After more than 50 years of gardening, Bill and Syvella Nickel have learned how to cultivate their yard to its maximum potential, yielding more than 300 jars of vegetables each year.
“I’m not a gardener for show and tell. I’m a gardener for raising and eating,” Bill said.
Through the years, Bill and Syvella have learned new tips to maximize the output of their tomatoes, peas, beans, cabbage, carrots, kohlrabi, zucchini, papaya pear squash, beets and many other vegetables.
While the couple’s five raised garden beds aren’t the largest gardens in town, years of learning and testing new techniques have led to a generous annual crop that produces enough to keep the couple well stocked year round.
The large output of produce drastically cuts down on the couple’s food bill. Besides canning the regular produce items, one of the Nickels’ favorite things to can is homemade vegetable juice.
Last year, the couple canned 47 quarts of their own juice made from homegrown tomatoes, celery, beets, carrots, peppers, onions, tomatillos, cabbage and garlic. This year’s goal is to can 100 quarts.
“We love to use our juicer and make it,” Syvella said. “There’s no recipe; we just throw things in until we get it just right.”
“One batch, I have to put in the hot peppers,” Bill added with a grin.
“It sure gets your attention first thing in the morning,” Syvella added.
Syvella has been cooking her whole life. Growing her own vegetables and fresh herbs means that she gets to constantly experiment with new recipes.
“She doesn’t even allow dry mixes in the house,” Bill said. “Everything she makes is from scratch.”
Over the years, the Nickels have looked for ways to be more successful in their endeavors. One technique that has worked well for them was to move away from one large garden area to several different smaller gardens throughout the yard. The smaller raised gardens are just the right size so they can easily walk around the beds and harvest from all sides.
They also use every small section of land available to them. A previously unused piece of ground behind the shed has become the site of the zucchini and squash patch. When the peas were harvested, the couple dug out the plants and immediately planted beans, getting two crops from one small piece of land.
“He doesn’t waste any space,” Syvella said. “He doesn’t leave any ground unused.”
To replenish nutrients, the Nickels regularly compost. During the winter months, Bill will dig trenches through the beds and fill the trenches in with compost materials.
“He likes to play in the dirt,” Syvella said.
Not all endeavors have been a success. Bill admits to not having much luck growing cauliflower. In fact, he remembers one year he and his son both planted cauliflower with drastically different results. While his son planted the vegetable and pretty much just let nature take its course, Bill spent the summer nurturing the plants, tying them up and doing everything the books said to do.
At the end of the summer, Bill’s cauliflower was very small and not healthy looking at all while his son’s was large and looked great.
“I don’t know how he did it. All I know is that after all that work that I put into it and to have his look so good I decided that was it for my cauliflower days,” he joked.
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