Over on the GardenWeb, someone posed this question, and it brought up a lot of different answers, and gave everyone something enjoyable to talk about now that it looks like we might get Spring after all (5" of snow here this week, calling for more tonight...but my daffodils are bravely poking their noses up!)

I haven't had a garden proper in many years, so there are always new things for me, and I rotate what I plant by what I can get anyone to eat around here -- that usually means the critters, since my mother seems afraid of organic produce from my garden. I don't know why that is -- her father grew the family's food in their back yard and that was almost entirely organic. Maybe it is just because she knows how much horse manure I hauled in there! She's awful funny about the word 'manure'.

Anyway, some of the new things I am trying this year: Desiree and All-Blue potatoes, Mizuna, Garland/Shungiku Chrysanthemum, collards (turns out the critters will eat them!), wild chicories, and I started some curly endive seedlings, but already killed them accidentally :-( Rats. Another item I'm toying with is something from Seeds of Change called Beetberries. Anyone tried those? They're supposed to be 1/2" diameter and sweet. I also bought seed for Lambsquarters, just in case the stuff I saved last year wasn't ripe enough.

Lots of people on GW seem to be growing yard-long beans this year. I wonder if those are the same as asparagas beans? Oh well, I'm arguing with myself whether to plant peas or scarlet runner beans again...so far, peas are winning the discussion. And instead of planting 12 different varieties of tomatoes this year, Im HOPING that I can make myself stick to my plan and just plant Tami-G and Fourth of July this year -- they proved themselves the winners last year. Of course, at the moment it doesn't seem like I'll ever get to plant a tomato outside, but I'm a gardener, and a gardener by definition must be an optimist.

Other ideas I'm toying with (other than my mushroom patch of dubious morality); Blueberries, Siberian Honeysuckle bushes (fruiting), Alpine strawberries as a permanent feature (maybe under the blueberries and Honeysuckle), and a dwarf Papaya. I forget if it was Sunset or Sunrise Solo seed that I ordered, but I'm going to try them in pots. One of my fig trees in containers that spent the winter in the garage with the rabbit is opening it's leaves in the green house right now, so that experiment continues!

What are you planting this year that is new and exciting?

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Answers

I'm going to all low maintenance raised beds now that I'm single again. Have plans to add about 80 4 x 12 frames as soon as I purchase the property and trailer adjoining me.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

This year I am ditching the shelling peas and going with snap peas..edible pod even in the more mature stage when you snap them like green beans as opposed to leaving them whole when they are still flat. Yummy!!!!!!!!! Shelling peas is just a pain in the ass when you want to fill a freezer..a gazillion podds later you have a small bag of peas. Big freakin' deal! Royal Burgundy green beans and Buerre de Roquencourt wax beans are a new variety try out. All my tomato selections and swaps are new to me too. I think I have about 6 varieties this year and have started NONE as of yet. Also I am trying a Russian cuke thats supposed to be super early and prolific if somewhat small(pickles anyone?). Last years experimental edible was groundcherry (Cossack Pineapple I think the name was). They tasted like a cross between tomato skins and pineapple..heavy on the skins. Not a thrill. Could be because I container planted them maybe? Oh, and this years potatoes are a yellow variety that I have totally forgotten the name of. Did all blue potatoes last year and they make the most interesting lavender gray mashed potatoes...LOL tatsed yummy anyways, what I got of them (one meal). I really don't do well with tatties. I'll shut up now.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Well, probably not terribly exciting to others, but this is the first year I've grown garlic (and I'm doing five kinds) and also the first year I've tried favas. Since I planted them last fall, they are sort of unexciting by now, although they are lookin' good!

I guess the most interesting to me is my perennial garden, as like Alan, I've always been more practical in terms of food than beauty, up until now! I started hollyhocks (assortment), lupine, pinks, and I bought more astilbe and phlox starts.

As far as vegetables go, and what I *would* like to try are asparagus and globe artichokes. I also think I might take the fold-up gazebo thing (that I bought for camping last year) and erect it...then put plastic shower curtain liners (attached with the plastic round hooks even) to the sides. If I can find a place on the property, I may yet try to grow tomatoes (in five-gallon buckets) inside this structure. I really feel like I'm just trying to kick the football that Lucy holds every year when it comes to tomatoes, though!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2002

Sheepish-are your tomatoes that modest?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Having just bought property last Fall for the first time ever the question might be better put to me as "what are you planting this year that you HAVE planted before?"

