If you do n’t know aboutNiki Jabbourthen I do n’t know where you ’ve been . I first heard of her as ‘ that girl who was kneel in the snow in front of her frigid inning ’ as see on one of her first books ‘ The Year - Round Vegetable Garden ’ , but if you do n’t . subsist where the snow is as deep as it is in Niki ’s hometown of Halifax , Nova Scotia , no worries . This is n’t one of those regional books . Her body of work verbalize to all gardeners no matter where you garden . She makes horticulture feel promiscuous and fun , approachable and achievable . Best of all , she does it all with a smile and an endlessly positive attitude . And then , of course , there is that endless energy matter that many of us wish well that we had ! I kind of wish I had that tone ( or as my editor program allege to me : “ You sound kind of negative here ” or “ I do n’t retrieve you should warn someone by make it reckon so unmanageable . ” You name it . Martha Stewart , Rachael Rae or Julia Child . All can have a different and utilitarian voice on the same topic .
Niki is singular though . Part horticulture evangelist , and part teacher ( yet without the ruler ) . She is also part therapist , part coach and a enceinte part evangelist . Her hair is 100 % Disney Princess ( I can say that cuz I worked on the doll line ! ) . It ’s her mundane approach though that wins her many followers over . She is able to realize that we are all students yet we never get bored . She ’s cheerleadery enough but not cloyingly so .Just when you think that she is all “ yay- black eye melons ! They ’re SO precious ! ! ! ” , she backs it up with “ … and I grow these ace long ophidian gourds from seed ( In Nova Scotia mind you ! ) and will be preparing them in a Syrian dish for my family this evening after I glean 6 run-in of beans that I ’ll be drying . ” . Yyyeah . Like that . She ’s unquestionable and has ‘ walked - the - walk ’ .
Combined , I think this is why she has thousands of follower who are passionate and unbalanced about everything she aver . She ’s just enough to excite the neophyte but toothsome enough for the modern gardener to get a line something they might have not known . Kind of the perfect Libra the Balance for today gardening lifestyle .
If you are the median veggie nurseryman ( raise beds in a back yard ) then you must get Niki ’s book . If you are think about growing veg through the wintertime , in humble hoops or in raised beds , you must get her Book . An laurels - winning author of many book on veg gardening ( A GWA trowel winner ) , she is also a blogger , Youtuber , and a editorialist ( Birds and Blooms , Horticulture magazine).her Instagram provender is lively and informative , and she is always reminding us ( me ) that we are slow down in the garden ( well , at least , me . Did I say that yet ? ) . Yes . Niki make me find like a shirker .
Niki ’s been compose about gardening for years now . And she does nt seem to stop for anything . Her garden full of upgrade bed in Nova Scotia inspires her readers which apparently reach much further than Atlantic Canada ! Niki career is rocket luxuriously in the gardening mankind ( most recently assign as columnist for but her latest – Niki Jabnout ’s Veggie Garden Remix makes me a moment jealous ( it ’s OK for me to say that , because she ’s a friend and a very upright gardener ) , but ‘ jealous ’ because you might be intimate that I just author my own veg gardening book , but Niki wrote her leger a year in the first place and beat me to bar on bunch of unusual and raw veg to grow .
Why am I pitching her Word then if it contend with mine ? Well , I think that it does n’t compete , rather they will complement each other so nicely . I finger all comfy in sharing that both of our books probably belong to on your bedside table ( and not on the proverbial ‘ shelf ’ as both will help inspire you in different ways . One precede you , another explain the story and might show step - by - step photos . We , gardener , lean to have more than one horticulture record book on the subject we care best anyway . In fact , some of us have a whole bookcase full ! Niki croak into astuteness on some matter that I do n’t . and I do the same on other topics .
But back to Nikki ’s outstanding book – this is a book you will employ , believe me . That cucamelon style on social media ? I kind of think that it was n’t started by a chef or by Dutch food producers who institute the tiny melon vine - relation back to the Netherlands to try grow commercially in greenhouses , but it probably would never have taken off if it was n’t for social media , and for people who are so fighting on it like Niki is . Sure ‘ cucamelon ’s ( or ‘ mousemelon ’s ’ as many call them on social media ) look like tiny doll - house sized watermelon , but have I tried grow them yet ? Not really .
Sometimes I ’ve just too serious with myself . Well , yes , I tried uprise them doubly , but my crop conk out the first prison term three years ago , and then , whenever I tried , I just did n’t take care of them think that they were just a trinket . Now , I recall I am overleap out ! Was just trying them simply because they seemed unexampled or leftover ? Maybe they are deserving working into my routine….what do you guess ? Novelty or hype ? So much yet to learn ! Niki ’s been posting about here cucamelons for about a calendar month now on Instagram – but it ’s too late for me to examine them until next yr now . ugh !
I never continued trying to maturate them , take over that they just a knickknack that perhaps is n’t deserving the effort ( much like cape gooseberry , but that ’s another story , and again , possibly it ’s just me – but bleh . I ca n’t seem to find a virtual use for them in the kitchen . ) . Cucamelons though necessitate the great unwashed like Niki to kick upstairs them . Maybe they are pleasant-tasting and worth growing ? Anyway , she is continuing to root on or at least cue me to at least try out again .
Niki also infix us to plenty of very useful ‘ new ’ or forget crops in her book . Some you will see in my book as well , like Celtuce , or Apium graveolens dulce lettuce . I ’ve grown it on and off over the years but retrieve that for some cause – no one else knew about it . That is until I pick up it have in Niki ’s book . Celtuce is deserving growing , believe me , and I advance everyone to give it a endeavour . It ’s terribly democratic in China , in fact , I almost forgot about it a few years ago until I saw something called ‘ radical bread ’ offered in a local Szechuan eating house near our house . Crispy like a H2O chestnut tree , and looking lie fade of Jade , it ’s well-to-do to grow and easy to manipulate .
Niki enter raw nurseryman Stem Lettuce in her Holy Scripture , and I was so happy to see it listed that I sent her some seeds that I brought back from Yunnan this June where a red - leaved variety is very popular around the metropolis of Shangri - La. Entire field of the dark - leaved crop hadDerry Watkins(fromSpecial Plants Nurseryin the UK ) and I so curious that we get our traveling companions crazy as we yelled to stop the jeeps to see what it was . after , Derry and I found an farming store that sold source ( all in Chinese ) but we were able to encounter both the red - leaved variety of stem lettuce as well as the thickly - stemmed variety so popular in much of the residuum of China .
Stem lettuce is really just a case of romaine lettuce . The story of how it arrived in China is long but interesting ( in my script , out in December ) , but it does track back to its other use in Egypt and Rome . The lettuce we all know evolved from potpourri that migrated into Europe , and stem lettuce evolved from early motley that move into China via the Silk Road . Stem lettuce really is n’t Modern , it ’s as onetime as the tombs in Egypt ( where it is often carved into as artwork ) . Sure Taiwanese immigrant most likely brought it with them into California during the Gold Rush ( where it was reported to be develop in back - grounds gardens ) and some 19th - century seed catalogs number it asAsparagus Lettuce ’ due to the color of the stems , but it never caught on .
Burpee hear to introduce it under the stigmatise name of celtuce ( celery and lucre ) in the 1930 ’s , but again , it just did n’t become pop – until now . Thank you , Niki and new Chinese immigrants for cue us that there are vegetable still yet to be rediscover ( and there are plentitude of others in Niki ’s book ! Asian gourd , bitter melon , unusually cauliflower , majestic - podded peas – if you ’re bored with your garden , get this book .
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