In your seasonal culinary garden, what do you grow EVERY year?

Question

(Maybe share the size of your garden, your average weather conditions, consistent pests like deer, rats, etc.)

I'm in SoCal and have a 20'x20' plot in a community garden about 10 minutes from home. Every year I grow stringless vine beans (fortex), kabocha that vines on a trellis fence (nothing like fresh-picked), sugar snap peas, and occasionally favas, cranberry beans, yellow wax, chard, flageolet beans, loofah (edible/fiberless when under 6"). 

But... I'm not such a good gardener - not being consistent with staggering plantings, paying attention to companion gardening techniques, fertilizing (seems each plant has different requirements and I get confused and give up), letting basil go to seed rather than keep it pinched, etc.

It's lovely in spring to see little symmetrical groupings of teeny oval, yellow ladybug eggs and larvae (google "ladybug larvae") and new growth everywhere. Not too fond, though, of the abundant rats and evening visits of hoards of bunnies (fencing works only on the ground-based critters - but doesn't work when some unscrupulous person lifts his 5-year-old over the fence to pick your ripening fruit/veg).

The most enjoyment comes from the science project that is nature in the garden.

Answer

I'm in northern Virginia, zone 7A. I grow in containers on my deck and in a shared plot that is about 15 x 30 feet. On the deck, herbs, lemon grass, 1 habanero and 1 serrano, maybe a cherry tomato. 

In the garden plot, we grow lots of tomatoes, green beans, okra, potatoes, carrots, tomatillo, zinnia, and other experiments. The plants I mentioned do extremely well - cukes and zukes, not so much. I'd like to do more beans this year. Our garden is fenced on account of deer and rabbits. The biggest challenge is weather, however. Generally we have a rainy spring and early summer, then long periods of drought that stresses out the gardeners and necessitates lots of watering. The soil is terrific after about 10 years of growing in that spot. We use aged manure and compost from our own bins.

At the moment, there is garlic in the garden plot but otherwise we're on break.

Answer

We garden in Saint Paul, Minnesota (zone 4a), between our yard and our 17x35 community garden plot which is a ten minute stroll from our house. The yard grows herbs, hot peppers, and cherry tomatoes in pots, potatoes in growing boxes, and rhubarb. We also have a straw bale garden in the yard, and grow pole beans, kale and potatoes in the bales. We have a small greenhouse structure appended to the house which extends our greens growing season: lettuces and other micro-green type plantings live there in the early and late seasons.

Our community plot is generally planted in tomatoes, potatoes, pole beans, a large onion patch, carrots, kale, chard, lettuce, zucchini, rhubarb...and we just this fall set in a garlic patch. We have a lot of volunteer dill in our community garden, so that's a given. We, somehow, always put in radishes (so quick!), but we never get to them all. Still, it's nice to have something fresh a month after sowing.

I consider these must-haves to be our most reliably high return-on-investment crops. For fun, we tracked how much we did NOT spend on purchasing lettuces over the course of the past growing season, and realized we'd saved about $180-$200 on lettuce alone. And that was with sharing our harvest with friends and family. Reason enough for me to always, always grow my own lettuces. Also, heirloom tomatoes (even at high season) are quite expensive in farmers' market around here, and with some of our favorites weighing it at pound-plus sizes, our ridiculously prolific tomato patch certainly earned far more than its keep. We stick a few experiments in from time to time (this year it was tomatillos for the first time), but we always default to keeping our core vegetables, as those are what we use most.

Next year? Subtracting a few zukes (good heavens did we have zukes this year!) and adding in butternut squash.

Answer

NH, zone 5 but we're in a low area so our first fall frost is mid September. I love the adventure of find plants and seeds, maybe swapping with a friend, and visiting farmers markets to see what they are growing. I have as much sun and space as I want but I'm trying to keep the veggie garden to a reasonable size for two people occasionally feeding others. I went from Buttercup squash to kabochua (Confection is my favorite) but discovered Long Island Cheese pumpkin at the farmers market this fall.

Started growing potatoes last year. Love the sampler packs you can get from Moose's Tubers/Fedco. Fingerlings last year. Storage potatoes this year.

Eventually I might do a better job figuring out season extending techniques. My husband built a small high tunnel with a yard pump. I've had good luck with spinach but this year small rodents discovered my garden so I had a lot of damage. Set out mouse traps! I've neglected my garden recently but have my fingers crossed that we'll have a fresh salad for Christmas. I still have kale outside, spinach in the high tunnel, hakurei turnips, and maybe arugala and kohlrabi (if the rodents haven't feasted on the rest of the kohlrabi). 

I agree. It's a science project. I am mystified why New England veggie growers limited their season. Really happy that market farmers are doing a great job with high tunnels and love the winter markets.

Answer

Fortex are the best. I have left some beans on the vine at seasons end so they get big and dry then harvest the beans for next year. I live in the Sacramento valley and it gets really hot. I grow tomatoes and if it doesn't cool down at night the flowers drop of before they set. My go to tomatoes are Ace, Celebrity, Champion, and La Roma III. I can so I haven't bought a tomato product in years. I love to grow a variety of peppers, jalapeño, Serrano, ancho, aneheim, and a bell. This is all I can get in a 12X12 garden. We built a couple of raised beds and grow spinach, lettuce, chard, beets, zucchini, carrots and potatoes. This past year I got some organic yukons from Davis Co-op cut those up and planted them. It worked fine. We did have some bad grayish bug that ate up the zucchini this past summer, the Sacramento Bee did a story stating they have made a resurgence in the area. And thanks to Pinterest I now regrow green onions from store bought by cutting the root tip off and planting it. Genius. I have a separate box for herbs especially basil for pesto that I freeze.

