Swiss chard can come in many colorful varieties.
Michael Page says that tending the vegetable garden at Mounts Botanical Garden is a relaxing task.
Chinese cooking staple bok choy.
Amethyst bush beans will turn green when cooked.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
Wend your way to the southwest corner of Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach and you’ll find tomato, red cabbage and other tender young plants laid out in well-organized rows.
This is Mounts’ half-acre vegetable garden where we find Horticultural Supervisor Michael Page bending down to plant young basil stems.
“This garden has an educational purpose to show people what they can do in their back yards,” he says.
Page has been tending the Mounts gardens for 17 years. Ask him how he decides what crops to plant each year and he’ll tell you that he looks for vegetables that do well in South Florida’s climate, are disease-resistant and “catch my eye.”
This year his choices include red, purple and white carrots; purple beans that turn green after cooking (“kids love them,” he says); Sierra onions that he has grown to the size of soccer balls; and cheddar cauliflower that’s actually yellow.
There also are plenty of fruit trees, including mango, cherimoya, star fruit and jaboticaba, which has grapelike fruit that grows from the trunk of the tree. The trees are kept small by selecting dwarf varieties and selective pruning that makes harvest easy.
Ask Page what he won’t plant and he’ll tell you: corn and anything in the cucumber family like zucchini that are susceptible to disease. “They are a nightmare. If you want to spray the heck out of them, be my guest. But for me it’s just too time-consuming,” he says.
After all, there’s always something to keep him busy. To prepare the soil, he uses composted cow manure available in bags at big box stores. He pores over seed catalogs from Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) to decide what to purchase.
He has a file drawer full of catalogs but sticks with this company. “I’ve never had a bad package of seeds from them,” he says.
After receiving the seeds, he begins planting. “Perhaps the biggest mistake people make is placing the seeds too deeply in the soil. Many need light to germinate,” he says.
He shows us where, the day before, he planted carrot seeds by raking the ground, scattering the seeds and then lightly tamping them in with his rake.
“You just have to make sure they come in contact with the soil and boom, you have a garden,” he says.
As one type of crop matures and is harvested, he replaces it with another. He hopes to replant the rows three times during the growing season that ends in the spring.
It ends sooner for people who overwater their gardens. “People water everything and end up killing it,” he says.
Instead of traditional irrigation systems that use sprinklers, he has changed the garden over to drip irrigation. “It makes a big difference,” he says.
As we walk through the garden he proudly points to the straight rows of Italian dandelion greens, bulbing fennel, Chinese cabbage and kale, many of which are swathed in straw. That helps keep the weeds down and the moisture in the soil. It also forms walkable paths between the crops so he and volunteers can lovingly tend each of the plants.
“We just want to show you how simple it really is to grow this stuff,” he says, hoping he can persuade you to go home and start digging.
Gardening tip of the month
“If you don’t have room for raised tomato beds, grow them in pots. Just be sure to put the pot on something like a growing cloth or cement surface. You don’t want the roots growing out the hole in the bottom of the pot and coming in contact with the soil. Once the roots touch the soil, nematodes or small worms can get in and damage the roots. Then you have a problem.”
Michael Page, horticultural supervisor, Mounts Botanical Garden
If You Go
Mounts Botanical Garden, 531 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach
Hours: The garden is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 4 Sunday. Suggested donation for entry is $5 per person. Mounts Botanical Garden nursery, where you can purchase plants, is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Potted plants also are available at the gift shop.
Information: 233-1757; www.mounts.org
Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.
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