of more than 200 separate items to rank as "Hot Trend," "Yesterday's News," or "Perennial Favorite." "Locally grown produce" ranked number one on that list, with more than 88 percent of chefs identifying it as a "Hot Trend."

And really, you can't get much more locally grown than plucking lettuce from your restaurant's own back yard.

It would seem like this is one trend where New York would be unable to compete, however. After all, the notion of a restaurant garden conjures up images of some bucolic bistro nestled in the rolling hills of Napa Valley.

Want an idea that's ripe for the times? Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on ornamental plants for your yard, spend it on edibles -- let those orange squash blossoms, red tomatoes, and purple cabbages be the main event.

Edible landscaping, as it's called, is a trend that speaks to many current food issues. Want fewer pesticides in your salad? Done -- you know exactly what did (and didn't) go into growing this stuff. Want to keep your food supply local? You can't get much more local than your front walkway.

The concept isn't new, of course -- kitchen gardens predate the kitchen, when you think about it. But the push to bring the edible stuff out of the backyard and into the front is very hot right now, with websites and books devoted to the topic. Advocates point out that integrating vegetables into the rest of the greenery actually promotes both healthier diets and healthier gardens. "[It] works well because, if you're mixing in with flowers, it attracts pollinators," Susan Littlefield, horticulture editor at the National Gardening Association, told the Columbus-Dispatch. Planting this way also creates more flow in the landscape. "You don't have to think about digging up the yard and putting in a big rectangle," Littlefield pointed out.

• New Jersey suburbanites are starting to ditch the perfect lawn in favor of sustainable food gardens.
• And the kids are right there with them, complete with eco-friendly lunchboxes.
• Chablis has gotten a bad rap. The Louis Michel Chablis may help change all that.
• Wondering who won the Pillsbury Bakeoff? Turns out she's from New Jersey.

You don't have to be gregarious or adventurous to start or be part of a community garden. If you're lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with an available spot of ground, say 80'x80', you have the beginnings of a great social experiment. Here in Boulder, this was inclusive to the development plans in my neighborhood so procuring growing space wasn't a problem. I thought getting people to sign up and rent plots (this wasn't my job) would be an issue. Not so. It was what should be grown that got thorny. Most wanted veggies and flowers. Some wanted only flowers and vice versa. In the end it was an even mix. We even had edible flowers: I ate carnation petals right from the plant, and later steeped in sherry. The point is, a typical 9-5 person doesn't have time to tend a large garden. When folks come together and each grow their specialty, we all get to cook the many varieties of squash, cabbages, onions, roots and shoots. I never cared for Zucchini but my neighbor three houses down traded me some zukes for a futures claim on my pumpkins. The zucchini bread was eaten in one sitting; she plans to make pumpkin bread next month. It may sound corney, so to speak, but growing food with people you didn't know really brings food into focus. At least that's been my experience.

Our garden's first year was a success. Nothing was poached and there was a healthy competitive nature to the venture. The only "failure" was the tomatoes. Hard to grow at altitude with minimal care. Other than that, if you have the opportunity, you might start here.

Source

Yes, really. Folks in the town of Felton, England, near Newcastle, claim that a giant rabbit has been tearing through their vegetable patches and eating their crops. As you might expect, there have been plenty of references to Wallace and Gromit. Felton residents have even posted an armed guard, according to a Reuters article. Witnesses say that the beast is black and brown, with one ear longer than the other. The bunny pictured here is a German breeding rabbit, just to give you an idea of what the people of Felton may be dealing with. Breeds such as the Continental Giant commonly grow to this size, according to an AFP article about the Felton monster.

Perhaps this beast has learned to swim and is also responsible for the Massachusetts parsnip theft mentioned earlier.

[Via Knit Flix]