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BigFatMeanie · 06-19-2007, 10:08 PM

I'm a major gardener. Our garden is 40' by 25' and I have a rototiller.

Agree with the suggestion on tomatos - you won't get fruit in the summer (too hot) but if you get an indeterminate variety, you'll get fruit clear up until your first freeze (if you have those?). I don't know what your climate is like so it's harder for me to answer the "when" question but here is my take on various crops:

- Tomatos are easily the highest-reward item you can plant. Store bought tomatos suck because they pick them when green. There is no substitute for vine-ripened tomatos. In addition, if you plant too many you can always can them.
- Carrots are easy to grow and you can harvest a bunch of them in the fall; however, they are somewhat a pain because they have to be thinned. One good way to plant them without thinning is to get some sticky seed tape and manually place the carrot seeds out on it at the proper spacing. Of course, this is tedious work as well and home-grown carrots don't really taste that great compared to store bought so the work/reward ratio really isn't there for me. Other "more pain than they're worth" crops include: onions, radishes, scallions, spinach, any type of lettuce crop, etc. It's just way easier to get them in the store.
- Peas are easy to grow but you have to plant them very early in Utah and I'm not sure how they will do in Texas. The biggest problem with peas is that they generally have to be staked up and then you have to plant a ton of them even to get a little bit of peas. You go out in the morning and pick peas all day and you get a huge tubfull of peas. Then you sit there and shell peas all day and you get a bowlful. That's an awful lot of work when you can just buy a bag of frozen peas at the store for $0.99 and the taste isn't that much different. Of course, if you love eating raw peas then the cost/benefit ratio changes.
- Corn is something where the cost/benefit ratio is worth it because fresh corn off your own stalks can't be beat. The issue with corn is that it takes a lot of everything - lot of land, lot of fertilizer, and lot of pesticide. Corn is generally cross pollinating so you need to plant enough stalks to get them pollinated. The biggest mistake people make is to plant 4 or 5 little cornstalks and then wonder why they didn't get anything. If you only have a small garden then corn isn't practical. If you don't fertilize properly (a problem for us because we have crappy alkaline clay soil) then the corn will develop red streaks on the stalks and will be stunted. If you don't use pesticide then your corn will likely be full of earwigs. I never knew how earwigs got their name until I first planted corn. The pesticides usually come in a powder form than you can manually brush on the silk and end part of the ear which will keep the earwigs down and give you much better yield.
- Squash, pumpkins, zuchini, any type of gourd: I'm not a squash fan so I don't ever plant it. Plus, gourd type plants generally take up a lot of room. People like to get nostaligic about planting their own pumpkins for Halloween and such but it takes a heck of a lot of garden space to produce a single big pumpkin and if you're like me (5 kids) then you simply don't have the space to do 5 pumpkins so why even do it?
- Beans: beans are a good workhorse crop - easy to grow, decent eating, good for canning, etc. I don't love beans but it makes sense to plant them and can them. I usually get the vine type and stake them up because you get a higher yield but the bush kind are fine as well.
- potatos: Another low effort/reward plant. Potatos are so much cheaper and easier to buy in the store. Heck, a 20lb. bag of potatos is less than a 10lb. bag. You can get a 20lb. bag for something like $2.00 so why go to all the hassle and effort of planting potatos - it's not as if there is a taste difference.
- Asparagus - great to grow if you can do it. The effort/reward is worth it because fresh asparagus is the best. It grows back year after year so you need a "permanent" location for it.
- Brocoli, cauliflower, etc - Not worth the hassle. Requires nice cool weather, very early planting and then you have to mess around with bleaching the cauliflower head (by covering it) and stuff like that.

Thus, our annual garden usually has the three main crops (corn, tomatos, and beans) with some other stuff thrown in just for fun even though it isn't really worth the effort of planting: peas, carrots, onions, peppers, beets, radishes, etc.

Man, I could talk gardening all day long. Next we can have a long discourse about the pros and cons of hybrid vs. heirloom seeds.

