Four to go! Four vegetables and herbs for the small garden!

Part of what I find to be the most fun about a small vegetable garden are the surprises one gets when they find veggies that are ready to eat in the late spring an dearly summer.

Egyptian onions – the top setting onions are one of the earliest plants you'll see growing in the

spring! You can harvest some of the green side shoots early on while waiting for the shallot sized onion at the base of the plant in the fall. When the stalks turn brown you can eat, store or transplant the small onion sets for another harvest the following year! If you have friends that also have gardens and they have there already growing, just see if you can borrow some sets from them for free!

Hot peppers – I generally make it a point to plant three varieties that will be mild, spicy and really hot by harvest time in late summer. This year I planted BananaRama peppers from Burpee, Portugal Hots and a few very hot Habanero's from local greenhouses. These peppers are all destined to be used in chili recipes and beef stir fry. This will be the first time I grown the Portugal Hots and I'll plan to do a report on them at season end!

Basil and Oregano – Here are two, must have, herbs if you like any tomato-based recipes like spaghetti or

chili. The basil is sown from seed while the Oregano was purchased as starts! The leaves of both can be collected and then dried for use all year round! For that reason, I grow a good number of these plants! A nice thing about these plants if the fact that bugs will often leave them alone and you can plant them in any odd nooks or crannies you might have as a fill in that is also quite attractive!