Are You Growing Any for the 1st Time Ever?
 

Each year for the past few now, I've tried growing a vegetable I've never grown before, and found it extremely satisfying. A couple years ago it was Swiss Chard, last year it was Onions, and this year it is Sweetpotatoes.

I love sweetpotatoes, and it will be quite a challenge to get a crop in up here. I'm cutting back on tomatoes a bit so I'll have room for an entire row, about 25 - 30 feet. They will be the last thing I plant, but the first to have the soil prepared.

I find that besides my new tomato varieties, whatever is a first-timer gets most of my attention and excitement.

Does anyone else do this? If so, what vegetable are you growing for the first time? Why?

I'm growing field peas for the first time this year. I meant to do it last summer but I just ran out of room (imagine that). I think I can squeeze in one planting between last fall's shallots and garlic and this fall's batch of shallots and garlic.

I'm also growing a little pumpkin. We grew pumpkins in my dad's garden when I was a kid but I have never grown them in my own garden. I think the kids will have fun with that.

I grew sweet potatoes for the first time last year and got hooked. I'll be planting more this year.

Bark, sweet potatoes are not a difficult crop to grow where you are. If you want to hook up with the northern sweet potato guru and his publications, please PM me. I coordinated a SP workshop here last winter. We did a taste test of more than 12 varieties successfully grown in the area.

Jennifer, growing cardoon, okra and sorghum for the first time this coming season.

Trying purple carrots this year.

Garlic, not sure what kind, Andrey sent it to me from Belarus. Am really excited to see how it turns out!!

Romaine Lettuce for me so far.
I grew it when I was growing up but I don't think it counts.
It wasn't MY garden.

squash, not for the first time but hopefully for the first time successfully.

Garlic and Seedless Watermelons.

I hope the garlic works out. I go through so much sometimes.

Had a yellow seedless melon from a farmstand two years ago and I swore I went to heaven. Great tasting and no seeds. Trying it for the first time ever.

Greg

Cambell's 1375, It's the new one for me and they sure gone through some rough times. Will waste my time on a giant pumpkin. That ought to be [FONT=Times New Roman][FONT=Verdana]interesting.:yes: [/FONT][/FONT]

Hulless wheat, barley, flax and quinoa. Oh yes, lentils. Just trying to see if we can be more self sufficient up here.

Salix, seeds from Dan J.? :>)

All of those will do well for you I expect; have several friends doing the 'I'm a hermit writer/artist thing in northern BC' and being Buddhist (veghead, non-hunters), need to be as nutritionally self-sufficient as possible with grains, pulses, etc. Recommend amaranth, also. Am growing all of what you've listed too and for the same reasons. Let's compare notes at season's end.

Jennifer

I'm trying a [COLOR=blue][B]bunch [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]of new stuff from a round-robin exchange- different lettuces, tatsoi, okra for the 1st time (it may not grow here), but the most unusual is a Aztec Half Runner Bean. And out of 28 tomato plants the only repeats will be Kellogs Breakfast, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple- the other 25 will all be new to me- I decided it was time to clean house in the tomato patch.[/COLOR]

Hi Jennifer - Yes, indeed, the seeds are from Salt Spring Island. Am not really expecting to BE self sufficient (at least this year), am just "trialling" them to see how/if/well they all grow. Actually thought about the amaranth, but figured I had enough new stuff for one year. Baby steps. And my DH (a total non-gardener, but who is ever willing to push the wheelbarrow) is going to be totally scandalized when I ask for some help in threshing the grains...

Good luck, S. I know what Dan has so I'll definitely be interested in hearing how things do for you. My seed sources are quite different as are the varieties.

Cheers,
Jennifer

I'm trying lentils for the first time this year. I'm also trying corn for the second time, despite the fact that it was an abysmal failure in our garden last year. It seems like I always have to try more than once with new things. The first year something goes horribly wrong and then the second or third I start to get the hang of it.

I'd like to see the lentils break that streak though...;)

New to me this year:

Pumpkins...seeds saved from the jack'o'lantern last fall.

Watermelon and cataloupes.

Gherkins (for pickles).

Gourds and wildflowers...actually I grew gourds last year-by accident. Some compost in my tomato planting holes turning into birdhouse gourd vines! This year I'm doing it on purpose.

