What (Else) Will You Grow in 2010?
 

Tomatoes go without saying, of course. But a few weeks ago I started musing about other possibilities for the spring. This will be the first full year I'll have space to grow whatever I want in the plot that seemed so impossibly huge when I got it. Now I'm wishing I had a couple more plots. But you're only allowed one. And I was lucky to get mine when I did; they say there are 500 on the waiting list now!


So, my prelimary list is:[INDENT]Eggplant[/INDENT][INDENT]A mixture of sweet bell peppers[/INDENT][INDENT]Chard. I love chard.[/INDENT][INDENT]Turnip greens, maybe with turnips underneath them. [/INDENT]
[INDENT]Basil, of course[/INDENT][INDENT]Sage - may live over[/INDENT][INDENT]Oregano - will live over[/INDENT][INDENT]Parsley[/INDENT][INDENT]Cilantro - must do some research on making sure it grows[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Lettuces. I want to grow enough salad that we won't have to buy any. [/INDENT]
I might try:[INDENT]Bay leaves[/INDENT][INDENT]Rutabagas[/INDENT][INDENT]Raspberries[/INDENT][INDENT]Pumpkins (my neighbor at the gardens has offered me half of her plot to do this)[/INDENT][INDENT]Some kind of squash[/INDENT]Am I missing anything? What will you grow?

Christine

More pole beans! I love having a variety. But growing more beans will mean less room for tomatoes -- I'm also at a community garden plot, and my plot gets afternoon shade, so I try to rotate the crops that get the sunniest spots. Gotta try runner beans -- I've heard the roots will overwinter here and then start producing earlier the following year. I'm also eager to try some of the heirloom varieties that were recommended here. I wish I had enough space to grow dry beans!

Both summer and winter squash, if I can find a spot for them. I squeezed them into the shadier side this summer and they didn't produce much.

Cucumbers, of course. I've tried a bunch and the ones that did best were the long oriental varieties, also in the choice sunniest spot. Basil, probably, and maybe dill and cilantro. Maybe some more peppers in containers -- it usually doesn't get hot enough for most peppers. Haven't tried pimentos.

I still have celery that's planted itself. I'd love to try a red celery if I ever get around to ordering some.

Maybe lettuce. That'd be a good use of the shadier side, but I'd rather eat kale than lettuce. I keep thinking I'd grow to like lettuce if it came from my garden, but i rarely get around to growing it. One year another gardener gave me some seedlings she'd thinned out. I ate some, but most of it bolted.

Because it's a year-round gardening climate here, I have some turnips and kohlrabi and carrots still in the ground, ready to harvest soon, as well as edible-pod peas that have started producing.

Perennials I already have: yacon, raspberries, blackberries (thornless), strawberries, artichoke, perennial kale, rhubarb (though it may come out, as I rarely use it), red currants (ditto). Herbs: sage, lemon balm, mints (in containers), lemon verbena, lemongrass, thymes, oregano, marjoram, bronze fennel, lavender. Plus lots of flowers, mostly for the pollinators.

Garlic (assuming I get around to planting it this month). Onions, all planted a couple weeks ago. Dinosaur kale, planted last month. Borage and parsley plant themselves. Mache comes back on its own, starting around now, and miner's lettuce appears later in the winter. And how can I forget nettles? I love the smoothness of nettle tea, and it was fun to make nettle muffins (a lovely shade of green inside). I picked my first batch a few weeks ago, and usually they go strong until it's time to plant tomatoes.

Some potatoes come back on their own, but I haven't figured out the timing yet -- planted too early the foliage freezes back (as late as mid-April), and it doesn't look like I'll get a crop from the summer volunteers.

Christine, you may want to try a bay tree in a pot that you can bring inside in the winter. It survives winter here, but it probably wouldn't fit into a community garden plot and would probably need protection from the cold.

