Healthiest Greens to grow... / Gardening

[Roger Bacon]

I'm in zone 5, I'm going to focus on just growing nutrient dense greens. Anyone have any suggestions?

Collard greens always come out good, and leaf lettuce is great that you can just snip off a few leaves whenever you need it. Those green mixes are kind of cool with the little leafs. Kale is easy to grow but tastes shitty IMO. Spinach grows like crazy and is good. Swiss chard? bok choy?

Anyone know of a good source for non gmo seeds?

I know this is slightly off topic

[Bertha Butt]

I think its a great topic! I also grow my own veggies and fruit.

Not quite sure about the hardiness, because we don't use that map in Europe.

What you could probably grow:
spinach
perpertual spinach
swiss chard (rainbow coloured!)
red beets (harvest the young greens)
amaranth greens (naturally resistant to Roundup, take that Monsanto!)
quinoa greens
lambs lettuce (great for colder climats)
rocket
bok choy and paksoi
mustard greens or amsoi and kaisoi
kale and borecole
broccoletto (looks a bit like broccoli, but you eat the leaves, not the flower heads)
chinese broccoli or chinese kale
red cabbage, white or green cabbage, savoy cabbage (all take up a lot of space per plant)
brussels sprouts (harvest in winter, but acquired taste)
different types of leaf lettuce
different types of head lettuce (just sow thick and harvest thinings as greens, iceberg and crispleaf are more hardy in cold wheather)
cardoon (a thistle of which you eat the blanched leaves)
mountain spinach (atriplex hortensis, grows like weeds)
oyster leaves, saltwort and land seaweed (with a salty taste)
leeks and spring onions
purslane and miners lettuce
sorrel
endive
radishes (some are grown for only their greens)
peas, use tips and young leaves


Think this will do as starters...  

If you want non GMO, look for heirloom seeds.

[Bertha Butt]

Oh, and of course some herbs like chives, lemon balm, parsly, thyme, mint and basil are easy to grow and great in salads.

[Roger Bacon]

I think its a great topic! I also grow my own veggies and fruit.

Not quite sure about the hardiness, because we don't use that map in Europe.

What you could probably grow:
spinach
perpertual spinach
swiss chard (rainbow coloured!)
red beets (harvest the young greens)
amaranth greens (naturally resistant to Roundup, take that Monsanto!)
quinoa greens
lambs lettuce (great for colder climats)
rocket
bok choy and paksoi
mustard greens or amsoi and kaisoi
kale and borecole
broccoletto (looks a bit like broccoli, but you eat the leaves, not the flower heads)
chinese broccoli or chinese kale
red cabbage, white or green cabbage, savoy cabbage (all take up a lot of space per plant)
brussels sprouts (harvest in winter, but acquired taste)
different types of leaf lettuce
different types of head lettuce (just sow thick and harvest thinings as greens, iceberg and crispleaf are more hardy in cold wheather)
cardoon (a thistle of which you eat the blanched leaves)
mountain spinach (atriplex hortensis, grows like weeds)
oyster leaves, saltwort and land seaweed (with a salty taste)
leeks and spring onions
purslane and miners lettuce
sorrel
endive
radishes (some are grown for only their greens)
peas, use tips and young leaves


Think this will do as starters...  

If you want non GMO, look for heirloom seeds.

cool, cool, cool!!! Thanks! I'm googling lots of those I haven't heard of. Good point about the heirloom seeds, didn't think of that.

I think the climate where I live is probably similar to central/southern Germany.

[Roger Bacon]

Oh, and of course some herbs like chives, lemon balm, parsly, thyme, mint and basil are easy to grow and great in salads.

I love lemon balm, it's easy to grow. I got some a few years ago that smells just like lemon pez candy.

I think I'm going to focus just on greens so I don't get overwhelmed. It's so tempting to grow everything though, it's so much better home grown.

I can't not grow chives, that's a good one.

[calfzilla]

My friend just bought a house/farm couple acres; he's putting in a huge garden and said I can plant a plot of my own. 

I'm thinking zucchini, jalapeño not sure what else. Vegetables of good for bodybuilders.

[Roger Bacon]

My friend just bought a house/farm couple acres; he's putting in a huge garden and said I can plant a plot of my own. 

I'm thinking zucchini, jalapeño not sure what else. Vegetables of good for bodybuilders.

Yeah, you should def do the jalapenos... cucumbers would be nice too (no homo)

[calfzilla]

Personally I only like cucumbers in the form of pickle, no homo.

    Also green onion would be a good thing to grow. Maybe some cabbage too.

My friend and his wife just got some chick so in 6 months or so I should be getting some farm fresh eggs.

[Bertha Butt]

I would love a bigger garden. But I'll have to do with a few square meters.

For this year we have...
Orange, red and white carrots
Red and green lettuce, different types
Rocket
Spinach
Broad beans/fava beans
Marrowfat peas
Purple and yellow string beans
White, brown and purple tomatoes
White, purple, lilac and red sweet peppers
Black, purple and white hot peppers
White pumpkins
White cucumbers
Blue and green sweet corn
(yes, I have a thing for strange colours)

Also like snap garlic, peas, parsnips and red beets (also in white, yellow and striped chioggia!). Oh, and purple and pink potatoes.  But we had no more room for them this year. The rest of the garden is for my dwarf fruit trees and berries.

[Princess L]

I love lemon balm, it's easy to grow. I got some a few years ago that smells just like lemon pez candy.

I think I'm going to focus just on greens so I don't get overwhelmed. It's so tempting to grow everything though, it's so much better home grown.

