By which I mean a backyard garden so your family can eat if Obama continues to destroy the economy.
I am a city slicker who hasn’t planted anything in 40 years so I need your advice. What can I grow in the Northeast that is hard to screw up and is nutritious?
Let me know and I will post the best suggestions. Thanks.
Update: Great response. Here’s the first and will post more later.
James,
Try three sisters gardening. Native Americans used them to great effect. The three sisters; corn, beans and squash have a symbiotic relationship. Plus, together you’ll have a good supply of protein and carbs to keep you going while the new economy is under development!
Gabe McGranahan
Mogadore, OHMore great ideas:
James:
You can grow sprouts indoors. They are very easy to grow and nutritious. (Even I can’t screw it up). The most common sprouts are alfalfa and red clover but there are many others. You can use jars or trays or buy sprouter kits. From seed to edible sprout is about five to seven days for many kinds of sprouts.
Cornelius Cakely
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Shucks son. Most crops we grow down here can be grown in Yankee land too. Most of the crops grown in the North are smaller, more concentrated, and seem to think they are the BEST crops in the world.
But….tomatoes, cukes, squash can grow even in the north. I would stay away from corn though. Potatoes are good also.
It’s been years since I have grown crops, and like you, I think it may be necessary again. Thank goodness food is still mostly cheap, and you really do not need a garden YET.
Tom Curtis
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Onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, rhubarb, asparagus,
turnips, strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, brussell sprouts, beets,
kohlrabi, squash, cucumbers, corn, string beans, radishes, eggplant,
blackberries, raspberries…. You could also plant apple, pear,
cherry, plum trees. All of those things will grow very well in the
Buffalo area, same as Iowa where I grew up.
Share what you grow, as there is always excess that is subject to
spoilage.
Good luck. Alas, I am stuck here in a landlocked row home with no
yard in Center City, Philadelphia.
Bill Faust
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Mr. Ostrowski,
Well, I don’t know about not screwing up; gardening does take some attention & effort, but it can be fun and a great relief from stress, etc.
Corn, tomatoes (for eating & canning), peas, squash, lettuce, spinach, herbs, asparagus (perennial), many others.
Get an Agway veg. seed catalog. You must have a store near you. There’s an excellent planting guide in the inside back cover, with planting dates (key info. – – we’re in the middle of it now, so don’t delay), row spacing, etc. and it’s based on the Northeast planting zone, so it’s ideal. Don’t crowd your plants – – treat the spacings as minimums. Beginners often crowd their seeds and it reduces yield [wasn’t that Mao’s downfall?], makes it harder to weed, cultivate, spray, pick, etc.
Great hobby. I’ve done it for years. Good luck & happy planting,
Carl Vassar
Trumbull CT
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The subject is just too complicated to say, “plant this.” There are too many factors to consider. but that does not mean it is difficult for a person to do, even if they are in Manhattan.
The first thing you need to consider – the one thing you can’t control: sunlight. You can control the soil and water, but you really need to know how much sunlight does a plant really need?
Fruit bearing vegies (e.g. tomatoes, peppers – think things that hang off the plant): they need the most sunlight – at least 8 hours. Hard to screw up? try zucchini and tomatoes (but be warned zucchinis take up a lot of space)
Root veggies: they need about 5-6 hours of sunlight. Hard to screw up? Radishes, and they are very fast growers – can be 21 days until harves. People usually plant them next to carrots, as planting two things together is economical (and the radish will mark the spot where you planted the carrot which take 2 weeks to germinate), and harvesting the radish aerates the soil for the carrot. I love growing beets in this category too. Beets are also very easy and very nutritious (there was an article last summer on LRC about beets). But make sure that your root veggies are not too crowded. Don’t be afraid to thin the herd – seeds are cheap, and no veggies is a waste of time.
leafy veggies: they need the least amount of sunlight – 4-5 hours. Hard to screw up? Swiss Chard. and a few plants will continue to produce if you just harvest the outer leaves. Most greens are very nutritious. Cook chard like spinach, add some garlic to saute, and juice with lemon when it reaches the plate. If you plant too many, you thin them out to have “baby greens.” If growing in the summer, plant heat resistant varieties of lettuce, otherwise it will “bolt” to seed and taste bitter.
No vegies grows in shade. Fungi like mushrooms like the shade, but they offer little nutritional value.