I wish I had room to grow everything I want to eat but here's what I can fit. A quarter of my garden is devoted to tomatoes. I will also be growing:

Lettuce
Cabbage
Peas
Onions
Asst Herbs
Peppers
Eggplant
Okra
Sweet Potatoes
Snap Beans
Field Peas
Butter Beans
Squash and Zucchini
Cucumbers
Cantaloupe
Chard
Collards
Kale
Carrots
Garlic
Broccoli

And I'm looking forward to ALL of it! :yes:

lets see,

a mix of asian greens,
broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
collards
kale
chard
a mix of lettuce
beets
carrots
taters
egg plant
garlic
onions
winter squash
summer squash
several kinds of pole beans
melons
watermelon
basil, dill, mint, rosemary
sweet potatoes
sugar snap peas
raspberries
strawberries
currants
if there is room
fava beans
broccoli raab
edamame soy beans

looking toward next year i plan on ordering some more raspberries, and a couple fruit trees, an apple for sure, then who knows what else.

probably missing something, but thats enough to keep me busy and then some.


keith

Sugar snap peas
Tom

Bay leaves grow on trees?

Oh.

:lol:

Didn't know.

And one more thing to add: I forgot peas. Oh man, I love fresh peas.

Christine

Lettuce
Spinach
Radish
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Beets
Cabbage
Turnips
Kohlrabi
Carrots
Onions
Corn
Snap beans
Dry beans (I love growing these!)
Potatoes
Hot and sweet peppers
Winter squash
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Pumpkins
Cucumbers
Brussels sprouts
Sweet potatoes (maybe)
Garlic
Basil
Oregano
Parsley
Cilantro

Phew! I think that's it. I make no promises that all of these will thrive, but I'm stubborn so I'm going to try. :lol:

Pooklette, why do you love growing dry beans?

Christine

[B][U]Seasonal:[/U][/B]
Peppers
Cucumbers
Snap Beans(Bush/Pole)
Dry beans
Sweet Corn
Popcorn
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Eggplant
Winter Squash
Summer Squash
Multiplier Onion
Sweet Potato
Watermelon
Cham-ae Melons
Cilantro
Oregano
Basil
Dill
Pumpkins
beet
Radish
Spinach
Swiss Chard
cyclanthera Pedata(Laddy's Slipper)
Peas
Yardlong beans
Mexican Mouse Melon

[B][U]Item new this year:[/U][/B]
Corn(for Posole/Hominy)
Potato
Oca
Artichoke
Jerusalem Artichoke
cyclanthera Pedata(Fat baby)

I promised I would grow less this year! oh well!

Dean

You have to plant alot to make it worth your wile! Peas, that is.

Darth

It is de rigeur for me to grow eggplant and cucumbers. The squash may prove problematic, for two reasons. First, depending on the number of tomatoes i put in, there may be space issues. Second, the borers finally found my bed last year and I am told that once they find it, they come back every year if there's squash, so I may take the year off from that.

Aside from that: I don't have room, not if I want everything to have room. Basil comes up anyway no matter what I do. I might try putting in cilantro and dill early.

more peppers, sweet and hot. Lettuces and spinach, eggplant.

[quote=icelord;149169]You have to plant alot to make it worth your wile! Peas, that is.[/quote]

How much is a lot?

Depends on what type of peas you want to grow. I grow sugar snap peas and since we eat the pods, I only grow 12 feet worth or so (pole variety). If you grow shelling peas, it's like anything else you shell out of the pod. Once shelled, there isn't nearly as much in the bowl as when you started. The pods make up most of the volume and shelled product is a small amount unless you grow and harvest a lot at once. And with peas, you really want to cook them right after you pick them, before the sugar converts to starch, so you really would want to pick a lot at one time. If you only pick a little and shell them out, you might have enough peas for only one or two people. This is true for many kinds of vegetables--if you want to pick a lot at once, grow a bush type variety. If you want your harvest spread out over a long period, choose a vining sort. In general, anyway. If you have enough plants, you can pick a lot of anything at once.

