What's going in your edible garden this year?

This warm weather has me thinking about gardening. What do you typically grow and what are you planning to grow this year? What do you have the most luck with?

Being that we are in NJ, my garden always has tomatoes. Almost always have cucumbers, string beans, peppers, lettuce, dill, basil, parsley. 

And what will be in your garden this year TigerLily?

Sounds great! I tried dill once and it didn't do well for some reason.

Definitely tomatoes (I'm trying some yellow/orange ones this year, which I haven't done before). Also eggplant, basil, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, oregano and parsley - love having herbs in the garden. I'm going to try ancho peppers too. I've been a miserable failure at peppers in general, but I'm going to try again. Lettuce and chard will also be out there.

I normally do containers only, but I'm going to do a bed this year to give more space to zucchini, squash and cucumbers. Hopefully, that will turn out better.

Oh - and root veggies. Potatoes, carrots, celeriac, parsnips and beets. 

Man....this is killing me that it's still winter. Will be starting some seeds indoors very soon though......

Mostly I grow herbs in containers on the deck - the rest of the yard isn't quite sunny enough for veggies and the neighbors have free-roaming cats.  I do manage some tomatoes in the planters, thought.

I plant rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, basil, chives, oregano, mint, dill - love to be able to go out when I'm cooking and cut a few sprigs of whatever I need. We also put some flowers out there, too - lavender and violets and nasturtiums - and geraniums! Wouldn't be summer without geraniums, even if you can't eat them.

Oh, I forgot to mention strawberries - we always have a few pots of them - they are so delicious when fully ripe and just picked, still warm from the sun! I have some blueberry bushes in the garden, but those I pretty much cede to the birds. I could net the bushes, but we enjoy watching the birds there more than we enjoy eating blueberries.

Last year I grew Early Girl tomatoes.  They produced, but were a disappointment taste and texture wise.  We will do tomatoes again but will go with other varieties.  We did cherry tomatoes that were so sweet they tasted more like berries than tomatoes.  I still have the plant markers in the garden and will be looking for that variety again when the plants go on sale.

The boys loved the corn, but for the amount of corn we got vs the amount of space they took they really weren't worth the space in a back yard garden except for a "here is where your food comes from" standpoint.

We did half long carrots last year and will be doing that again.

tomatoes, of course and we really liked the red sweet onions we grew last year. Delicious and easy to grow. Mint for mojitos Our zucchini went crazy and just overtook everything so not going to do that or any squash again.

I am planning to do a garden for the first time in Maine. Actually it is for the first time ever. So I am reading your thread for tips, etc. Do any of you grow fruits, strawberries or blueberries? I want to try to grow food that I eat a lot of in order to save money.

lisat, all of those that you mention are susceptible to deer damage, so if you have deer in your area of Maine you will have to fence the area. Check to see if your neighbors have fruit trees, strawberries or blueberries and how they deal with deer problems. 

I am considering fencing a 4' by 15' area for raspberries. My veggie garden is already fenced in. We have a lot of deer here in Andover township.

wedjet said:

lisat, all of those that you mention are susceptible to deer damage, so if you have deer in your area of Maine you will have to fence the area. Check to see if your neighbors have fruit trees, strawberries or blueberries and how they deal with deer problems. 

I am considering fencing a 4' by 15' area for raspberries. My veggie garden is already fenced in. We have a lot of deer here in Andover township.

Thanks for the advice. Does anyone ever plant a few of the deer and a few for themselves?

Oh, that's right - Mint! (I ONLY grow mint for the same reason....mojitos....). Will do that again this year too. 

I've never grown onions. Well, I tried to grow shallots, but that was a total failure...

conandrob240 said:

tomatoes, of course and we really liked the red sweet onions we grew last year. Delicious and easy to grow. Mint for mojitos "> Our zucchini went crazy and just overtook everything so not going to do that or any squash again.

One good thing about carrots is that you don't have to eat them during a certain time frame. You can just leave them in the ground until they are ready.  

My wife planted two peach trees in 2014. We got 19 peaches in the first year from these tiny spindly things. Last year, we got over 30.

Last year, she also planted paw paw trees, but they died. :-(

spontaneous said:

One good thing about carrots is that you don't have to eat them during a certain time frame. You can just leave them in the ground until they are ready.  

It was kind of the same with the onions

That's impressive, Tom!

Tom_Reingold said:

My wife planted two peach trees in 2014. We got 19 peaches in the first year from these tiny spindly things. Last year, we got over 30.

