I just returned from my honeymoon, and I ended up spending last night at my in-laws because I was too tired to keep driving (we drove 16 hours to their house, then traded vehicles and drove 2 hours to ours). My father-in-law made us breakfast this morning and cooked with a few homegrown vegetables that a friend of his had. They were wonderful.
Of course, this got us talking about growing our own little garden. We assumed tomatos would be on the list of things to grow, but we aren’t sure about what else to get to plant. Of course, that brings me to here. So, dopers, I’m asking for opinions on what to grow in my small, southern Ohio garden?
Have you got full sun? Chili peppers go nice with tomatos, and you can use them to make fresh salsa.
I recommend one of these . They are fabulous for growing a LOT of pole beans in a small space. And I think pole beans have much better flavor than bush beans.
Do you like eggplant? They don’t take up that much room.
Rosemary. For cooking and just because it smells good! It’s very easy to grow, too - I’ve had mine for a couple of years and haven’t managed to kill it yet!
Eggplant is wonderful. I was also thinking about a few other things, basically because we want a few things instead of just one kind. I like the suggestion about pole beans, mostly because we have a small amount of space. Our yard is small enough that I mow it with an antique rotary/scissorblade mower. I don’t know exactly what that is called, but yeah, that.
I’m excited about it. Next week is when I’m finally going to start on it.
You have to go with basil.(And some other herbs). Basil is ridiculously easy to grow. And goes with the tomatoes of course. And fresh herbs are the best.
I grew peas a few years. Also nothing like fresh peas.
I can’t emphasize too strongly how rewarding snow peas are–so sweet, so tasty, so prolific, so easy, so pretty a plant as well. Basil is fabulous–I usually grow 5-10 different varieties every season but I sure wish they were perennial. Pineapple sage–it’s annual most places but if you can find it I can guarantee you’ll never find anything better to use in Asian foods, the flavor is incredible. Yellow wax beans are fabulous cooked fresh and are also very good pickled. I have rosemary and sage bushes that are over ten years old and the whole neighborhood is invited to come help themselves–even so I still have to cut them back severely a couple of times a year just to keep them in reasonable bounds. Punkins are fun if you have room for them. Cucumbers fresh from the garden are lightyears more flavorful than anything that comes from a store, guaranteed. If you can find the pale skinned Armenian cucumbers, even better. Dow Gauk “yard long beans” are very yummy but you can’t plant them until the soil is very warm–in Oregon we don’t even put those guys out until mid-June. Eggplant–go for the Ichiban variety, they’re long and thin and much less bitter than the big round varieties. Peppers, definitely if you have a lot of sun for them to grow in. The long Thai chilis are especially pretty and taste so good fresh, as do jalapenos. Plant mints, but only in places you don’t mind having a LOT of mint growing in, very invasive. I like growing lettuce–usually romaine and red leaf, but I don’t grow them into heads and cut them off, I just peel leaves off as I need them for salads. You end up with weird looking four foot tall knobby lettuce plants, but every leaf is small and tasty.
Shoot, plant anything that looks like fun–if something doesn’t work out plant something different next year!
I second the nomination of beans. I’ve grown eight ball squash a few years which don’t take over everything like normal squash do, and yield like crazy. I lost one squash, and when I found it it was about a foot in circumference and weighed almost ten pounds.
We grow rosemary as an ornamental by the side of our house, and harvest it as needed. I’m in California, so we don’t have to worry about winter. If it will survive, I wouldn’t put it in the garden.
My philosophy has been to either grow stuff much that is not very tasty in the stores, like tomatoes, or which is expensive, like snow peas.
In a small space, you can plant some things in succession. Plant some fancy-schmancy lettuce and snow peas now. (I love fresh lettuce! Broadcast the seed, and when the leaves are about the size of the ones in the bags of “spring mix” in the grocery store, cut off as much as you need with scissors. Keep it watered and it’ll grow more leaves.)
When the lettuce starts to bolt, the ground will be warm enough for your tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. These plants like the soil to be really warmed up before you put them in the ground, so you don’t lose a thing by waiting. If you put them in when the ground is still 50 degrees or so, they’ll just sit there until the soil warms up.
I’ll join the “Plant basil!” crowd. Heaven is ripe, summer tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, basil and fresh mozzarella.
Corn, lettuce, lima beans, squash, spinach, carrots. OR you could just grow an herb garden and then follow Alton Browns suggestions on how to store them.
Lettuces. Someone mentioned rosemary: how about peppermint and other aromatics? Many of the plants that can be used as spices are very low-maintenance. Peppermint and lemongrass keep mosquitoes away, too.
Radishes and carrots will give you a fairly quick return. Radishes are ready to harvest in 25 to 30 days from planting the seeds. Carrots take about 65 days. They keep kids interested.
Snow peas or sugar peas are good too.