The good thing about vining peas, is that they can be planted densely. A 12 foot row, for me, is about 120 plants (5 per foot in double rows 4" apart).

If anyone is serious about planting fruit trees, they might think about having them at the top of their list.

Tormato

[quote=cdbva;149108]Pooklette, why do you love growing dry beans?[/quote]

They're really good for you, require very little effort in the storage department, and come in tons of exciting shapes, sizes, colors, etc. They grow like crazy around here and they don't seem to cross easily.

I mainly grow bush varieties. I plop the seeds in the ground, give them water once in a while, and then in late summer, I pluck all the dried pods off the plants. Very easy.

Oh, and I can squeeze 16 plants into one square foot, so that makes them very attractive for my limited gardening space. :)

[quote=icelord]You have to plant alot to make it worth your wile! Peas, that is.[/quote]
[I][quote=cdbva;149234]How much is a lot?[/quote][/I]

I need about 6 bush-type plants to get 1 cup of shelled peas. Maybe that's normal, maybe it's our finicky climate...dunno.

Fresh garden peas are so much sweeter than what I find in the store, I think it's worth it to give them room in my garden. I grow bush varieties and plant a row of them about 1 foot wide and 8 feet long. That gives me enough peas to eat fresh and freeze for later.

[quote=Tormato;149286]The good thing about vining peas, is that they can be planted densely. A 12 foot row, for me, is about 120 plants (5 per foot in double rows 4" apart).[/quote]

Wow. What kind of harvest do you get?

Christine

Ditto what Pooklette said about dry beans. They don't take up freezer space or need canning, they're tasty and good for you, and they are just plain pretty to look at. You can shell them at your leisure in the fall and winter when the press of other garden chores is over.

In the garden they don't require much work beyond the initial seeding and weeding, then the harvesting at the very end. You can plant fairly thickly and shade out most of the weeds. Beans are legumes, so they're good for the soil.

A win all around.

[quote=Ruth_10;149479]You can shell them at your leisure in the fall and winter when the press of other garden chores is over.
[/quote]


Hmm! Which ones do you like best? The pictures of the pretty ones fascinate me (Jacob's Cattle, e.g.) I suppose one should concentrate on taste, though.

[QUOTE=cdbva;149030]Tomatoes go without saying, of course. But a few weeks ago I started musing about other possibilities for the spring. This will be the first full year I'll have space to grow whatever I want in the plot that seemed so impossibly huge when I got it. Now I'm wishing I had a couple more plots. But you're only allowed one. And I was lucky to get mine when I did; they say there are 500 on the waiting list now!


So, my prelimary list is:[INDENT]Eggplant[/INDENT][INDENT]A mixture of sweet bell peppers[/INDENT][INDENT]Chard. I love chard.[/INDENT][INDENT]Turnip greens, maybe with turnips underneath them. [/INDENT]
[INDENT]Basil, of course[/INDENT][INDENT]Sage - may live over[/INDENT][INDENT]Oregano - will live over[/INDENT][INDENT]Parsley[/INDENT][INDENT]Cilantro - must do some research on making sure it grows[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Lettuces. I want to grow enough salad that we won't have to buy any. [/INDENT]
I might try:[INDENT]Bay leaves[/INDENT][INDENT]Rutabagas[/INDENT][INDENT]Raspberries[/INDENT][INDENT]Pumpkins (my neighbor at the gardens has offered me half of her plot to do this)[/INDENT][INDENT]Some kind of squash[/INDENT]Am I missing anything? What will you grow?

Christine[/QUOTE]

I can give you a little help on the cilantro. It likes cool weather like spinach or lettuce. In our summer heat it just goes to seed too fast. I found out by accident. I planted some seed in containers in early fall to try growing some in the greenhouse; but so many came up I took the extras and just stuck them between some lettuce plants outside. They grew huge and had terrific taste. I had so much that I gave my favorite Mexican restaurant a couple of bags of it.