Answer

We have our veggie garden in the Adirondack Mts. of northwestern NY. We are zone 2/3 . Our deer fenced in garden is 20 x 70 feet. We have a 70 foot row of asparagus outside the fenced in area. We have a few struggling apple and plum trees along with wild and cultivated blueberries, raspberries,,gooseberries,currants, and a strawberry patch. The deer ate ALL of our apples in one night, and it was our first good crop since we planted the trees 4 years ago.

The garden is 800 feet from our water supply, the lake, so we have to haul 40 gallon garbage cans behind the 40 year old Cub Cadet to water.

We plant pole beans, bok choi,beets,broccoli,radishes,peppers,hot peppers ,cukes,zukes,,arugula, napa cabbage,broccoli rabe,turnips, peas, kale,fennel,basil,leeks,garlic,and sunflowers. I probably forgot some....

All of the above have done well. We have tried tomatoes , different varieties, different soil, in buckets, etc. and have decided the nights are too cool to even bother. We tried corn but the coons ate it. So it is a cool season garden!

Once a summer we load up the boat,( we are water access only), with all the garbage cans, tubs, etc. and do a sheep manure run to a friends farm for the black gold! We bring about a 1/2 ton in.

Where we are in NYS is a food desert. The closest "decent" store is a 20 minute boat ride and a 45 minute car ride away so we love our fresh veggies!

Answer

In CT and a space a bit smaller than yours:
Staples: Tomatoes (6 kinds), Peppers (8 kinds), Peas(snap and snow)
Leafs: Lettuce (8 kinds), Kale, Chard, Cress, Pak Choi, Tatsoi,Spinach
Vines: Cukes (2), Summer Squash (2), Winter Squash (3),PoleBeans(3)
Misc: Radish(2), Garlic(2), Carrots(2) Broccoli,EggPlant, Beets(2)
Herbs:Basil Arugula,Mizuna, (I keep trying Cilantro with minimal success!)
I try at least one new thing every year. This year it was fennel.

Yes, I too have troubles with rabbits and chipmunks. Best remedy seems to be to grow as much as possible vertically out of their reach.

Answer

We are Zone 8 and have a small garden behind our Victorian terrace and an allotment about 4 km away. No problem with the sort of mammals others on this board have to deal with (apart from foxes knocking pots over as they charge through the garden!), but two successive cool but very wet winters have left us with a huge slug and snail problem (seriously, the large orange slugs are truly disgusting) which limits a bit what I try to grow. We have an occasional squirrel problem at the allotment - one year they took all the beans.

In the garden: chillis, tomatoes (usually several varieties but mostly smaller types), chard, blueberries. Salad leaves on the upstairs windowsills (out of reach of slugs). Lots of herbs, including mint, sage, rosemary, parsley and several thymes. Basil grown indoors.
At the allotment, potatoes, garlic, broad beans, raspberries, rhubarb, gooseberries and blackcurrants. We have two apple trees and one plum tree. Some years I have tried carrots, beetroot and parsnips with some success. No success with squash, brassicas, corn, or anything leafy apart from chard. By and large I tend to stick to what I know will work but it is tempting to try something new. Just getting to that lovely stage of gardening where perusing seed catalogues by the fire is the order of the day!

Answer

I am in NW New Jersey ( zone 7 ). My obsession is hot, hot peppers. I grow from 24 to 40 plants every year ( I freeze a bunch & I have Carribbean friends who wait for the crop to mature so they can snag some).I also have an obsession with making hot sauces, so that uses up quite a lot of them. I grow Scotch Bonnets, Caribbean Red, S. Carolina Reaper, several different Bird peppers, several varieties of Habaneros, Thai Hots, Serranos, Hatch chiles & this year i'm trying a new one ( for me); the Zimbabwe Bird pepper.I have been tempted to order Chimayo chile seeds, but I read that unless they are grown in the soil in Chimayo, New Mexico (with it's own unique mineral makeup), they never taste the same. So I just order my Chimayo red & green chile powder from a source in NM. My absolute hot pepper fave is the Peruvian White Habanero. It is tiny ( about 1 inch long), extremely hot, but it has the most intense flavor & fragrance of smoky fruit. Love it, love it. I love and grow lots & lots of parsley; it's so packed with vitamins & I use it in most every main dish. I prefer the curly-leaf, although I know flat Italian is more en vogue, right now.. I find the Italian to be too tough for my liking. I grow basil ( Italian & Thai), thyme,oregano, rosemary, marjoram & lemon balm ( for tea). Something unusual that I grow is fenugreek seeds. The fenugreek greens ( if cut when they're no more than 12 inches tall) are a wonderful green to cook with ( think mustard, turnip, beet greens). They are a staple in Indo/Pak cooking & really are delicious. You can successfully plant the seed sold in Indian food markets as a whole spice.

Answer

Ananas Noir tomatoes, a luscious tomato that tends to look bad. Greenish when ripe, but with lovely pink and yellow stripes in the flesh.

Mucho Nacho jalapenos--bit and early.

Sumter cukes--a pickling cuke that tastes great right off the plant, heavy yield.

Answer

I have 2 10x10 raised vegetable beds here at the Jersey Shore. Each year I plant tomatoes, peppers (bell, jalapeno, poblano), eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers as well as a bunch of herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, sage, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, oregano, dill). I try new things as well each year. This year the experiments are watermelon, sweet potatoes, leeks, and corn.

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In your seasonal culinary garden, what do you grow EVERY year?

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