Food-Lover's Garden: Grow Your Own Pizza

Pizza
Finish a homemade pizza with toppings straight from your backyard.

Chives: Once planted, chives return year after year, so you'll always have some to sprinkle on pizza come summer. Garlic chives add nice, subtle garlic flavor. The plant’s white flowers are also edible.

Basil: The newer compact basil Summerlong doesn't get as leggy as the traditional Genovese variety. Snip off any flower buds before they bloom to keep the leaves tender.

Tomatoes: Grow romas instead of the classic beefsteak variety: They're sweeter and better for making tomato sauce. And plant some Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, too. They'll add color to your garden -- and your pizza. Avoid buying plants that already have flowers or fruit: They're too mature and might not adjust to your soil.

Arugula: Plant the Sylvetta variety, which has extra-peppery flavor. Like all arugula, it grows easily from seed; the first batch will be ready to harvest in about 35 days. Don’t waste time picking it leaf by leaf -- cut off the top two-thirds of the plant, and new leaves will appear in two weeks.

Oregano: Try the spicier Greek type: It thrives in a dry, sunny location. The plants will keep growing until the first frost and sometimes even into winter. One or two plants will produce more than enough herbs for the season.

Use your home-grown produce to make 50 different homemade pizzas.