When we flip the calendar to May, I instantly think of warm weather, fresh air, and spending time outdoors with my family. Living in New England, warm weather takes a bit to arrive; and we don’t want to miss a second of it! Our tulips are blooming and chirping birds awaken us each morning.
Our summer months are spent at the beaches, the playgrounds, and in our backyard enjoying delicious salsa made from ingredients grown in our salsa garden. Today, I’m going to teach you how to plant a salsa garden. It’s easier than you think! If your kiddo is like mine, they’ll want to get in and help, too!
How to Plant a Salsa Garden
You’ll need potting soil, a container, and a few plants: tomato, jalapeno, and cilantro. I chose to use a planter that hangs off the deck railing just outside our kitchen door. Since we’re growing a salsa garden, this seems like the most logical place to put it.
Fill your container half way with potting soil. Make sure the potting soil is slightly damp. Lucky for me, it rained the night before I planted my salsa garden, so my potting soil was very moist.
While shopping, I looked for tomato plants that were specific for container gardening. By the look of the photo on the plant guide, they’re going to be small, round tomatoes. Perfect for salsa! The type of plant I chose was in a cardboard planter that will decompose as the tomato plant grows. This is great because there are no plastic pots to recycle.
Using a cardboard planter is simple, you just remove the bottom of the container – to expose the roots – and remove the top of the container down to the soil. Then, slip it right into your garden or container garden. You can see the edge of the container sticking up just a bit in the photo below.
My salsa garden has two tomato plants; I planted them both on the same end of the hanging planter because our kitchen deck gets tons of sunlight and I’ll have to rotate the planter so they don’t burn. [Ask me how I know that!] I also included cilantro in my salsa garden – which was planted on the end opposite the tomatoes. We use cilantro in our salsa because it adds a contrasting color to the red of the tomatoes and great flavor!
My final plant is a jalapeno plant. I cannot wait for these to produce peppers! Last year, I grew jalapeños and used in them in salsas and beverages. They were my go-to ingredient last summer, and will likely have the same role this year, too!
Once you’ve planted your salsa garden, give it a good dose of water daily. Be careful not to over water it as that can be damaging. It may not look like much of a salsa garden right now, but give it a few weeks! What’s great about this project is that you’ll be able to enjoy the salsa during the warm summer months and think of the great time you and your kiddos had planting the salsa garden.
You’ll need additional ingredients to make a salsa once your salsa garden is ready for harvest. Pick up some lime juice, red onions, and garlic while shopping at Walmart. Those ingredients will combine nicely with the items from your salsa garden.
One thing you won’t have to worry about is your clothing being dirty after planting the garden! Getting messy in the yard is half the fun of having children! While I love playing as much as the next mom, sometimes the task of laundry afterwards is stressful. I found this amazing new sulfate free product on Walmart.com. It’s called all® Essentials™. It’s a powerful clean without the harshness.
Be sure to look for the two varities – all® Fresh Clean Essentials™ Fragrance Free and all® Fresh Clean Essentials™ Fresh Scent – on Walmart.com. It contains only the essential and effective ingredients for deep down cleaning.
You can trust that it will preserve the color of your clothes. It’s missing the sulfate, but you won’t miss it!
What fun to plant a salsa garden. I’ve been eyeing the plants and pots trying to figure out what would work well to plant for us. I’ve grown tomatoes before but never Jalapeno peppers. Might need to give that a try. #client