lovely, honey (she/her)Dec 19, 2022

It’s December, so of course I’m thinking about #FoodNotLawns and what I’m going to grow next season.

Things I grew last year that did well: okra, San Marzano tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplant

Things I grew last year that did okay but could probably do better this year with some adjustments: squash ($@&%-ing squash vine borers), peppers, leeks, tomatillos

Things that crashed and burned: peas, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers

Last summer was unbelievably hot and kept going back and forth between no rain for weeks and nothing but rain for days. Next summer, I’m going to pick more heat-tolerant plants and maybe set up drip irrigation.

My stepmother (expert gardener, grew up on a farm) suggested that I start my garden outside earlier and do a fall planting, but the latter may be challenging because my summer plants produced until November this year. I may put in a few more raised beds so that I can do some crop rotation.

I also want to start a mushroom garden on the north side of my house, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for such an absurdly big undertaking yet.

Show thread¡a!n
@curstandcussed I started off pretty well with some nice lettuce and spinach leaves, carrots and chard but then the kale became supercharged and overgrew everything so now I have have way too much kale and a load of chard. I'll have to keep the kale in check next year
Dec 19, 2022 at 1:37pmWeb
Show threadlovely, honey (she/her)Dec 20, 2022
@iain I was thinking about trying greens, though I’m a lifelong kale hater. I’ll probably do mustard greens because they’re my favorite, maybe some spinach and chard, too. What zone are you in? I’m in 7b bordering on 8.
Show thread¡a!nDec 20, 2022

@curstandcussed I'm in 9b, so never too cold, but never too warm and often very wet summers and without a greenhouse it's hard to grow interesting things.

Greens are fairly easy to grow, and don't take long, so you can plant a few weeks apart and have a nice continual crop.

Kale is, yeah... s'alright in small portions, but someone recommended I make kale pesto because I had so much, and no, that was not a good thing.