Experimental Garden Dubbed a Success at CPBS

By: Johnica Morrow

The idea of a CPBS herb garden came to life as an experiment for this summer. Conceived by the Associate Director, Jon Garbisch, the Head Cook, Airicca Roddy, and myself, the garden was planted with the hopes of producing fresh herbs and possibly peppers and tomatoes that could be used to help offset the costs of these foods used by the kitchen. (Not to mention being more sustainable, better for you nutritionally, and light years more delicious.) Due to complications with both weather and bureaucracy, the experimental garden got a bit of a late start. Despite the late blooming (pun intended), the bed has blossomed into a beautiful garden with lots of yummy goodies sprouting forth.

Some of the seeds used for the garden were free seed packets that I happened to have left over from the School of Natural Resource's Naturepolooza event held last year. This is why we had a few little corn plants and some of the herbs that you see in the pictures below. We never really intended to serve corn from the garden, but what's a Nebraska garden without an attempt to grow corn? :)

Some of the plants, including various heirloom tomatoes and some of the peppers, came from a local farmer's market. CPBS was happy for a chance to buy fresh, local products that were useful for the station. Though these plants didn't have enough time to create lots of produce, they did help to confirm the hypothesis that these plants could, and would, thrive in the small plot outside of the kitchen. They produced a several harvests of tomatoes in the time that they had.

A few plants were purchased by an anonymous donor from a farmer's market in Lincoln and brought in for the garden. This included a couple of cherry tomato plants and a peppermint swiss chard plant. The plants were not planted in the garden for several weeks owing to the factors mentioned previously, so some of us were skeptical that they would grow to produce things by the end of the summer. Luckily, the skeptics were wrong. We have had several harvests from the cherry tomato plant, and the products were sweet with just a hint of tartness to yield an wonderful flavor. The chard plant, which looked like it wouldn't last long, has grown into a massive plant with emerald leaves and hot pink stems. It is a magnificent specimen that one can't help but admire.

The herbs are surviving just as well as the other plants. CPBS can boast of long, succulent chives, fluffy patches of cilantro, happy basil, velvety sage, springy parsley, and feathery dill. Had these been planted sooner, there's no telling how full our bed would be by now!

All in all, this experimental plot can be called a tremendous success. In future summers, we plan to replant those that won't survive the winter and revive those that do. Summer 2015 is sure to see more fresh herbs, tomatoes, and peppers, and maybe even some more swiss chard! Cheers to the kitchen and misc. other staff members who have taken the time to weed, water, and harvest this wonderful little garden!