You bought it in jars, and it all tasted the same. You purchased it “fresh” in a tub in the produce section, and how did you describe it? Watery. You did not make it during the winter, because a key ingredient – tomatoes – are less than inspiring when they aren’t in season.
Fresh salsa season is right around the corner. So go ahead and make a salsa garden.
We chatted with pepper and tomato expert Robert Cox, state university cooperative extension agent for Arapahoe County, about the skinny on how to turn a patch of dirt into a tangle of salsa goodness.
One good move, for all of the ingredients, is to plant them in raised beds packed with good soil. Failing that, a patch of ground is fine, as long as it’s well-tilled and blended with amendments from the compost heap or the garden center. Colorado’s dense, clay soil is no Eden for the plants that make salsa.
Another universal rule for this garden: Make sure it gets full sun all day. Tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers all are greedy for sunlight. Without enough, they fare poorly.
For this garden, too, we’re assuming you buy small plants from garden centers rather than starting them from seed.
Tomatoes
One popular trick that helps with the all-important heat issue, Cox says, is covering the ground around the tomatoes with thick black plastic: Either plunge the tomato plants through holes you cut in the plastic before laying it on the ground, or cut out holes, drape the plastic over the in-the-ground plants, and pop the plants through the holes. Keep the plants at least 3 feet apart – they get big – and stake or cage them.
In addition to full sun and warm soil, tomatoes like water, but just enough to keep the soil moist – never drenched. Many people, Cox says, make the mistake of over-watering their tomatoes.
A little fertilizer is OK, he says, but go light on the nitrogen.
Onions
Start these as early as you can; if you wait until after April, you might not have any onions in your salsa. Onions have very shallow root systems, and they like loose, well-fertilized soil. They also enjoy water more than do tomatoes – again, not drenched, but a bit more wet than tomatoes. If you are putting your salsa garden in one big plot, keep the tomatoes and onions apart. The thing to keep in mind with onions: The bigger you can make the greens above the ground, the larger the onions.
Peppers
Like it hot? Use jalapeños or serranos. Searing? Try habaneros or scotch bonnets – and be careful. Do you always go for “mild” when you buy it in a jar? Bells or mild green chiles. The rest of the drill is similar to that for tomatoes: evenly damp soil, tons of sun, light fertilizer (if at all). They also don’t need to be 3 feet apart – 18 inches will do.
Cilantro
Don’t grow it, buy it. That’s Cox’s advice. Cilantro is a temperamental herb – it doesn’t like heat, and it turns from aromatic leaves to seeds (the seeds are the spice coriander) quickly. If you do decide to make a go of cilantro, plan on skipping it during the heart of the summer, when the herb nearly faints in the heat. Push those little plants in the ground in spring and late summer into fall, keep them watered, keep an eye on them – once the leaves seem bushy, start harvesting before it all turns to seed – and keep your fingers crossed.
Tomatillos
Love that green salsa you get at your favorite Mexican joint? Chances are it’s not just green peppers you’re chowing on – it’s tomatillos, which are related to tomatoes. They’re pale green, they are shrouded in a papery skin on the vine, and to grow ’em you want to follow the drill for tomatoes. But plant just one tomatillo. They are prolific.
Garlic
It’s too late this year to plant garlic for summer salsa. Growing garlic can be tricky anyway, says Cox, and he urges taking the cilantro route: Buy the stuff.
But if you plan to keep your salsa garden humming for next season, here’s what you do in the fall. Find some space in your garden for a row of garlic plants. Take a bulb of garlic – preferably a hardneck variety that you’ll buy at a farmers market this summer (hardnecks are hard to find at supermarkets) – and divide it into cloves. Stick the cloves about an inch deep in the soil, with the root ends down (the ends that sprout green shoots). Cover the garden with hay and wait until spring, when you’ll sweep away the hay and let the green leaves grow until they’re ready to harvest.
