Guest Blog Post from - my friend @hyperlocavore Liz McLellan

Liz McLellan @hyperlocavore started hyperlocavore.com a free yard sharing community because everyone loves a homegrown tomato! Revive your neighborhood! http://bit.ly/7xqUpB

You like pizza, right? 
Here's a cool project for you and your buds and BFFs to take on this Spring - a pizza garden! There may be no more spaghetti trees left in the world but, you can grow a pizza...kind of!

There are a few things you guys need to know before starting a new garden, so let's start this right. Great gardens depend on gardeners who know what zone they live in and what kind of soil they have. We all live in different zones. A zone is about the kind of weather you have, how early fall frost comes and how late you might get a killing frost in spring. Where I live, it's not a good idea to plant until after Memorial Day. If you plant too early you may lose all your baby plants to a bad night of frost! That is a huge drag so figure this out before you start planning your pizza garden.

 Find your hardiness zone then come back here...

OK got it? Write that down in your garden notebook! It will be important when you are finding seeds. Keeping a garden notebook is useful to you if you keep gardening. You can use it to remember what works best where you live. Now let's learn how to test your soil type. You can start seeds inside way before that though.

It's a good idea to get a jump on the season and have strong teenager plants who can handle the summer much better than the babies.

There are three main types of soil: clay, sand and loam. So go to the area in your yard where you want to plant your pizza garden. Dig down about 2 inches and grab a hand full of soil. Try to roll that hand full into a ball.
 

·        If you have sandy soil you won't be able to form a ball at all, it will just fall apart.

·        If you can make a ball about the size of a big grape you have clay soil.

·        If your ball holds together a bit but, is kind of crumbly and comes apart when you stop squeezing it's loam soil.

Here's a way to fix most soil types - but this fix takes months so you need to plan in advance. Sometimes you need to add a little bit of this or a little bit of that to make the soil ready for planting. If you don't have a lot of time do some research on sustainable and organic methods to correct your soil type. OK, there's no such thing as a pepperoni bush and most of you don't have your own cow to milk to get your mozzerella. But you can grow most of the veggies that make it taste so crazy good! So what do you need to grow in a pizza garden?

Let's make a list: 
 

·        the alliums: onion and garlic

·        herbs: parsley, oregano and basil

·        bell peppers

·        tomatoes

Sounds very doable! Garlic is important and onions as well, even if you don't like them on top, they make the sauce sweet. When you sauté onions they "caramelize" which is a fancy way of saying they become a sugar. When sugar is heated up but not burned it turns to "caramel," which is what those chewy candies actually are - cooked sugar!

Onions and garlic are the more complicated part of the garden. Usually people plant most onion and garlic "sets" in the fall of the previous year, so it's a little late for 2010. Mushrooms are a whole other project. NEVER pick them from your yard. They can be poisonous! Here are some onions you can grow from seed in some zones: Italian Red Onions (Flat of Italy) or Ringmaster Onions (Great for onion rings too!)

Plant them about four feet or more from your tomatoes and herbs. For now you might want to just pick up garlic at the store, unless your parents already know how to grow it. For next year, make a note you will want to find a good seller for garlic "sets," and plant them in October.

You might want to find a organic seed grower that is close to you.
Try Local Harvest for seed sellers near your zip code! 
Most of the links for seeds here are from Botanical Interest.

So where does all that red sauce come from? 
The lycopene in tomatoes makes them red, and it's also really good for you. It's the same stuff that makes carrots orange, and watermelons pink. But it's not in cherries. It helps your cells repair themselves and keeps your eyes strong.

Growing tomatoes is pretty easy and they taste SO much better than the ones you get at the store. There are three types of tomatoes: slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and paste tomatoes. Paste tomatoes are the kind you use to make thick yummy spaghetti and pizza sauce.

So here are the top paste tomatoes. San Marzanos are from Italy home of spaghetti and pizza! Amish Paste tomatoes will also work. If you can't find either of those, look for a "paste" type tomato that grows in your hardiness zone.

OK onto the herbs, herbs are a big part of making pizza so tasty. You'll want to grow oregano, parsley and basil. The best oregano for pizza is "True Greek Oregano." It's a perennial which means it comes back every year if you live in zones 4-9.

Basil is an awesome annual. Annuals need to be planted with new seed every year. You can use it in the sauce or on top of the pizza in big whole leafs. A classic real Italian style pizza is just mozzarella, big basil leaves, some great fresh mozzarella, slices or small cherry tomatoes and a little olive oil. A green pizza sauce called "pesto" is made with tons of fresh basil a little olive oil and a cup or so of roasted pine nuts. We grow a lot of basil every year and freeze tons of basil pesto sauce. Just put a ton of basil and a little olive oil in a blender or food processor and blend it up, then put it in small containers in the freezer. Tastes like summer in the middle of winter! YUM!

There are a ton of basil types to grow but, for pizza, you really want one of these types: Genovese or Italian Leaf Basil. Growing tomatoes and basil close together is a classic "companion planting" combo. Basil and tomatoes kind of love each other. Maybe it's a just a serious crush. Who knows really? They are happiest when they are hanging out. Folks see them together all the time! Plant three basil plants for every one tomato plant.

Don't tell basil but, parsley likes tomatoes too! You can plant this in between to your tomato plants, as well. We just hope it's doesn't make basil jealous! There are a few kinds of parsley. One kind usually ends up on the side of the plate to make it pretty and the other kind is the stuff that tastes so good. Parsley also is a good breathe freshener so if ever Uncle "Bad Breath" Bob needs a bit of something to make their breath sweeter, you can sneak him a sprig of parsley without telling them "Hey Dude, you really need a breath mint." - because that's pretty rude.


Bell Peppers are a controversial topic. Some kids love em, some kids hate em. They are easy to grow and love a hot climate. Fire roasted red bell peppers are to delish on pizza. The peppers caramelize like the onions and garlic do and become very sweet! Try that technique ONLY with your parents close by.

If you live in a hot place by the sea you may be able to grow an olive tree and make your own olive oil. That's kind of a long time to wait for pizza though!

Here are some more links to help get you growing!

Seed List (Follow link then scroll down - seeds are low on these pages)
San Marzanos Tomato
Amish Paste
Tomato Cherry Rainbow Mix Seed
Oregano True Greek Seed
Genovese and Italian Leaf Basil
Italian Flat Parsley
Italian Red Onions
Ringmaster Onions

More Helpful Links
Pizza Crust Making Video
Pizza Crust Recipes
Pizza Sauce Recipes
Pizza Stone for the Oven Method
Build a Pizza Oven

No yard? No problem. 
Visit hyperlocavore.com a yard sharing community. We work to hook neighbors and friends up in yard sharing groups - makes gardening more fun and less expensive!

We're here to help you get going. Join us. It's free. Then send an invite out to your friends (with your parents permission of course!) on the site and set up a pizza garden group! You can even post blogs, pictures and videos to show off your pizza garden project!

Happy Digging!
Liz McLellan
hyperlocavore.com a yard sharing community because everyone love a homegrown tomato!