I can't not grow chives, that's a good one.

Strange    They grow like weeds here.  A small plant will grow/spread into a huge plant (perennial) if not controlled.

I can't seem to grown the simplest things because the deer and bunnies zip of the plants as soon as they sprout leaves.

[Roger Bacon]

Strange    They grow like weeds here.  A small plant will grow/spread into a huge plant (perennial) if not controlled.

I can't seem to grown the simplest things because the deer and bunnies zip of the plants as soon as they sprout leaves.

No, that's what I mean... I can't NOT grow them  

Fucking love those things too, so much better fresh it's unbelievable.

[Bertha Butt]

Strange    They grow like weeds here.  A small plant will grow/spread into a huge plant (perennial) if not controlled.

I can't seem to grown the simplest things because the deer and bunnies zip of the plants as soon as they sprout leaves.

I usually let them grow big and flower. The flowers attract bumble bees, who also love our fruit trees.

Did you know the flowers are edible? Just sprinkle them over a salad for a hint of chives taste and a lovely purple plash.

[Montague]

Spinach needs lots of shade to grow?

I seem to remember my Dad saying that. He always had a huge spinach patch in his garden when I was growing up, so I presumed he knew what he was doing.

[Bertha Butt]

Spinach needs lots of shade to grow?

I seem to remember my Dad saying that. He always had a huge spinach patch in his garden when I was growing up, so I presumed he knew what he was doing.

When spinach gets warm, it bolts really quickly. So yes, shade will help.

[Bertha Butt]

Our harvest this weekend, the first this year: 100 g spinach, 100 g mixed lettuce leafs and 260 g rocket (not in the picture because Phreak ate it before I could shoot the picture    )

Not much, but mixed enough for a decent salad. Next harvests will be bigger, as the plants are bigger then. 

[Dicki_Nurmom]

Strange    They grow like weeds here.  A small plant will grow/spread into a huge plant (perennial) if not controlled.

I can't seem to grown the simplest things because the deer and bunnies zip of the plants as soon as they sprout leaves.

sounds like your garden would be a good source of lean meat

[Cold]

Can someone give me a list of fruits and veggies I can grow year round in norcal? Winter gets down to 40s and very hot in summer.

I have a koi pond with lots of nutrient rich water flowing thru a waterfall I could use to fertilize plants. But I know jack shit about plants.

[Bertha Butt]

Can someone give me a list of fruits and veggies I can grow year round in norcal? Winter gets down to 40s and very hot in summer.

I have a koi pond with lots of nutrient rich water flowing thru a waterfall I could use to fertilize plants. But I know jack shit about plants.

Not familiar with climates that warm, I'm thinking of vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, yard long beans, cow peas, melons, watermelons, okra, grapes, kiwi/Chinese gooseberry, papaya, maracuja/passion fruit... If I want to grow these I need a (heated) green house. Even in a warm climate most veggies and fruit don't grow year round, some (like peas) are also sensitive to daylength and rainfall.

Water from the pond is great as fertilizer! Also use the unused parts of the plants and grass clippings and so on as green fertilizers. Just cut them up and leave them for the worms. If your climate is also dry, leaving plant material on top of the soil keeps the soil more most.

[Roger Bacon]

Our harvest this weekend, the first this year: 100 g spinach, 100 g mixed lettuce leafs and 260 g rocket (not in the picture because Phreak ate it before I could shoot the picture    )

Not much, but mixed enough for a decent salad. Next harvests will be bigger, as the plants are bigger then. 

That's cool!

[Roger Bacon]

Can someone give me a list of fruits and veggies I can grow year round in norcal? Winter gets down to 40s and very hot in summer.

I have a koi pond with lots of nutrient rich water flowing thru a waterfall I could use to fertilize plants. But I know jack shit about plants.

Is that warm enough for an avocado tree? That would be cool!!

[Cold]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna do this. Gonna start with celery of different variety, tomatoes, lettuce, brocoli.

[Bertha Butt]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna do this. Gonna start with celery of different variety, tomatoes, lettuce, brocoli.

Don't know how tomatoes grow in your warm climate. Over here I have to sow tomatoes in March (or even as early as January) to harvest them from July to October. From Oct there is chance of frost, and even just a little frost can kill these plants instantly.

I know for certainty that any low growing bean will still be in time. And they are very easy to grow, as long as you don't have snails and slugs sliding around.
Most plants are sown from March to May.

[Bertha Butt]

This morning I picked some fruit and vegetables from our garden. Some broad beans, or fava beans, still with green pods. After shelling there were only a few handfulls left, but nice to add to a stir fry. Also a few hands of brown marrow fat peas, also still green. They taste so lovely sweet! Steamed with a little garlic butter, and they're just perfect! We also had a handfull of cherries.

I collect all the raspberry-blackberry hybrids in a bag in the freezer. When they stop giving fruit, I'll make jam of it. Up till now I have over a kilo of boysenberries and nearly 2 kilos of loganberries.

[Princess L]

Can someone give me a list of fruits and veggies I can grow year round in norcal? Winter gets down to 40s and very hot in summer.

I have a koi pond with lots of nutrient rich water flowing thru a waterfall I could use to fertilize plants. But I know jack shit about plants.

Not sure where you mean in Norcal but half of America's produce comes out of Watsonville so I'd imagine you could grow just about anything from asparagus to zucchini and everything in between.  Beans, peppers, strawberries, squash, tomatoes are all fairly easy.  Do you put any chemicals in the pond to keep the algae down?  I'd be leery of watering with that