<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Amy Goldman was trained as a clinical psychologist, but the edible heirloom garden is her true calling. Every year, her globally gathered array of fruits and vegetables comes into its glory in two gardens on her 200-acre farm, which is nestled in the rolling uplands of New York&amp;#039;s Hudson Valley. There&amp;#039;s a oneacre garden, where in recent summers Goldman grew an astonishing 500 tomato varieties in preparation for her book The Heirloom Tomato (Bloomsbury, 2008). Her other garden (seen here) is more compact, at just under half an acre, but it&amp;#039;s also more diverse in plantings. It is located just steps away from her modest 18thcentury Dutch farmhouse. Each spring, Goldman plants up to 100 different edibles in this garden, few of which will ever be found in supermarkets. Without heirloom varieties like these and the gardeners who collect their seeds for the next spring&amp;#039;s plantings, our gardens would be sadly duller places.  Goldman is always alert to new heirloom finds. She&amp;#039;s been known to squeeze seeds out of a special tomato in a restaurant salad into her napkin. Other seeds have come home with her from melon festivals in French villages and from squash patches in New Zealand. Apart from her own seed finds, Goldman exchanges seeds with a network of like-minded gardeners who sustain heirloom varieties ignored by big seed companies in favor of standardized hybrids. She&amp;#039;s a director of Seed Savers Exchange, the Iowa-based repository for thousands of heirloom treasures that might otherwise have vanished.   &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not a garden designer: it&amp;#039;s not my expertise,&amp;quot; Goldman says. &amp;quot;The plants dictate the design. I decide what I&amp;#039;m going to grow, and the design follows from that. I tend to group certain types of plants together: leafy greens in one spot, root veggies in another. The taller things, like staked tomatoes, are always on one side so they don&amp;#039;t block the sun. Of course, I try to make the garden look pretty, but the plants are my primary thing.&amp;quot;  Furthermore, there can&amp;#039;t really be a set plan for the garden, Goldman explains, &amp;quot;because potatoes, peppers and tomatoes have to be rotated due to the soil-born diseases they leave behind.&amp;quot; One constant, however, is that her gardens are strictly off-limits to ornamental flowers, grasses and bushes. &amp;quot;If it&amp;#039;s not edible, I don&amp;#039;t grow it,&amp;quot; Goldman says firmly. But what about a pair of handsome bushes flanking a garden gate? They look suspiciously like ornamentals. &amp;quot;Just smell them,&amp;quot; Goldman says. One nostril-clearing whiff identifies them\u2014horseradish.  Goldman began putting tomatoes on the family table as a teenager. Years later, she turned competitive, winning 38 blue ribbons as well as the grand rosette for her perfect produce at the Dutchess County fair. &amp;quot;The superintendent of vegetables said to me, &amp;#039;Okay, you&amp;#039;ve done it all, now go do something else,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she recalls. Taking that advice to heart, Goldman shifted goals. &amp;quot;I fell in love with heirloom vegetables\u2014treasures from the past, handed down,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;When you know something is right, and when you are doing what you are born to do, you just feel so fortunate.&amp;quot;  Home produce gardens are coming on strong, Goldman senses. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s easier than you imagine to grow your own food,&amp;quot; she explains, &amp;quot;which in this economic climate makes sense. And it&amp;#039;s not true that heirlooms are finicky. They&amp;#039;re just as easy to grow as standard varieties.&amp;quot; Her advice: &amp;quot;Start small, with a few easy crops\u2014beans, tomatoes, herbs or leafy greens.&amp;quot; As she does in her own gardens, she recommends putting down black plastic mulch to suppress weeds, conserve soil nutrients and moisture and &amp;quot;pump up the soil heat.&amp;quot; Final tips: &amp;quot;Space your crops appropriately. You can crowd melons and squashes, but not tomatoes. And remember that the greatest gift you can give your plants is full sun and loamy soil. On your table, they will give back.&amp;quot;   Amy Goldman&amp;#039;s Favorite Heirlooms  &amp;#039;Golden&amp;#039; sweet pea: Bright lemon-yellow pod, tan and purple peas, and all of it edible (SeedSavers.org).  &amp;#039;Grandma Einck&amp;#039;s&amp;#039; dill: Large fragrant heads with yellow flowers; self-seeding annual (SeedSavers.org).  &amp;#039;Green Doctors&amp;#039; cherry green tomato: An early ripening, &amp;quot;sweet and tart&amp;quot; tomato for eating out of hand; it&amp;#039;s a Goldman garden original (SandHill@fbcom.net).  &amp;#039;Red Brandywine&amp;#039; beefsteak tomato: In a taste test of 45 tomatoes planted by a Philadelphia seed firm in 1887, this was the winner (TomatoGrowers.com).  &amp;#039;Five Color Silverbeet&amp;#039; chard: Spectacular and colorful; produces leaves in an array of green, blue, orange, yellow and red tints (SeedSavers.org).  &amp;#039;Triamble&amp;#039; squash: Hailing from Australia, it&amp;#039;s vigorous, with a super-long shelf life and &amp;quot;meaty, sugary, brilliantorange flesh&amp;quot; (SeedSavers.org).  &amp;#039;Winter Luxury Pie&amp;#039; pumpkin: &amp;quot;Makes the smoothest, most velvety pie I&amp;#039;ve ever had&amp;quot; (JungSeed.com).  &amp;#039;Iran&amp;#039; decorative pumpkin: &amp;quot;It is, and always will be, eye-poppingly beautiful&amp;quot; (RareSeeds.com).  &amp;#039;Early Frame Prescott&amp;#039; cantelope: This variety, tolerant of northern climes, is described by Goldman as &amp;quot;melon confit preserved in its own sweetness&amp;quot; (RareSeeds.com). "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/home-remodeling-renovating/a3912/heirloom-garden-a-56443/?src=shelter_footer>