and May and needed to put red plastic mulch down around the tomatoes and chiles to keep them going. We delayed more planting as well. Consequently, the ‘Golden Bantam’ corn, ‘Peruano’ dry beans, chayote, jícama, watermelon, ‘Grey Zucchini,’ and grain amaranth, all of which need very warm conditions, didn’t go in until early June. The warmth also brought on the purslane (pigweed), which we usually pull out right away. This time, though, we let it grow and fill out until it was big enough to harvest. What a revelation. I’d been pulling it out for years. It tasted so good in some of our recipes I’m sure I will keep some of it around indefinitely.
A harvest from one of my latest Mexican garden includes white onions, lima beans, tomatoes, chard, corn, beans, and lots of chilis.
My most recent Mexican garden has many containers filled with Mexican herbs and chilis. The corn and watermelons fill the back beds; tomatoes and peppers in the middle and driveway beds. Jicama rambles over the low front fence and a chayote wanders around behind the corn.
To fill out the garden, I sent away for Mexican specialties, including epazote, Mexican tarragon, cumin, huauzontlí, and chía, and grew most of them in containers. For bright colors, I planted lots of zinnias, petunias, and marigolds in cheery containers. I especially liked the hot pink and orange plastic buckets I had purchased in the Tijuana produce market.
I’m sure I will continue to create new Mexican gardens for years to come. They are so cheerful and exuberant, the neighbors love to look at them, and eating their bounty is one of our favorite family feasts.
[Flowers in the Mexican Garden]
Flowers are integral to a Mexican garden and while they add lots of life and color, as an added benefit they attract hundreds of beneficial insects to help protect against pests. When I started growing Mexican-style gardens I put in too few flowers and the gardens never looked quite right, now I include many. I don’t always stick to flowers from Mexico, using plants like gomphrena and impatiens, but I find that the varieties from that part of the world look the most at home.
Many of our most popular flowers originated in Mexico including: marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, morning glories, cosmos, tithonias, sunflowers, verbenas, and many different sages. Bougainvillea and cannas are two other plants, native to tropical South America, that look particularly at home in a Mexican garden.
When I choose my flower varieties I lean toward bright primary colors and include lots of orange and hot pinks. I plan out where the flowers go by determining their final height at maturity. That means I usually put the tall sunflower varieties and tithonias in the back of the border in among or in front of the corn and tall amaranths (choosing the north side of the garden so they won’t shade the other plants). I use the full-size cosmos, tall zinnias and marigolds, and most sages in the middle of the border, often among tomatoes and tomatillos; and I interplant the dwarf marigolds and verbena among the peppers and herbs. Dwarf nasturtiums I use for the borders of beds and in containers, and the large vining ones I use to cascade out of planter boxes. Morning glories are great on arbors, sometimes interplanted with chayotes or jícama, and I like to cascade them over a fence.
A garden full of bright-colored flowers speaks to Mexico. As a bonus, it also gives you armloads of flowers to bring in the house for bouquets.
mini mexican herb gardens
I have many colorful containers of Mexican herbs decorating my garden, even though I live in a mild climate, USDA Zone 9. Part of the reason I plant them is that they look great and I can keep them near the kitchen, but mostly I grow them because my climate is too cold to overwinter most of them. My solution is to grow the tenderest of them in containers and then either put them in my cold frame or bring them inside to my windowsill.
The Mexican herbs I’ve tried in containers are: cilantro, culantro, epazote, Mexican oregano, hoja santa, spearmint, and Mexican tarragon.
I was not always successful at growing plants in containers; in fact, at first I lost most of them before winter even set in. Through trial and error, I’ve found what I call the secrets for growing herbs in containers:
1. I use only soil mixes formulated for containers. Garden soil drains poorly and pulls away from the sides of the container, allowing most of the water to run out, and it often is filled with weed seeds. Straight compost is too fine and plants will drown.
2. Containers must have drainage holes in the bottom to prevent the plant from drowning. At planting time, I cover the holes with a piece of window screening or small square of weed cloth to keep dirt in and slugs out. (New evidence indicates that gravel or pottery shards in the bottom actually interfere with drainage.)
One of my favorite patio designs included a chair from Mexico designed by Roberto Matias from Oaxaca. Around it I cluster containers of ‘Super Chile,' a yellow ornamental pepper, a container of Mexican oregano, and a pepino plant native to South America. A tall chiltepín chili plant was very productive and by the holidays was covered with red fruits. I added marigolds, sunflowers, and some blue statice to give color.
3. I now use only containers large enough to provide generously for the plant’s root system and hold enough soil to avoid constant watering. I find most herbs grow best in large containers 18 inches, or more, in diameter. My southern friends report that in their climate, large containers are mandatory because the roots on the south side of small pots bake in the hot sun.
4. After years of pale plants, I found I need to fertilize frequently and evenly. For me, biweekly doses of fish emulsion work well, as does granulated fish meal renewed every five or six weeks.
5. I find the most difficult aspect of container growing is to maintain the correct moisture in the soil. Cilantro and mint suffer if allowed to dry out, but the Mexican oregano, Lippia graveolens, is drought tolerant and succumbs to root rot when overwatered. When I learned how to water properly, I was on the road to success.
6. When I bring the herbs in for the winter, I give them a half day of shade for a few weeks to prepare them for darker conditions. Before bringing them in, I wash the foliage well. I then locate them in a bright, sunlit spot away from heater vents. I water them less indoors than when they are actively growing in the garden. I keep them barely moist and I fertilize only when the days get longer in the spring.
A further note on watering: All gardeners need to learn to water container plants properly. Even in rainy climates, hand watering containers is usually a necessity, as little rain penetrates the umbrella of foliage covering a pot. I find that it is most helpful to water the container at least twice—the first time to moisten the soil (I think of it as moistening a dry sponge.) and the rest to actually wet it. To prevent the opposite problem, overwatering, I test the soil moisture content with my finger before watering.
Watering container-grown herbs is critical for all gardeners, but it’s of particular importance for those of us who live in arid climates. After years of parched-looking plants, I finally installed a drip system. What a difference! I use Antelco’s emitters, called shrubblers (available from plumbing-supply stores and via mail order from The Urban
