It's seed-starting time!
Although I have a good-sized backyard vegetable garden, I still need to be somewhat selective in what I grow, as space is not unlimited. I've come up with 4 rules for how to choose what to grow each year.
grow what I want to eat
I didn't say what I love to eat. There are foods that I want to eat for their wellness benefits. But I do think of these choices as what can I eat and at least mildly enjoy.
grow what grows in my area
I don't limit this to what grows best in my area. Otherwise, I might be eating nothing but kale. But if I can get a particular vegetable to grow modestly well, then it's a "go." I do have to say no to melons, eggplant, okra, and a few other veggies/fruit that I would enjoy having, as I just don't have the time, energy and resources to get those varieties to grow where I live.
grow what makes economic sense
I've discovered that cabbage grows well in our garden. So I grow green cabbage every summer. But green cabbage is a budget vegetable. So I'm really not saving all that much money by growing green cabbage. My family also enjoys red cabbage. And red cabbage is more expensive per pound to buy in the grocery store. So it makes sense to at least try to grow a few heads of red cabbage this summer. Kale may seem ordinary to my family because we've been eating it every summer for years. But kale is a pricey fresh vegetable to buy. I grow 4 types of kale and hope to add a 5th this summer. Salad, slicing, and Roma tomatoes are the standard grocery store varieties. They're the ones that I find for about $1/pound at WinCo all summer (and in winter sometimes, too). Less common tomatoes, like yellow pear, are also nice to have in summer but more expensive per pound than the grocery store standard varieties. I continue to grow salad tomatoes in my garden, but I've added yellow pear tomatoes to last and this year's gardens.
grow what makes me happy
This final category takes into consideration what will please me just to see them growing. For me, this is pumpkins. There's something exciting about growing pumpkins for me. They're my babies. I practically skip out to the garden each day to check on them.
Keeping a vegetable garden isn't just about saving money on groceries. Having an abundance of fresh produce each summer and fall motivates us to eat a healthier and more varied diet than if I were to purchase all of our fruits and veggies. We eat what we grow, and we eat it freshly harvested, something not possible with supermarket veggies. Beyond these material motivations to garden, touching the soil, smelling the earth, and caring for my plants have a grounding affect on my mind. It's a therapy of sorts.
I may be choosy in picking which seeds to plant each year. But once those plants are in my garden, I love and care for every one of them as if each is my very favorite.
If you plant veggies each year, how do you decide what you'll grow? Is there a veggie that everyone says grows really well in your area, but you just can't stand?
We have a small garden, but hope to expand it this year if we can install a deer fence. We may or may not get that done. I mostly grow what I want to eat fresh -especially tomatoes. Generally, we have peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and broccoli in the spring. Although, we as of yet to defeat the cabbage butterflies and their worms. For the summer, we usually have tomatoes of various kinds, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, carrots, beets and wax beans. In the fall, I plant turnips, lettuce, and spinach. When we get the deer fence, I hope to add some vining veggies like butternut squash and cantaloupe.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteGood luck getting a deer fence set up. It's too bad you can't really "fence" cabbage moths out the same way. We've tried the insect cloth with mixed results. Here's hoping you have fewer of those bugs this year!
It's fun to have a "mixed approach" like you- I grow for fun, like to experiment, enjoy one or two things I can count on even though they are not my favorites, and last but not least what grows well for me here. And yes, it is so nice to walk out and bring in your fresh harvest which brings me great joy. A friend just shared with me that she buys Siberian tomato plants at Green Thumb which are more cold tolerant. I just bought a variety of them called Stupice. I'll give it a whirl. My favorites are lacinato kale, zucchini, tomatoes, mustard, sweet potatoes, cilantro, swiss chard, and green beans. Christmas lima beans grow well here and I am going to plant many of them very soon. Still enjoying turnips, carrots, beets and chard from last year's garden.
ReplyDeleteHi there,
DeleteI've read about Stupice. Territorial Seed Company has a few less common tomato varieties that do well in short or cooler summers. We like lacinato kale, too. The leaves are thick and have a nice texture. I've never grown sweet potatoes. I'm not sure I could grow them here. But they'd be interesting to try.
I harvested Brussel sprout leaves to use in dinner today. We've had mild weather this winter, and the leaves just kept growing.
You and my husband would have a lot to talk about. The cold temps shattered his cold frames this past winter, so one of his recent projects has been to build a new one. He has lettuce started in a cold frame, so hopefully we'll have fresh lettuce in a few weeks. The first lettuce always tastes so good. The Swiss chard over-wintered, so we will have that to enjoy, as well. He does a variety of foods that we like (lettuce and other greens, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, beets, carrots, and probably more that I'm forgetting) and also likes to experiment with a few things. An older woman at church gave him rattlesnake bean seeds several years ago, and they have done very well (he returned the favor and gave her seeds at one point, when hers had all died out), and he enjoys some of the heirloom tomato varieties. I have issues with reflux, so he tries to grow some low-acid tomatoes for me to enjoy. Do you keep a map of what you plant, and the location you planted it, for your garden? He does that. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteOh, that's too bad about the cold frames. You mention another bonus to growing some of your own produce, growing varieties that work better for your body, like low-acid tomatoes.
I do make maps of were I plant everything each year. A map helps me think through prioritizing the sunniest spots for those veggies that need son and heat the most, while still rotating where everything is planted each year. It's a fun exercise, like a puzzle, fitting everything in.
Tomatoes, definitely tomatoes. Store bought ones here are miserable. Peas, lettuce, summer squash grown from the garden taste SO much better than store. Watermelon radish and tomatillos not found in the stores are favorites.
ReplyDeleteHi friend,
DeleteOh, I totally agree on better taste of home-grown compared the store bought, for just about everything. Our carrots are so much milder in flavor than store ones. And our cabbage is tender and not tough. I imagine many store varieties are chosen for their shelf life and transport qualities over taste and texture.
We bought some slicing tomatoes this winter that had practically no flavor. They were a disappointment. It's a long wait for our own garden tomatoes, though.
Lili, I wish I could trade you okra for chard. Here in Tennessee you almost have to cut it every hour because of the heat and humidity. We are fortunate to be able to get an early start on the growing season but the heat and humidity are killers. My tomatoes, peppers, etc. actually need a little afternoon shade.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone needing a quick, easy, inexpensive deer fence option I can highly recommend the fishing line method. Deer touch it and don’t jump over because they can’t see it. They don’t know how high to jump. If you read online that it didn’t work for someone it’s probably because they used the wrong weight of line. It has to be 30 pound. Anything lighter snaps when they touch it. Anything heavier and they can “see” it (sun glinting on it, dew beading on it). Don’t hang anything on it, such as plastic bags to scare the deer because that shows them how high to jump. Happy gardening everyone.