Let’s Grow a Cocktail Garden
What is the point of having a vegetable garden other than to have access to fresh herbs and vegetables? And if you prefer your daily serving of vegetables in a glass, the garden can be a great playground. If you’re a cocktail lover, almost every ingredient in your favorite drink has a botanical component: flavored or infused liqueur, fruit syrup, bitters, blended fruits or vegetables, juice and garnish. And you can get these ingredients straight from your garden. Every year, some of the most popular items from my garden are the lavender syrup, pickled cherry tomatoes for garnish, and the endless amounts of citrus juice I make. You can also grow a “cocktail garden.”
Start by creating a healthy herb garden.
Herbs come in two flavors: perennials like sage and rosemary, and delicate seasonal herbs like cilantro and basil. It’s helpful to sit down and think about what herbs you really want to work with and then divide that list into perennials and annuals. While herbs are great to scatter throughout your garden, especially since they can become large and bushy, you may also consider keeping them together in one space, like a spiral of herbs. These installations create space for a variety of herbs, and because of the way they are arranged in a spiral, they allow the hardier herbs to protect the more delicate ones. Remember that while your hardy herbs like winter thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and even parsley can be harvested in the winter, your annual herbs like basil, dill, cilantro, lemongrass, lemon verbena and garlic may only grow well in the summer . You might want to consider a home hydroponic garden to keep these herbs going all winter.
A note about mint: You will find that there are endless varieties of mint, and it is important to be very picky about this herb. Find one that has the amount of spices you need. It’s incredibly rare for anyone to recommend planting mint in the ground because of its tendency to spread out – instead plant it in a planter with a very secure bottom.
Grow aromatics for bitters and syrups
Lilac bushes, citrus trees, lavender or elderberry bushes, roses and jasmine vines are the building blocks for syrups that smell like heaven. You can collect the flowers and brew them into syrups or use them to make a tincture in your yard. Obviously, these plants require more space and time, so you need to pay more attention to them when planning. For example, elderberries produce both elderflowers and elderberries, which can be incredibly beneficial in your garden. But the plant itself can double in size in a year and is not self-pollinating, so it requires a partner. The blooming lilacs and jasmines are impressive—their scent can be heard throughout the yard—but the blooming period is unfortunately short, especially for lilacs. In many cases, they offer a narrow window of just a week or two to successfully harvest flowers, but fortunately, making syrup is a simple ratio of sugar and water and does not require much skill or practice.
Make a long-term investment in fruits
Some fruits, such as strawberries, can be very productive in their first year. However, most fruits take longer to root. Berry vines like raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries provide benefits, but you need to find a place to support the stems and then care for them so they don’t take over your yard. You will also need to learn how to prune them, as the berries tend to grow on second-year wood. Fruit trees can take years to become very productive, but once they do, they become valuable assets; just be sure to find trees suited to your climate and learn about local problems with the varieties you choose and how to care for them. For example, in rainy areas, stone fruits need to be treated with copper twice a year to prevent viruses from killing the tree.
Try growing rhizomes such as ginger, turmeric and horseradish.
We think of spices like ginger, turmeric and horseradish as herbs, but they grow like rhizomes: they reproduce, grow through an underground network of roots and produce shoots. If you find the right conditions, you can grow them at home. In the case of ginger and turmeric, you can buy “starts” on Etsy, but you’ve probably noticed ginger sprouting at home if you hold it for a while. Once this happens, you can take your ginger plant, plant it about three inches deep, and cover it with about an inch or two of soil in a location with partial sun, partial shade, and access to water. You will see shoots appear, and at the end of the season you will be able to dig up the spoils and use them. Ginger and turmeric also freeze well. Horseradish is a taproot, so it grows like a carrot and spreads through that taproot underground. Horseradish spreads and propagates easily in your garden and enjoys the same conditions as ginger. There’s nothing better than fresh grated horseradish, but unfortunately it’s one of the hardest spices to preserve. It starts to lose intensity the moment you rub it. You can freeze it, but the result is unsatisfactory.
Go ahead: grow a Bloody Mary
When you consider the vegetables that end up in your smoothies, peppers are an obvious choice. Although they only grow in summer, they keep very well. You can make hot sauces, dried peppers, and pepper flakes to use throughout the rest of the year. The benefit of having your own garden is that you can actually play with vegetables you wouldn’t otherwise think of, like fresh spring peas. They have a sweet, herbaceous yet mild flavor and can add spring color to your drinks, and peas are incredibly easy to grow and adapt to a wide range of spaces. Imagine a fall smoothie with pumpkin or even eggplant. Let your imagination play with the produce from your garden.
However, I think there is no greater joy than making your own Bloody Mary from the garden. You can use any vegetables you like, but I like to approach it from a V8 perspective and dress the tomatoes with carrots, celery, cucumber, bell peppers, and eggplant. In some places, celery is perennial and comes back year after year, but even if it doesn’t, several varieties of celery from the nursery will ensure you’ll always have it in your garden.