Eliasson Karin - Greens!: tips and techniques for growing your own vegetables

Thank you!

Multiple people have helped make this book possible by contributing in various ways to its success.

I would like to give a warm thank you to Mona Wikstrom and the other cultivators in Pungpinans Cultivation Organization in Skarpnack, the cultivators in my neighboring town Villamartin, Johan Nilsson at Skillebyholm, Katharina Angstrom+Isacsson at Wiksunds Garden, Eva Halfworson and Sweden Green House, Rosendals Garden, as well as Hanna Hofman-Bang for allowing me to dig in their vegetable gardens. It has been fantastic to take part in your gardens and to play around in your plots.

I want to give a special thanks to Elenore Bendel Zahn who took care of my vegetable garden when my own time was not enough, and to Hanna Zetterberg-Struwe who was acting potato harvester. Thanks to you there was harvest.

The birth of a book is the result of an intensive group effort. Thank you Charlotte Gawell and Pernilla Qvist for the beautiful photos and the fine layout that makes the text shine. Eva Marie WestbergThank you for your patience and persistent meticulousness. And, naturally, a big thank you to my publisher Susanna Trygve at Norstedts publishing house that accepted the book.

Last, but not least, thank you Lasse, for always being there.

Copyright 2013 by Karin Eliasson

First published by Norstedts Sweden, in 2012 as GRNT! ODLA EGNA GRNSAKER by Karen Eliasson and Charlotte Gawell. Published by agreement with Norstedts Agency.

Photography copyright 2013 by Charlotte Gawell

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eliasson, Karin, 1974

[Grnt! English]

Greens! : tips and techniques for growing your own vegetables / Karin Eliasson ; photography by Charlotte Gawell ; translation by Stine Skarpnes Osttveit.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-62087-729-6 (alk. paper)

1. Vegetable gardening. 2. Organic gardening. I. Gawell, Charlotte. II. Title.

SB324.3.E4313 2013

635--dc23

2013001617

Printed in China

CONTENTS

GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES

I WAS STANDING ON the brink of a new growing season where everything for the first time was relying on me. I stood there on the edge of the little plot. It was early spring; the clay soil was still cold and wet, grey-brown, and full of promises and challenges. I had an elderly man visiting, one that had done this before. So I asked bluntly, When do you think I can sow the plot? He answered that I could start sowing when the soil had settled. Great, I said. And when do you think it will settle? Well, it shouldnt take too much time. Youll know. Hmm, exactly how will I know? I asked stubbornly. When the heels of your boots no longer sink when you walk on it, he answered in his casual, confident way.

I was hoping for a more specific answer, something along the lines of The fifth of May. But I was not so lucky. Ultimately, I had to decide when the soil was ready to be worked and sowed. Just me and my boots.

If youre holding this book in your hand, no matter if youre a balcony grower or you own a garden, you are also probably hoping for answers about when and how. Youve come to the right place, and you will receive plenty of answers.

It is unavoidable that you will raise your eyebrow from time to time and think that the answers are too vague. This is a natural part of growing vegetables. It is a practice that you first and foremost learn through doing. And this is, at least for me, part of the charm.

A warm wind of newfound farming interest is sweeping Sweden and many other parts of the world. You see the signs everywhere. Flowerbeds are transformed into vegetable gardens, spice pots are on every other kitchen step, balconies are filled with tomato and chili plants, and seed distributors are selling vegetable seeds like never before. Growers meet at conventions, through blogs, and in organizations to exchange ideas and experiences.

This book is part of all this. It was born out of a desire to share all of my knowledge, conclusions, and the joy of harvesting ones own crop. My hope is that it will become a basis for anyone who wants to try growing themselves as well as an inspiration for all of those whove been at it for a while.

There is no such thing as a fully trained farmer. You become a real farmer through growing. But not just growing. You also become a real farmer by being open, curious, and studious. Therefore, conversation and the written word are indispensable. By doing so, youll advance quickly. You will learn more and more each year that you have a vegetable garden. And for every conversation with a farmer, youll gather the knowledge of generations. And still there are oceans of tips, ideas, experiences, and new observations to take part in out there. With this book, I wish to be your company, a support, and hopefully a source of inspiration.

Today, my garden grows in the South of Spain. My vegetable garden is part of the small farm I moved to a couple of years back and that is operated today as a bed & breakfast and olive garden. With the Swedish croft and clay soil behind me, Ive moved on to a Spanish river bank with warmer soil and a different climate. I have gotten to know El Levante the burning wind from the East and El Poniente the cooling, rain-bearing wind from the West. So far from Sweden, the land has such great differences, and still so many similarities. The beauty of farming experiences is that they dont know national boundaries. You have them with you forever, and they can be utilized almost anywhere in the world.