Growing a spring vegetable garden

[Gruntina]

Asparagus and eggplant are high value garden vegetable. So are green onions if you use them a lot.

Once you start a garden spot with perennial bunching onions you have an abundance of them them when you want them for years to come. For us that's been worth $50 a year, every year, all from a one time expense of part of a pack of seeds and twice a year weeding.


Lynda

I have a friend recommending me to grow green onions in a pot. She has one and said if I do the same and as long as I cut them, I will never need to buy green onions again.

[ThriftoRama]

I like zucchini, but if you plant more than one you'll likely have way more than you can eat, unless you plan to freeze it or make tons of zucchini bread.

We grow on zucchini, about a dozen each of roma and cherry tomatoes, green peppers, heirloom potatoes and basil each year. They all do well. We are in zone 5.

One tip on potatoes. We plant them in a large garbage can. They take up less space and you don't have to dig up the entire garden looking for them!

[GrimJack]

I like zucchini, but if you plant more than one you'll likely have way more than you can eat, unless you plan to freeze it or make tons of zucchini bread.

I have been told the best thing is to eat the zukes when they are still tiny - they are very tender and you can consume more of them.

One tip on potatoes. We plant them in a large garbage can. They take up less space and you don't have to dig up the entire garden looking for them!

A friend of mine plants his potatoes with a lot of space so when the plant gets tall, he puts a tire (yep, car tire) around it and packs straw into it. He makes potato condos 4 or 5 tires tall. The thing is that the potato is a tuber and grows from the base of leaves when there is no light. This sort of stores your food and makes 'digging' for them way easy! - just grab a tire and dig through the straw, you won't have to bend over to dig till late in the year.

[marla]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm taking most of them and hopefully I won't kill everything.

[LuxLiving]

Ummm, I'd be careful on the straw. Some people confuse straw w/hay. If you get hay I'd keep that area separate from any beds I didn't care to weed extensively. We've raised potatoes similarly, EXCEPT, we go to the local wood shop and get plain untreated wood shavings to use. No weeds. Easy to find the tates!

[cicy33]

cucumbers are easy to grow but you have to be careful not to step on the vines. Again, like zuchinni, don't overgrow or you will be eating them till they come out your ears!