Veggie gardenwise my new and exciting are grape tomatoes. Never grew them before but the baby sure ate up her weight in them last year so I thought I'd give them a try. Not sure if they're determinate or indeterminate and it looks like they'll need staking but so far so good. Planted some of the japanese style long, thin purple eggplants by the name of Ichiban and they make a very pretty plant and seem to be setting fruit nicely. Got some volunteer pumpkins from some that I fed the hens last year and decided to leave them. So far they're going gangbusters. Pretty much everything else in the veggie garden is stuff I've done before and expect to get a tolerable crop from even with as little soil prep as I did before planting.

Now on the rest of the property EVERYTHING is new and exciting to me! Haven't had a long-term place to call my own since I left my parent's house so never put in any long-term perennials since I'd just have to leave them when next I moved. Now that we own the place I'm making up for lost time. I've planted the three apple varieties recommended for Florida - Anna, Golden Dorsett and Tropic Sweet and except for the last they're doing well. Planted three kinds of pears - Flordahome, Hood, and Golden Boy. Put in three pecan trees, Stuart, Elliot, and Desirable - twelve blueberry bushes, Tifblue and Powderblue - three fig trees, Celeste, Brown Turkey and Osborne Prolific - four guavas, Cattley and Pinepapple - an olive tree - three varieties of camellias - three swamp chestnut oaks - two southern red cedars - and a native plum tree (Chickasaw).

Of course, all these new plantings have to be mulched in properly on our sandy soil so that I don't have to irrigate so much. Raking all of that mulch up and spreading it is neither new or exciting - just necessary. One takes the bad with the good. So far, it's looking pretty good horticularlly wise around here.

.........Alan.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

I am planting fava beans as the same time as peas this year since I learned that they like the same type of weather. Alison.....you must not like to sit in the swing under the apple tree like I do?? That is where I shell peas and the more peas I have to shell, the more I get to sit in the swing under the apple tree and listen to the birds etc. (catch my drift?? ;>) )

A freind gave me some currant bushes, gooseberry bushes and everbearing raspberries; none of which I have ever grown. I am restricting myself to three types of tomatoes this year; sweet- million for my cherry tomatoes, Amish paste for my sauce and my own "pig pen" tomatoes from seed we have saved for years. I went crazy last year and planted so many different varieties that I don't even know what did well!!!

Julie..........how cold did it get in the garage...do you know?? I sure would like to try a fig tree.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Yes Diane -- the lowest temp that the garage got to this year was 45F -- there is a temperature gauge in there, and it has water pipes running through, so it has a little supplemental heater to keep it from freezing (it also has living space over top of it that keeps it warmer too).

The fig went dormant in the fall and dropped it's leaves, so I moved it out there, watered it on occasion to keep it from drying out, and by early February, I could see that the apical bud was swelling quite a lot. I waited another two months tho, and brought it indoors to the greenhouse room about a week ago, and it is putting out new leaves there (60 F). I have been reading over on the Garden Web about what other people's fig trees are doing, and the outdoor ones around the country haven't put out any leaves as yet, even the ones in milder climates than I live in, so I'm ahead of the game, I guess!

That's okay, our growing season is so much shorter that I need to cheat a bit if I ever hope to see fruit. I forget your growing zone out there, but I see that there are people growing them in Washington state from the GW. THey grow them in the ground in Chicago and get fruit...can't remember the name of that variety, but it's got the word 'Chicago' in the name. My greatest challenge is finding a hot enough area for it during the summer as it tends to cool summers around here. I've read about putting them against masonry walls to absorb heat as well as reflect light, so I may even have to just make it it's own little wall for that purpose, unless I can get Stonehenge built out back and it can live there during the summer.

Alan -- I think that Grape tomatoes are indeterminate. Mine were still going great guns when the weather finally killed them despite all my plastic tents and other extreme measures. They'd been trimmed back to ripen the fruit they had (considerable) but they just kept putting out more flowers. Tami-G is a grape tomato that I grew this last year and I loved that one. I think that they refer to it as a 'cherry berry' type --? Oh well. I also grew Juliet, which is a LARGE grape tomato, takes several bites to eat one politely (altho in the garden when no one is looking you CAN cram the whole thing in your mouth at once -- I carry a salt shaker with a flip top along with me for snacking purposes). That was very prolific as well, and the fruit kept well. That was another thing I liked about both Juliet and Tami-G -- they were good keepers, and neither one cracked much due to irregular watering (which happens when you have three straight days of rain). Tami-G cracked not at all, whereas Sweet Million I lost a lot of fruit to cracking. Not that there wasn't ample fruit from the Sweet Million to compensate, but just the same.