I have the problem of a lot of shade (it cools the house well, but makes gardening a problem). So I grow leafy vegies and root vegies. And this is good because, if you live in suburbia like me, a lot of people grow too many fruit bearing veggies. In the northeast, you can always find someone with too many zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.
For someone starting out, or with limited space, I would recommend “square foot gardening.” It’s easy to do, and makes things uncomplicated for the novice gardener. Plug in “square foot gardening” into a search engine and you will come across Mel Bartholomew, who “invented” this technique. It saves space, watering, and like I said is easy. Also, for the city, check out growing things in containers. Some things that will grow well in containers are Bush Beans, Lettuce, Beets, Green Onions, Cabbage Peppers, Carrots, Radishes, Cucumbers, Bush Squash, Eggplant, Swiss Chard, Kohlrabi and Dwarf Tomatoes (source: Rutgers U.)
The next thing you need to look at is when to plant. Some plants like cool weather, some like it hot. Spinach, peas and lettuce like it a bit cooler (you’re too late this year to start from seed) and some won’t grow or get bitter in hot weather (as noted above, look for heat resistant varieties). Fruit bearing veggies generally like it hot.
Then look at how long it takes from planting to harvesting. Some things are quick, like the radish, but some take a long time like a pumpkin or parsnip.
That last thing, I would look at – especially in the city is the size of the plant. Zucchinis are prolific, but they’ll take over the place. Melons, too, will take over a garden.
Remember a thing about keeping up production: you can keep harvesting leafy veggies a couple of leafs at a time and still have a healthy plant (leave the middle leaves alone). And remember that many fruit bearing plants will shut down production if you don’t continually harvest – bigger is not better, it means you’ve told the plant to stop producing new flowers as it has done it’s job of producing the next generation. So keep pulling the zucchini, eggplant, cukes or you’ll find yourself with a shorter season than you could have had.
Good luck. There is nothing better than to open the door and have a taste of fresh food, right off the vine.
John F. Newman, Esq.
Abilheira & Newman, P. C.
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Hi James
Squash and zucchini will grow well in the NE. Just pick them before they get too big for the best flavor. Tomatos are another good, easy food to grow. Grow two plants of full-sized tomatos and one “yellow pear tomato.” The regular tomatos are for cooking, salads, canning, etc. The yellow pear tomatos are for picking right off the vine, and they might be the most delicious food there is.
For starters, you can buy the plants already sprouted at a farm stand. Save planting from seeds until you get the hang of things. You can probably get your plot(s) ready over the next few weekends and put plants in the ground late-May. For a small garden, “The Garden Claw” is definitely a worthwhile investment (plus a shovel if you don’t already have one). If you mix a sac of manure in with the soil now and water the plants whenever there’s a dry spell, you’ll have a nice harvest by September.
My wife and I have been at this for about five years now. Our garden grows a little each year starting from 3 small raised beds up to about 2500sq ft this year.
Good luck. I hope this helps. Keep fighting the good fight…
Kevin White
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‘The cheapest/easiest small scale foodstuffs to grow are potatoes,
carrots, onions, parsnips, beets, turnips and swedes, with – oddly –
guinea pigs for meat (though you may need to put their brains in stews to avoid the vitamin deficiency of “rabbit starvation”). You may find the Dutch dishes Hutspot and Stamppot a good way to stomach that sort of thing. A Hebridean foot plough is even better for this sort of work than a spade; for both, their metal parts should be made of stainless steel if they are going to sit on a shelf until needed, otherwise ordinary steel is better.’
Some of the other suggestions you got wouldn’t work for him, e.g. maize (he’s in northern England, and the lengths of day and night don’t suit it). And DON’T use a shovel instead of a spade, it isn’t designed for digging. Note the language barrier about what is called a turnip or a swede.
Yours sincerely,
P.M.Lawrence
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Hi,
We (myself and family) tried to plant a garden here in NH last year.
We’re all black thumbs, and did everything wrong. A lot of stuff
didn’t make it.
However, the fava beans grew like weeds. They seem to be a good
crop for adverse conditions. There’s also historical precedent:
Italy – La Festa di San Giuseppe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph%27s_Day
-D.A.
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Thanks to all.
JO
1:06 pm on May 1, 2009
