Thanks to the UrbMat all you need to start growing vegetables is a thumb (and it doesn’t even have to be green!).

I know it’s freezing cold outside, but now is the time to starting thinking about growing vegetables. It’s extremely rewarding to cook a meal made with stuff grown in your own backyard. Unfortunately more than a few of us find home gardening confusing and often unsuccessful. And if you live in an urban area, good luck finding the space.

For us lazy gardeners, high tech tools for growing vegetables are extremely attractive, but few will take you from seed to sprout faster than the UrbMat from grow-it-yourself social food company UrbnEarth. This plug-and-play gardening system makes it possible for anyone to start growing vegetables immediately–so you can get past the “am I doing it right?” phase and on to the “look how awesome gardening is!” phase.

Designed for use by families, educators and kids (aka gardening novices), the 3′ x 2′ UrbMat looks like a miniature Twister mat. Only the colorful dots aren’t for your left arm or right leg–they’re for 12 different types of non-GMO herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Just roll it out on top of the soil or in a raised bed. Press the seedball starters (a mix of chili powder, compost, worm castings, clay, and non-GMO seeds) into the correct circle on the mat, and you’re done. The UrbMat has a weed-control layer and a hose-ready irrigation system for care of your growing vegetables.

Among the veggies and herbs, you’ll notice marigolds and catnip, which are included as natural pest repellents so your UrbMat can remain organic. “Marigolds and catnip not only look pretty, but are also some of nature’s best pest-control agents. Marigolds deter nematodes and worms that will feed on your plants roots. Catnip attracts lacewings, which feed on aphids and mites,” explains the UrbnEarth website.

And for every mat purchased, the company gives two meals to kids suffering from hunger in the U.S. Meals are donated in partnership with 2 Degrees Food and Feeding America.

Related on Ecosalon

10 Ideas for Sexy Urban Gardens

7 Items You Can Reuse To Improve Your Garden

The 10 Easiest Vegetables To Grow At Home

All images via UrbnEarth

The post UrbMat: A One-Step Tool For Growing Vegetables appeared first on EcoSalon.

Two different variations of homemade pesto, both equally delicious.

Some may think it’s silly to grow your own sorrel when you have it growing wild just around the corner. As the cultivated sorrel has a slightly milder and nicer flavor, I believe it’s a great idea to include this sour and lemony herb in a garden plot.

It’s best is to harvest the young light green leaves, as when the leaves gets older and larger (darker green) they get tough and unpleasantly sour. Sorrel can be cooked like spinach for soups and omelets or raw in salads and pesto (see below). I also think the sourness in this pesto works terrifically well with fish, poached or cured. Spread on crackers, this sorrel pesto can be a simple and delicious appetizer.

Sorrel Pesto

About 2 cups of young sorrel leaves
2 garlic cloves
A handful of walnuts
Fresh red chili to your own taste (I use about ½”- 1″ depending on hotness)
½ cup grated parmesan
Olive oil
A few sprigs of parsley (optional)
Season with: salt and pepper

Pick about 2 cups of very young cultivated sorrel leaves. Rinse the leaves in cold water and drain while you prepare the other ingredients. Chop the walnuts and the chili a little. Grate the parmesan roughly.

When the sorrel is dry, run them in the food processor (or use a mortar and pestle). Add chopped garlic and run the machine a bit before adding chili, walnuts, (parsley) and parmesan. Drizzle some olive oil over. Blend the mixture carefully as it should have a crunchy texture. If necessary add some more olive oil. Season with salt and fresh pepper.

Note: Sorrel contains plenty of vitamins but the plant contains some oxalic acid which is not healthy if eaten too much (especially if your body easily creates kidney stones). I think to have sorrel on a few occasions though over the summer can hardly harm you.

This spring I have seeded plenty of basil and they are now all growing on my window sill. They are doing well but are still too small to be harvested. If you don’t have the patience to seed basil you can of course buy a plant from the plant shop. You can also sometimes find small pots at the vegetable shop which work really well replanted in a larger and nicer pot. I use basil to spice up almost any vinaigrette and as a main herb when making hazelnut baked cauliflower. But why not try basil as a flavor in cocktails! I like it with cucumber in my favorite summer drink Pimm’s Cup. Even if it’s well known, I still think basil on fresh tomatoes and mozzarella is magical.

This basil pesto is made with the addition of celery stems (and leaves) that gives a nice grassy flavor. Instead of pine nuts I use walnuts (or roasted sunflower seeds). I use this basil pesto with spaghetti, as a side to vegetable patties or on bread topped with tomatoes.

Basil & Celery Pesto

2 stems of celery
About 2 cups basil leaves
Two cloves of garlic
Handful walnuts (or sunflower seeds)
½ cup fresh grated parmesan
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Rinse the basil leaves carefully under cold water. Set aside and let dry while preparing the other ingredients. Chop the celery and garlic into small pieces. If the celery comes with leaves I would add them to the pesto as well. Mix all ingredients in a blender, starting with the basil, garlic and some olive oil. Add the celery, walnuts and lastly the grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add as much olive oil as you like. Use less if you like to spread the pesto on bread and more if serving with pasta.

