I’ve made a few attempts at vegetable gardening but we just don’t get enough sun or heat to have the usual kind of garden with tomatoes, squash, and vegetables that require heat to ripen. What does grow well are the leafy greens; lettuces, arugula, kale, and chard.
We like stir fried suppers in our house so this year I’m trying something different; a stir fry garden. The produce section at Chuck’s and Fred Meyer’s have bok choi but precious little else in the way of Asian greens. Enter Kitazawa Seed Company, an Oakland CA business which has been supplying Asian vegetable seeds since 1917.
Quote from the website: “We offer over 500 seed varieties that produce dento yasai or traditional heirloom vegetables of Japan, to the Asian vegetables popularly found in farmers’ markets, specialty grocery stores and restaurants.”
After reading several books from the library I purchased these books which helped me decide which vegetables would work in our garden.
Asian Greens by Anita Loh-Yien Lau
Oriental Vegetables by Joy Larkcom
Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard by Geri Harrington
And here is what I ordered from Kitazawa Seed Co. for our starter stir fry garden:
By the way, Garden Fever in Portland carries a selection of Kitazawa Seeds or you can view the pdf catalog here.
This old terrace is the site of the future stir fry garden. Cardboard was added to help block weeds from coming up. It looks scruffy from winter neglect but will be getting overhauled in the next month.
And how about you, what new plans have you for this year?
One Vancouver Garden 