I haven't planted apple trees myself in many and many a year, so my apple trees are sort of an adventure too. We planted an orchard from Gurney's years ago, and all but one tree failed (dead sticks tend to do that). Now that I am finally (and permanently??) settled, I put in apple trees over the last three years too. Honeycrisp, Sweet Sixteen, and Duchess of Oldenberg, and one of the Northpole varieties this last year. I HAD to have Duchess -- my grandmother had one of those, and it supplied yearly apples for applesauce (the best in the world), pies, canning, and eating fresh every year reliably with very little bug damage, altho she never sprayed it. I am hoping that the Honeycrisp is big enough this year to set a couple apples. The Army caterpillars tried to get them last year, and were met with a bath of dish detergent.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Seed for Lambsquarters?! BWAAHAAHAAHAA!!!

What? You're serious? Man, I weed sooooo much of that stuff out! Don't suppose you'd care for some Ironweed seed too, wouldja?!

Well, I was going to try a bunch of different tomatoes, but...I guess I could still plant some more 'mater seeds and they would be okay to plant out, just a bit late. Not usually a problem here, with a late April to mid September (or later) frost free period.

I'm trying Robustini Pepperocini; and Jingle Bells peppers this year, along with some mixed color bells that came free with a seed order. I'm also trying several new green beans: Dragon Langerie, Masai, Rattlesnake and Provider. I'd LIKE to grow Blue Speckled Pole Limas or Florida Speckled Limas but I can't find the seed. Does anyone have a Burpee catalog that would be willing to see if they are in there? I heard a rumor.... Anyway, Red Burgundy Okra, Minnasota Midget Canteloupe, Eight Ball Zucchini, Moon and Star Watermelon and a new Hybrid bicolor sweetcorn that I think is called Jumpstart; supposed to be a week earlier than Honey and Pearl. I think that's all of the new ones.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Alison...you will absolutely LOVE the snap peas!! We've planted Sugar Snap peas ever since they appeared on the market. My son was practically weaned on them. He loved to toddle off into the garden and hide in the vines while he chowed down on the pods :-)!! I don't know of any insect that bothers them and they're very prolific!! Just make sure you have at least 6 ft. tall pea wire for them to climb up! The pods are just as sweet as the pea so there's no waste...just freeze without shelling. And they're delicious fresh; dipped in your favorite dressing! Oh...and we love the Royal Burgandy bush beans, too. They seem to be more resistent to mildew and drought than other bush beans.

Due of the insistance of my granddaughter, we'll be planting Sugar Baby watermelon and Sweet 'n Early canteloupe this year (should never have taken her seed shopping with me :-)! We've planted them in the past, but sometimes they take up too much room. Maybe I'll do the raised bed "thing" like you, Jay, at least for my xtra-curricular crops!! I could put those anywhere...if I prepare the beds now.

Like you, Polly...lambsquarter is a perenial WEED here!!! Between that and raspberry and blackberry vines, the weeding never ends! I sooo want to get an aspargas bed going!! Just how complicated is it???

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

Yes, very, very, very modest tomatoes...so modest some years that they never even show up! I just want to get them someplace that's warm, off the ground, and out of the rain. Mr. S. keeps promising a greenhouse, but he's still maxing out on school credits, doing his externship, and tutoring, so I'm lucky if I can get a lawn mowing out of him! ...Thus, the jerry-rigged plastic gazebo pipe dream!

I think asparagus beds need to be sandy, and it takes a couple of years to get any harvestable shoots. There's tons in E. Washington (which is really arid). An old neighbor used to grow globe artichokes (which I love to eat anyway). They looked pretty cool around the edges of her garden in an ornamental kind of way, too.

Our growing season is kind of unpredictable. Some years it's long and relatively dry, mostly it's wettish and middlin' long. Of course the years that I plant all the cool season crops, it's hotter'n blue blazes and droughtish. If I take a chance on planting for heat and dryness, I usually get the summer of 55* with rain all the time. (At least it always seems that way! Guess I had better dig out my old journals!)

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002

sheepish.....you can grow asparagus in rather heavy clay. We get a nice crop every year. We did trench the roots and lay down a heavy compost layer when we planted. Must check in to the "Chicago" fig julie, our climate is very close to theirs.

I forgot to mention my most exotic new thing.........the bamboo that Anne sent me!!! It shot up an 8 foot shoot (I planted it in a bucket until the weather was appropriate here as there was much snow on the ground when it arrived.) The big shoot fell over and killed itself one night but the rest of the plant looks lovely and green and ready to go. Will it tolerate any frost Anne??

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002