If you’ve ever considered growing edibles but don’t know where to begin, the Pizza Garden could very well be for you. I’m not suggesting you grow your own wheat, obviously, that would just be silly when you can buy a perfectly good pizza base in your local supermarket, but if you fancy trying fresh home grown produce, pizza topping produce could be the way to go.
Starting with tomatoes, for your sauce – now’s the perfect time to buy baby tomato plants. Gardener’s Delight is an oldie but reliable, and cherry tomatoes are good to grow in Ireland as they ripen relatively quickly. Plant them in the sunniest possible spot, under glass if at all possible – consider a sunny porch or kitchen window if you’re growing them in pots. If you have trouble ripening them in late summer, pick them and pop them in a paper bag with a banana, and the ethylene gas the banana gives off will help ripen up the tomatoes for you.
I love rocket on a pizza, but then I love green leaves on anything – I must have been a rabbit in a former life. Quick and easy to grow, keep it in a shady spot if you can and water well to prevent bolting – sow seed straight into the ground or buy plug plants.
To really bring an Italian taste to your homemade pizza, you’ll need oregano – find it in the herb section at the garden centre and pop it in amongst your flowers if you like, as it’s a lovely ornamental plant as well as having useful aromatic leaves – the golden form is just as pretty and edible. Scatter over your pizza prior to cooking and pile it into your homemade tomato sauce too.
Children will get a great sense of achievement from growing their own, and I’ve yet to meet a kid who doesn’t like pizza!
Anne’s Tip of the Week:
Basil’s good on pizza too – tear it up and scatter over near the end of cooking – and a supermarket pot will grow happily on a sunny windowsill for a few weeks. You can grow it outdoors from June onwards in a sunny, sheltered spot.
Anne Byrne Garden Design provides easy to follow Garden Plans that you can implement right away or in stages. Anne’s design flair and passion for plants brings a touch of magic to gardens of all sizes.
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