Salsa lovers' garden plot has room for mystery crop.

Byline: The Register-Guard

JOSH KIRSCHENBAUM'S garden is for pizza and salsa lovers.

Kirschenbaum, a horticulturist at Territorial Seed Co., filled his 10-foot-by-10-foot plot with a "pizza slice" garden - shaped, indeed, like a slice of pizza - and a salsa patch, in which he would grow all the ingredients for fresh green salsa.

The northern boundary of the garden is lined with a 7-foot trellis for growing pole beans, at the foot of which he has a succession planting of salad greens so that the garden continually produces new salad material. Begin the greens bed with starts and then shift over to sowing seeds, he says.

"If you do a seeding every two or three weeks, you'll have a continual harvest. It takes 40 days for mature plants. Once those start bolting, you rip those plants out and start new seeds in that spot."

As spring turns into the heat of summer, the pole beans on the trellis will help shade the greens patch, giving lettuces the cooler environment they prefer.

Kirschenbaum, who lives in a second-story apartment and gardens in a Eugene community garden patch, saves money by buying most garden materials - such as trellis supports - at BRING Recycling.

"That gives you a nice opportunity to be creative with the garden, to make your own garden art and have it be useful, too," he says.

For his foot paths, Kirschenbaum puts down sheets of newspaper and covers them with leaves.

The most challenging crop in the beginner's garden is probably tomatoes.

"Tomatoes are not one of the easiest things to grow in this region," he says. "They like a lot of heat. To be successful, you need to extend the season."

That means covering young plants when spring nights are cool, and helping conserve heat with Wall o' Water shelters or black plastic mulch on the ground.

The small patch for root crops might be more deeply dug than the rest of the garden. Kirschenbaum doesn't advise potatoes for a small garden but says fresh carrots and beets are a treat. "The taste is incomparable," he says.

Total cost of this garden should come in at about $50, he says, depending on how much recycled material you're able to use.

Next year's garden will be cheaper - no need to buy more trellis material, and you can save leftover seeds from this year's garden (keep them cool and dry) and plant them next spring.

A small space in Kirschenbaum's garden is reserved each year for a mystery crop.

"Each year, I make a point of growing something I never tried before or tried so long ago I don't remember what it tastes like," he says. "I highly recommend that. Last year, my crop was brussels sprouts. They were great! This year, I'm trying okra."

CAPTION(S):

Josh Kirschenbaum tries to use recycled material.