Jennifer

new for me this year will be cilantro,snow peas and chantenay carrots.I also want to try the podding radish if I can remember to order it soon.

I am trying brussels sprouts for the first time ever. We don't eat them either. My ex-husband loves the nasty little things (boy do they produce a stench when you cook them.) BUT - the kiddo loved the green beans we grew last year so much (and green beans had never once crossed her lips) and they were so much better than what you get at the store, we thought it might be worth putting a couple of brussel sprout plants up in the garden as an experiment.

Will be growing the Uminami Cucumber as this years curiosity plant. This Cucumber needs to be trellised as it alledgegly gets 2-3 ft in length and 3-5 inches in diameter. Have tohave something to talk about as the walking community strolls by my yard and garden.

I'm also growing sweets for the first time this year. Looking so forward to it, but a little intimidated too.

I will be growing Chinese cabbage for the first time this year, too.

And, of the 46 varieties of tomatoes this year, 10 are new!

Right now, I just wish the sun would shine more and the clouds would rain less. :)

Lisa

I grow something new-to-me every year. This year it's Chartwell romaine lettuce, 3 new-to-me Italian greens & 8 new-to-me OP tomato varieties. Can't wait to get started.....
LarryD

Last year the first-time-ever crop was Guatemalan Blue squash, Mezzo Nano Brussels Sprouts. This year it's a couple of Asian greens: Green Lance and Win-Win bok choy. I'll also be growing Eden's Gem melon for the first time. Aji Colorado, Aji Amarillo, and Trinidad Perfume chiles are new as well, as is Sahuaro, which is an anaheim type pepper. And purely for the heck of it, Egyptian Green cotton.

P.S. I love Brussels Sprouts. But even in Michigan we planted them mid-summer for a fall/winter crop. They are sooo much better after a frost or two. I have dug them out of snow drifts--planted a "flag" so I could find them without too much trouble:).

Our first intentional melon patch (in the past we have had our compost pile spontaneously produce some lovely melons) and this fall shell type garden peas. The peas are going to be interesting.

Oh, and I stuck some sprouted white potatoes from the grocery store into an old recycle bin we had in the garage and dumped some recycled potting soil, some extra compost, and a handful of Garden Tone in there and put it out back in a sunny spot. Shocked me with a great response - I expected it to be a disaster. Will hillup the first time next weekend, and I only planted them six inches deep, so I can hillup about two feet around the plants as they grow.

Ruth,

What are your thoughts on Guatemalan Blue?

Mine have been killed by vine borers, the past two years. This year it goes under a floating row cover.

Gary

Will be growing the Uminami Cucumber for the 1st time this year. It alledgedly gets 2-3 feet in length and 3-5 inches in diameter. Always like to have something unusual to talk about.:roll: I have some seeds for a variety of Heading Collards I may try as well.

Jim, if what you have is "Morris Heading" collards, I like them a lot. I've grown them the last two years. Enjoy!

Michele
I don't know what type of Heading Collard they are. I got them from a lady in South Carolina. She said they had been in her Husband's family over 100 years. I'll have a few seeds left. They could be a different variety than yours. If interested PM me and the're yours

I am trying lots of new things this year (they are no means new, but new for me), they are: Purple Tomatillo, Elephant garlic, couple of tomatoes, more squash(odessa, lebanese bush marrow, ponca butternut, kabocha, bush buttercup, redondo tronco verde, crook neck, straight neck,lemon squash and thelma sander),melon,water melon radish... and romanesco broccoli. I didn't plan to add that much new types but got carried away while ordering:(.

Neck pumpkins, vegetable spaghetti, mascara lettuce, perhaps a melon. Squirrels usually grab them when they are about 3-4". Piegirl

Oh my gosh, am I ever.

Tomatoes...Too many to list

Squash
[B]Adapazari [/B]

Cucumber
[B]Armenian[/B]

Beans
[B]Insuk Wang Kong[/B]
[B]Kew[/B]
[B]an unknown bean from Italy[/B]
[B]Childers Cut Short[/B]
[B]Tarbais[/B]
[B]Metze's Willow Leaf[/B]
[B]Ralph Italian[/B]
[B]Tapachetl[/B]
many...many...more beans About 50 different kinds to date. Some now, some in fall.