06-19-2007, 10:08 PM	#6
BigFatMeanie Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: South Jordan Posts: 1,725	I'm a major gardener. Our garden is 40' by 25' and I have a rototiller. Agree with the suggestion on tomatos - you won't get fruit in the summer (too hot) but if you get an indeterminate variety, you'll get fruit clear up until your first freeze (if you have those?). I don't know what your climate is like so it's harder for me to answer the "when" question but here is my take on various crops: - Tomatos are easily the highest-reward item you can plant. Store bought tomatos suck because they pick them when green. There is no substitute for vine-ripened tomatos. In addition, if you plant too many you can always can them. - Carrots are easy to grow and you can harvest a bunch of them in the fall; however, they are somewhat a pain because they have to be thinned. One good way to plant them without thinning is to get some sticky seed tape and manually place the carrot seeds out on it at the proper spacing. Of course, this is tedious work as well and home-grown carrots don't really taste that great compared to store bought so the work/reward ratio really isn't there for me. Other "more pain than they're worth" crops include: onions, radishes, scallions, spinach, any type of lettuce crop, etc. It's just way easier to get them in the store. - Peas are easy to grow but you have to plant them very early in Utah and I'm not sure how they will do in Texas. The biggest problem with peas is that they generally have to be staked up and then you have to plant a ton of them even to get a little bit of peas. You go out in the morning and pick peas all day and you get a huge tubfull of peas. Then you sit there and shell peas all day and you get a bowlful. That's an awful lot of work when you can just buy a bag of frozen peas at the store for $0.99 and the taste isn't that much different. Of course, if you love eating raw peas then the cost/benefit ratio changes. - Corn is something where the cost/benefit ratio is worth it because fresh corn off your own stalks can't be beat. The issue with corn is that it takes a lot of everything - lot of land, lot of fertilizer, and lot of pesticide. Corn is generally cross pollinating so you need to plant enough stalks to get them pollinated. The biggest mistake people make is to plant 4 or 5 little cornstalks and then wonder why they didn't get anything. If you only have a small garden then corn isn't practical. If you don't fertilize properly (a problem for us because we have crappy alkaline clay soil) then the corn will develop red streaks on the stalks and will be stunted. If you don't use pesticide then your corn will likely be full of earwigs. I never knew how earwigs got their name until I first planted corn. The pesticides usually come in a powder form than you can manually brush on the silk and end part of the ear which will keep the earwigs down and give you much better yield. - Squash, pumpkins, zuchini, any type of gourd: I'm not a squash fan so I don't ever plant it. Plus, gourd type plants generally take up a lot of room. People like to get nostaligic about planting their own pumpkins for Halloween and such but it takes a heck of a lot of garden space to produce a single big pumpkin and if you're like me (5 kids) then you simply don't have the space to do 5 pumpkins so why even do it? - Beans: beans are a good workhorse crop - easy to grow, decent eating, good for canning, etc. I don't love beans but it makes sense to plant them and can them. I usually get the vine type and stake them up because you get a higher yield but the bush kind are fine as well. - potatos: Another low effort/reward plant. Potatos are so much cheaper and easier to buy in the store. Heck, a 20lb. bag of potatos is less than a 10lb. bag. You can get a 20lb. bag for something like $2.00 so why go to all the hassle and effort of planting potatos - it's not as if there is a taste difference. - Asparagus - great to grow if you can do it. The effort/reward is worth it because fresh asparagus is the best. It grows back year after year so you need a "permanent" location for it. - Brocoli, cauliflower, etc - Not worth the hassle. Requires nice cool weather, very early planting and then you have to mess around with bleaching the cauliflower head (by covering it) and stuff like that. Thus, our annual garden usually has the three main crops (corn, tomatos, and beans) with some other stuff thrown in just for fun even though it isn't really worth the effort of planting: peas, carrots, onions, peppers, beets, radishes, etc. Man, I could talk gardening all day long. Next we can have a long discourse about the pros and cons of hybrid vs. heirloom seeds.