By Marc
Although I have been growing herbs for years, the early Eat Local Challenge excitement of the Spring inspired me to plant numerous vegetables in my backyard and on my patio. One of my purchases was a scarlet runner bean plant. Its small size---a height of 4 inches and just a few leaves---and my inexperience with vegetable gardening led me to I put it into a container with a volume of roughly 4 gallons. In the next few weeks, the plant tried to tell me I had made a mistake: it grew at a shocking rate, with the runner vine seemingly climbing a foot per day. But I didn't listen.
I provided a pole for it to climb, and later some string to wrap its vine around, and the plant's vines stretched up and out, with leaves dangling every foot or so. Eventually it started flowering. And what magnificent flowers they were: a brilliant red base with feathery white petals that look like sails billowing in the wind (or, perhaps, the impossibly long cloth worn by Gene Kelly's dance partner in the pas de deux near the end of Singin' in the Rain).
But a few weeks after flowering, the leaves started to turn yellow, and the plant started a downhill slide. The pot was probably too small, thus depriving the roots of enough nutrients. And so, the plant became an "accidental ornamental."
Another one of my "accidental ornamentals" was the purple tomatillo. Soon after planting, it rocketed up to a height of 4 feet, then started to sprout attractive little yellow flowers with purple detail, and later the paper lantern-like husks that surround the fruit. But, alas, the Berkeley microclimate of foggy nights and mornings caused a severe powdery mildew infection before any tomatillos were fully grown.
And so my attempts at exceptionally local vegetables ended up with beautiful flowers, a few runner beans (12 oz. or so), and some valuable lessons (start building the soil a long time in advance, pick the right pot for your plant).
Marc lives in Berkeley, California and writes Mental Masala, an enticing blend of food, history, travel, and nature.