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Both of these pesto variations, when packed nicely in a jar, are a great summer present – especially when you have a place in your garden where sorrel or basil grows better than any flowers.

If you like to learn more about sorrel I suggest reading Sarah Smith’s article about sorrel at The Foodie Bugle and Clotilde Dusoulier’s 50 Things To Do With Fresh Sorrel post.

Over at Food52 you can follow Amy Pennington’s City Dirt column on how to grow plants from seeds, etc.

Illustrations by Johanna Kindvall

The post Two Different Kinds of Pesto: Sorrel and Basil & Celery appeared first on EcoSalon.

Earlier this year, I started my first container vegetable garden. I have peppers and spinach coming along and some bright red grape tomatoes that I think are ready to pick – or are they? Even though they are red, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to pick them and add them to a salad just yet. Since I’m a novice gardener, I need to learn (and want to share) tricks for harvesting your vegetable garden at the perfect time. Gardening can be easy, we promise.

Cucumber: If you’re growing fresh slicing cucumbers, wait until they reach about seven to nine inches long and are a bright dark green color. They should be firm and smooth. When you harvest, be sure to leave a short stem on each one. You’ll need to check and pick cucumbers daily when they’re ready.

Leaf Lettuce: Once your plant has grown to about 4 inches in height, harvest the outer leaves, while allowing the inner leaves to grow. You can keep reaping the benefits of your lettuce plants all summer long.

Spinach: When leaves are four to six inches long, cut them off at the base. You want to do this before you see a flower stalk start to shoot up amongst your leaves. After you harvest, new leaves will grow in their place so you’ll have more spinach later.

Eggplant: Eggplant is one fruit that should be harvested when it’s slightly immature – experts say this leads to better flavor. Look for firm, shiny eggplants that are bright purple to black in color. Don’t pull your eggplants off the plant — cut them instead.

Summer Squash: This is one veggie that you want to pick young. Keep a close eye on summer squash, checking it daily even. Test the skin to see if it’s tender enough to poke your fingernail through – that’s a good indication that it’s time to pick. If you’re growing zucchini, ripe ones are typically between four and eight inches long and about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

Beets: Once you see beet shoulders popping out of the soil line, you can harvest them whenever they look like the size you like to eat.

Tomatoes: Should you pick them when red? Yes, but make sure they’re fully colored and slightly soft. Some green thumbs suggest waiting five to eight days after the tomatoes turn red. If you’re new to gardening, be sure to check their firmness daily. They can become soft quickly if overripe. The best way to pick? Twist and pull from the vine.

Onions: You might think onions are a bigger challenge because they’re hiding beneath the soil. However, they’re relatively easy to harvest. Watch for the top to ripen and fall over. Then, dig them out and allow them to dry in the sun. Be sure to harvest before the frost.

Carrots: These veggies can be tricky since it’s hard to know how long they are when they’re in the ground. Watch for orange tops of the carrots to appear at the soil line. When the diameter looks appropriate for the variety you’re growing, don’t stress about how long it might be, just pull one out of the ground to see if the length is good. If so, go ahead and harvest. But there’s no harm in pulling your carrots out later in the season long after they’re ripe – some experts swear a light frost gives the veggies a sweeter flavor.

Sweet Peppers: Pick your green peppers when they reach full size and feel firm. Red, orange or yellow peppers take an extra two or three weeks. They should remain on the plant until they turn the appropriate color.

Radishes: You don’t want radishes to get over ripe because they’ll get tough and woody – and they mature quickly so watch out! Once you see the tops of the bulbs showing at the soil line, pull them.

Peas: Don’t wait for your peas to develop seeds fully. Pick them when the pods look and feel full? They’ll be sweeter if you harvest them before they plump all the way. Too hard to tell? The best way to determine if you should pick your peas is by tasting one for sweetness.

Are you an expert in picking veggies at the right time? Have you grown sweet and flavorful harvests worth bragging about? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: Kelly1878, me’nthedogs, Arlington County, Gare and Kitty, Lizard10979

The post Under Ripe? Too Ripe? Or Just Ripe? appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you’ve got a green thumb but are burdened with a dark, shadowy yard, then you need to check out this clever idea. One of the brainiacs over at Instructables devised an easy way to make a mobile vegetable cart so you can chase the sun around your backyard to give your seedlings all the light they need.

You don’t have to be a master builder to put this cart together. Run to the local home improvement store and grab some plywood, wood screws, wheels, axles, and a few other goodies. The detailed post gives you exact measurements of the materials you’ll need and step-by-step directions on how to put the cart together.

Once assembled, don’t fill the bed of the cart with 25 bags of potting soil – it will be too heavy too move. Instead, take a cue from the designer who recommends, “a layer of lucerne, a layer of fertilizer, a layer of pea straw, a layer of fertilizer, a layer of dirt, and compost a layer…” and so on.

If the sunlight in your growing area is a moving target, this is a great solution for dealing with it. Mobile vegetable carts are also a terrific idea if you’re the kind of person who likes to mix up the look of her backyard on a whim. Put together a couple of these bad boys and go nuts “redecorating” the next time your landscaping starts to bore you.

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