Last year, she also planted paw paw trees, but they died.

In case anyone is interested:  

On Sale Now: New
'Rutgers 250' Tomato Seeds

This spring, home gardeners can grow a better tasting version of the classic
New Jersey Rutgers Tomato. Here’s how you can buy the seed packets, which
celebrate Rutgers 250th anniversary.

http://news.rutgers.edu/news/%E2%80%98rutgers-250%E2%80%99-tomato-seeds-go-sale/20160221#.VssakX0rKUl

I'm sure there are people who have had much more success than me starting tomatoes from seed (it would be hard to have less). I always try to start them from seed, fail, then buy plants too late in the season. Any tips for greater success, or should I just suck it up and buy plants in the first place? Help!

How have you been starting the seed? 

inthewings said:

I'm sure there are people who have had much more success than me starting tomatoes from seed (it would be hard to have less). I always try to start them from seed, fail, then buy plants too late in the season. Any tips for greater success, or should I just suck it up and buy plants in the first place? Help!

Rutgers by all means!  The best tasting tomato I can remember.  Newer varieties can't compete because they were developed for shipping (if it bounces when dropped it's great).  I hope it is really as good as the original Rutgers.

we buy plants, never bother from seed. 

@TigerLilly, starter mix in peat pots, on water trays, under grow lights. They start off okay but seem to just shrivel once they hit a couple of inches tall. 

@inthewings you may want to switch from the peat pots to plastic. They're apparently more difficult to control in terms of moisture, mold/mildew and other things. It's not that they can't work, but may be more problematic. 

 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1570460/peat-pots

Tomato growing tip for small gardens.

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/90-pounds-tomatoes-5-plants?cid=soc_Rodale's%20Organic%20Life%20-%20RodalesOrganicLife_FBPAGE_Rodale's%20Organic%20Life__

Glad to see this thread. We are building some raised beds this year for our kitchen garden, and so far I have plans for heirloom tomatoes, squash, eggplants, and beans. No idea yet how they will do here in CT, but I have some books and websites to consult.

 I think I also want to do a protected herb garden on the deck for basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage. Maybe I'll do some lettuces on the deck, too. We have groundhogs and bunnies galore, so the tender stuff will need plenty of protection.

With help from our Master Gardener, we hope to grow tomatoes again (Rutgers sounds perfect. Of last year's crop, we didn't get a single cherry tomato -- the birds and squirrels ate them all) as well as peppers, carrots (instead of or together with beets -- we actually had too many beets), eggplant (bumper crops of both the Asian and regular kind last year), mojito mint in a pot, marigolds to keep the bugs away, and whatever else strikes Ken's fancy. I'd also love some flowers for cutting -- any suggestions? I grow herbs in a separate garden in the front, did well with mint, rosemary, lavander and thyme. I have never been able to successfully grow basil, don't ask me why. 

@deborahg, zinnias are one possibility for cut flowers. There is even a zinnia called "cut and come again" which is great for cut flowers.

@tigerlilly, I know, the number of peaches was pretty amazing, and the flavor was mind blowing. All she did was stick them in the ground and then put little wire fences around them to keep the deer out. The problem with peaches, though, is that they all ripen at once, they go overripe quickly, and what do I do with that many peaches all at once? This year, maybe I'll see about selling the surplus to the food coop.

@Tom_Reingold - try canning! http://www.pickyourown.org/peachescanning.htm

We actually had a bunny rabbit take up residence in the yard last year, and as far as we could tell the little guy didn't take much. Of course our tomato plants were producing so much that even giving away stuff on a near daily basis we still ended up with tomatoes rotting on the vine, so he could have been eating to his hearts content and we just didn't notice. The carrots were untouched by him.  

spontaneous said:

We actually had a bunny rabbit take up residence in the yard last year, and as far as we could tell the little guy didn't take much. Of course our tomato plants were producing so much that even giving away stuff on a near daily basis we still ended up with tomatoes rotting on the vine, so he could have been eating to his hearts content and we just didn't notice. The carrots were untouched by him.  

We used to leave carrots and a few tomatoes out on the lawn for the bunnies, but they never touched the ones we left out or the ones in the garden.  

We concluded that they had plenty to eat in the lawn without the extras.

ohhhh... It just came backe to me that there is a small herd of deer that love to hang out in our yard. I might have to rethink our raised bed. Maybe do a hoop garden and use netting when needed. I have been fascinated by cold frames and hoop houses for awhile now but have done nothing about it. Maybe time to change.