JACKSONVILLE – Garden and seed catalogs have been arriving for a while now. When flipping through the catalogs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the options. Unfortunately, you probably don’t have the space (or time) to grow everything you see, no matter how cool it is. So how should you choose which vegetables to plant this year?
What do I want to eat?
The first thing you should ask yourself is, am I (or my family) going to eat this? There’s a good chance you won’t be willing to take the time to care for a crop you don’t care about eating, especially on August days.
Instead, focus on growing crops that you (and/or your family) will eat. If you don’t like tomatoes, don’t feel like you need to grow them because everyone else in the neighborhood does.
What am I going to do with it?
The second thing to consider is what you will do with the vegetables you grow. The way you plan to eat and process vegetables can affect the type or variety you choose. For example, if you want to make tomato sauce, try growing tomatoes/tomato paste instead of slicing tomatoes. Roma tomato paste contains less liquid, so you don’t need to cook sauces for long.
Peas are another good example of different types being used in different ways. If you want to grow peas, think about how to use them.
English/Pea – The pods of these peas are not eaten. The seeds (peas) are allowed to grow and taken out of the pods before being eaten.
Snow Peas – They have flat pods that are edible and are harvested while the pods are still soft and before the seeds begin to fill (often used for a quick stir-fry).
Sugar Snap Peas – A cross between English and snow peas. Like English peas, the seeds are allowed to grow before they are picked. However, their horns are edible. It’s sweet and sour, so it doesn’t need to be peeled (it’s often eaten raw).
How much space do I have?
When choosing vegetables for your garden, you should keep in mind the amount of space you have to plant. Grow many popular garden crops such as peas, green beans, cucumbers, and vine melons. They can take up a lot of space in the garden. The trellis for these plants can shift growth vertically instead of horizontally and will free up space in your garden.
There are also “shrub” varieties of many of these vineyards. For example, a butter bush is a type of squash from a nut. It only produces 3-6 feet long vines instead of the 10+ feet of the “regular” species. Cal Sweet Bush is a bush type watermelon that is only 14-18 inches tall and can even be grown in a pot!
Indeterminate tomatoes can take up a lot of space and require a trellis or support. If you have limited space or grow in pots, look for plants of the specific type.
diseases resistance
Plant diseases are a fact of life and can harm plants when conditions are right. When choosing what to grow, look for disease-resistant varieties, especially if you are new to growing vegetables or have had disease problems in the past.
It is important to note that just because a variety is resistant to a particular disease, it does not mean that it is immune. Even a resistant variety will show symptoms when conditions are very favorable for a particular disease.
Good tip for the week: If you want to try to grow something new this year, start small. Try growing a few plants to get to know them before you start “all in”. You can also try growing unique varieties of familiar plants such as purple potatoes, black tomatoes or purple-horned peas.