[quote=b54red;149520]I can give you a little help on the cilantro. It likes cool weather like spinach or lettuce. In our summer heat it just goes to seed too fast. I found out by accident. I planted some seed in containers in early fall to try growing some in the greenhouse; but so many came up I took the extras and just stuck them between some lettuce plants outside. They grew huge and had terrific taste. I had so much that I gave my favorite Mexican restaurant a couple of bags of it.[/quote]

I haven't been able to make seeds come up. Maybe I have bad seeds.

Christine

The first thing I harvest around May/June is Sugar Snap Peas.
They are soo good, I wish they would grow all summer here.
Besides peas, I will be growing more peppers next year and
of course tomatoes, thai green epplant, squash, bush beans,
pole beans, cilantro, basil, stevia, chives, green onions and
dill.

[quote=cdbva;149480]Hmm! Which ones do you like best? The pictures of the pretty ones fascinate me (Jacob's Cattle, e.g.) I suppose one should concentrate on taste, though.[/quote]

I try the pretty ones that fascinate me and then decide whether to keep growing them based on yield, cooking/baking qualities, etc. (Kind of like some of us do with tomatoes.) Two that I grow every year are:

Hidatsa Red ~ bush habit, medium size rosy-red beans, tolerates hot and wet seasons equally well, very productive, easy to shell
[URL]http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1437[/URL]

Mary Ison's Little Brown Bunch ~ bush habit, medium tan seeds with chocolate brown stripes, tolerates hot and wet seasons very well, very productive, easy to shell
[URL]http://www.heritageharvestseed.com/pages/bean_loi.html#Mary%20Ison's%20Little%20Brown%20Bunch[/URL]

One caveat to growing dry beans: buying them in the grocery store is much cheaper (they're dirt cheap), but you don't have very many choices.

I've only been seriously growing dry beans for the last couple of years. Last year I grew a fair amount of Vermont Cranberry; this year Tiger's Eye and Canary were my larger crops. Also Sieva lima bean (pole habit).

I grew smaller crops (to increase my seed stock and try some in cooking) of Good Mother Stallard and Hidatsu Shield Figure. I use other types as dry beans as well--this year I saved Tobacco Worm, Jimenez (love these in green pod stage), Uncle Steve's Italian pole, and Kentucky Blue. I haven't cooked any of the Good Mother Stallard yet, but the Hidatsu Shield Figure and Tiger's Eye beans were great.

Haven't decided yet what new-to-me to trial next year for dry beans. I do plan to do a larger planting of Good Mother Stallard and Hidatsu Shield Figure. I have to admit, the pretty ones really appeal to me.:)

"[I]Tobacco Worm?[/I]" :lol: :lol:

I did a little research and found that you need more space than I have to do dry beans. Darn! I'd love to try some of those varieties. Rick & I have been getting into beans this year, though only the ones that I find in the grocery store. I've heard cranberry beans are tasty.

The link says that Mary Ison's Little Brown Bunch are adorable. Sounds like they know their audience!

Christine

Christine,
Yeah, Tobacco Worm. What a name.
Do you have room for a tall trellis maybe 4 ft wide? You can grow pole dry beans (Good Mother Stallard is one) without taking up a whole lot of square footage.

Sure I have room for a trellis. Hmm!

[quote=b54red;149520] it just goes to seed too fast.[/quote]

What does 'go to seed' mean, b4?

[QUOTE=huntsman;150646]What does 'go to seed' mean, b4?[/QUOTE]

Oooh, ooh, I can answer that! CIlantro leaves taste much better before it starts producing seed. Once the seed heads start to form, the leaves (which are what you want) start to shrivel and get smaller, like parsley, lettuce, and other members of the parsley family. It's analogous to lettuce bolting -- once it starts to bolt, the leaves become bitter and unusable as all the plant's energy is diverted to seed production.

pooklette, 16 plants in one square foot? I can do that! I can grow bush beans!