April is widely considered as the best month to start planting your summer garden. There are a wide array of fruits and vegetables that can be planted now to ensure the best possible growing conditions of the season.
Have you ever thought of making your own salsa? Well, how about growing your own salsa garden? You can plant all of the necessary ingredients to make a great tasting salsa in April.
Growing a salsa garden is easy for any gardener. Imagine picking tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, onions, and basil for the most fresh and best tasting salsa you've ever had! Growing a salsa garden brings families together both outdoors and indoors!
What is Salsa?
Salsa originates from Mexico with basic ingredients that include: tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, and onions. Salsa can either be chilled, heated, chopped, or blended to meet most standards. Salsa straight from the garden is very fresh with awesome flavor. It's also a great snack being low in calories and fat.
Salsa Garden Design
Some gardeners may choose to arrange the salsa garden plants together in the garden. However, there is no reason why each vegetable must be grown in its own neat and tidy row. Set aside an area in the vegetable garden to grow salsa veggies. Get creative in the salsa garden by arranging the plants in concentric circles, with the star ingredient, the tomato, in the center of the design. Onions planted around the edge of the circle form a delicate border for the bed, while ripening pepper plants interspersed with cilantro form the middle layer.
Harvesting and Making Salsa
Regardless of the design or method used to grow a salsa garden, harvesting will no doubt become the favorite part of growing a salsa-themed garden. Once all of the ingredients have been harvested, coarsely chop up ripe tomatoes, peppers, onion, and cilantro, season with salt and pepper to taste, and, if desired, squeeze the juice from half a lime over all. Toss and serve!
Our Favorite Salsa Garden Varieties
- Tomatoes - The Roma variety is a great tomato plant that has excellent flavor for your salsa.
- Peppers - Early Jalapeno is a great in between pepper that will satisfy both the sweet and hot taste buds.
- Cilantro - Good old original cilantro varieties will add that extra zest to the garden salsa.
- Basil - Valentino basil is a large leaf basil plant that has great aromatic leaves.
- Onions - Candy Hybrid Onions are great tasting and can be grown almost anywhere.
Adapted from an article by Urban Farmer
Leave a comment