Celery
By Andrea Peck
This week I decided to steer away from controversial topics and instead talk about celery. You may ask why. Why celery? I guess this is an ode to the celery in my garden. The other day I realized, while picking off two “petioles” (the official name for the edible portion of the celery plant) that I have not purchased celery in quite a while. With random luck, I have finally succeeded in growing this lovely green vegetable. I have two plants that sit in a long, thin bed alongside a fence near my chicken coop. Originally, this area was weedish lawn – the kind that turns into a long grassy mess and grows up the fence. It was a nightmare.
One day I got real and decided I needed more vegetable space. I took one look at that area of visual assault and decided it was a good location. Plus it was near my chicken coop, which is where I get my soil. I am a bit lazy about cleaning the coop, but this comes in handy when I need good soil. Amidst the digging, the girls come and peck at invisible stuff. Probably ghosts of worms past.
This time I took the easy route and smothered the ground with cardboard, placing landscape bricks around the perimeter. I shoveled chicken dirt into the wheelbarrow and dropped it into the new bed. This is a heavy and difficult job best done by someone else – preferably someone that you want to tire out, like your son or neighbor or both. Not to exclude women from the group – my exceptionally athletic 8-year-old niece, Alana, comes to mind.
I filled up this area and decided to lie down for a few days or a month or something. This was about two years ago and now I can see that those hens paid off, because everything grows in that shadowy area. Everything, including my celery. I currently have two plants. I do not, as others suggest, pull up the entire plant and store it in the refrigerator. I simply pull off stalks as I need them and then let the whole thing go to flower. All I can say is DO THIS. This year I noticed little celery starts in various parts of the yard. The wind must have blown the little seeds off the original plant. In addition, I try not to waste the leafy part of the celery – instead, I use this when making soups or broths and even chop it up in place of parsley.
I have read a little bit about reseeding plants. The thing that I have noticed in my own yard is that I generally have trouble growing in the beginning. I'm not sure why – I attribute it to my lack of a green thumb. Like I said, I can be lazy. In my experience the best gardeners are energetic and even border on OCD. Sadly, this is not me. But, I have seen that once a plant gets established, the next generation grows quite easily. When you allow a plant to “go to seed” you are doing something wonderful for your garden. First, the plant itself often sheds many thousands of seeds. Think about it – this is equivalent to a lot of seed packets (if your child is doing the new Common Core math, he or she should be able to figure out exactly how much “a lot” is). Also, the seeds are fresh. I often wonder how long those seeds in those paper packets have been sitting around (usually at room temperature which significantly lowers the viability of seed). Lastly, the seed that spreads from a plant in your own garden is already habituated to the microclimate and growing conditions that it will sprout in.
Lastly, I'd like to mention that using cardboard to smother weeds and grass does work. I've used this method twice and have had no problems. Just remember to use a thick enough layer of cardboard (about two boxes thick) and cover that with compost and soil at least 6-8 inches thick.
For more information on the celery plant see this link: http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/celery.pdf