If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a minor building boom in Chester County that doesn’t have anything to do with houses.

  With the current state of the economy and celebrities like First Lady Michelle Obama taking hoes and shovels to their lawns to plant vegetable gardens, “grow-your-own” has become a national obsession. And at the leading edge of that trend, Chester County has a bounty crop of new vegetable gardens.

  A local farmer who sells topsoil in the eastern part of Chester County thanked me personally a few weeks ago because he’s now working almost 24/7 filling over a dozen new raised bed gardens in the Devon area alone. Many of these elaborate projects were inspired by recent TV shows or by my own garden, known locally from magazine articles. Laid out some 30 years ago, my garden’s topsoil, delivered by that same busy local farmer, has made it the veritable cornucopia of produce it still is today.

Gardening Dividends

  For those who want to save money on groceries and enjoy tastier fare, I can honestly say that gardening effort repays tenfold. I have many basic foods like potatoes, squash, garlic, carrots, beets, leeks, turnips and cold weather greens all winter long and well into the following spring. And well beyond the basics, I never have to buy fresh herbs, chutney, jams or jellies. Plus, pestos and salsas are made fresh in the summer and frozen for later use.

  But having that rich and varied food source does require some commitment and physical investment. So drop the spa membership and treat gardening like aroma therapy with a good aerobic workout all rolled into one.

First Steps

  So all this talk about Victory Gardens requires more than a desire to save money or be trendy. If you want it to work, you’ll have to plan. First you’ll have to take a good look at your soil because that will determine what you can do. Keep in mind that Chester County’s soils are very rich in minerals; that’s the good news. But there are several geological types of soil here, so it’s advisable to determine what you’re working with. Even more so than in many other parts of the country, our basic problem is that our soil is often heavy, with lots of clay close to the surface.

  To correct this heaviness, the liberal addition of granulated gypsum (available at garden shops) will work wonders. This addition will free up so many minerals in the clay that it will seem as though you’ve fertilized even though all you’ve done is break down the soil so its nutrients are more easily used by the plants.

  Of course, using the current craze of raised beds solves some of that heavy soil problem. With raised beds, you can spread good, loamy topsoil over whatever is there as existing soil and skip to the next step in the process: choosing plants you can grow with minimal trouble.

  Raised bed gardening has been around for thousands of years and its persistence speaks to its value. The historical practice that’s been recorded in ancient texts (back to Mesopotamian clay tablets) was to plant one type of vegetable in each bed. That way, sandy soil for beets or carrots could be created in the beds designated for them, while compost-rich soil could be built up in beds devoted to onions, leeks or garlics.

  Today, we tend to mix our vegetables, even in raised beds. In my garden I also make certain to rotate plantings from year to year, so that tomatoes or potatoes are not planted in the same place as last year. This is not a problem if you’re opening up new ground, but if you intend to stick with your same garden plot in the future, it helps to plan.

Best in the Brandywine

  What vegetables do best in the Brandywine Valley? Well, to be honest, just about everything. Although our latitude is nearly the same as Madrid, Spain, our spring is much like that of Yorkshire, England, but our summers are definitely Mediterranean, and our winters resemble those of Burgundy in France. This multi-personality climate spawned the heirloom varieties for which this region was once famous. In many ways, this unusual climate is a gift because it allows us to grow a wide range of food plants indigenous to different parts of Europe.

  Of course, our most famous heirloom tomato, The Brandywine, is probably better here in Chester County than anywhere else it’s grown. The same could be said of Dr. Martin’s Lima, developed near Westtown, PA in the 1920s and probably one of the best of all the large pole limas now grown.

  As I’ve written in a prior article in County Lines (“Homage to the Lowly Parsnip,” November 2007, available on CountyLinesMagazine.com under Back Issues), our heavy soil is ideal for growing parsnips (The Student and Hollow Crown are heirloom varieties that thrive here). Heirloom lettuces like Philadelphia Dutch Butter or Landis Winter Lettuce also do very well in our cool spring soils.

  And since we have a Yorkshire spring, this is also good pea country. Dwarf bush peas like American Wonder or Tom Thumb (for those who like petit pois) are other excellent growers here. However, I tend to favor English peas on big vines, like Glory of Devon, Lancashire Lad, or the purple-podded French one called Désirée.

Seeds vs. Seedlings

  One of the best commercial sources for heirloom seeds is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, MO and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Mineral, VA. Both companies are small and dedicated to offering as many heirloom varieties as possible. You can spend hours pouring over their catalogs or online listings.

  But if it’s plants you want instead of seeds, then I highly recommend a trip to Bowers, PA (near Kutztown), where you can select firsthand from thousands of scarce tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squash and other vegetables offered at very reasonable prices by Meadow View Farm. (This farm also happens to supply our local Wegmans with fresh tomatoes and peppers throughout the summer.) Meadow View Farm is operated by Old Order Mennonites, so the greenhouses are not open on Sundays.

Not Too Late

  If you’ve gotten a late start this season and are staring at July without having dug a garden, do not despair! There’s still plenty of time to plant hot weather heirloom greens that will add unusual flavors and appearance to mid-summer salads.

  Among these I’d recommend are golden purslane, New Zealand spinach (also called tetragonia), Malabar spinach, and any number of amaranths. All are quick growers, thrive in the heat and are excellent in salads. Young amaranth plants also make a delicious and highly nutritious cooked vegetable.

  The beauty of these particular old-time vegetables is that they like dry, sunny locations and are not particular about soil, so you won’t have to wait to build up your garden with amendments. These vegetables can be planted by scattering the seed, broadcast style, on even the worst kind of soil. Just work the ground well before sowing and keep the plants reasonably well watered. You’ll see results in no time. Talk about return on your investment!

Tip for Success

  If there are any watch points when it comes to planting heirlooms in Chester County, I’d say that melons stand at the top of the list. This is just not good melon country to begin with; we don’t have warm, sandy soil like South Jersey. That said, Jenny Lind can be coddled to perfection, and most old-time watermelons will do just fine. And so will all sorts of cucumbers (of the same cucurbit or vine-crop family).

  Among the squash and pumpkins, especially those with long vines and large fruit, choose moschata. This species came from Central America and can take the heat and humidity we typically get in July and August. Plus, this variety is so resistant to squash beetles that you may not have to resort to insecticides. Best of all, the moschatas are well-known for their rich flavor, so you may discover there’s a lot more to pumpkins than just jack-o-lanterns.

Cultivate the Mind

  All this reminds me that if you’re serious about changing your personal paradigms and shifting useless lawn into food production, you might want to read Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education, required reading for students in my kitchen gardening course at Drexel University.

  While the book follows Pollan’s personal journey from suburban house with front lawn to rural house surrounded by edible landscapes, it’s also a journey that many people must make if they’re to come to terms with the contradictions we’ve created with a highly unsustainable lifestyle that is, alas, finally catching up with us.

  Old-time values of frugality and individualism are not new. And if less money means more sharing, then perhaps digging your own kitchen garden may be the first step in discovering what it’s like to be neighborly. As my old Chester County granny used to put it, learning to live above money.

  Once you have your garden, you’ll be partially off the grid anyway. And there’s no way you could buy that experience in a store.