[onoway]

I've been asked to provide THREE packets of seed for a basket being made up as a fundraiser. Since I tend to buy enough seed to plant a small country I am having huge problems trying to decide on only three seed packets. Obviously nobody knows where it will end up ...might be a 100 acres or might be only a balcony available - so have sort of dismissed things that take up a huge amount of room or need to be trellised so that sort of leaves out corn, winter squash, most indeterminate tomatoes or 10 foot high peas, beans etc.

Sort of settled on a compact indeterminate tomato -Paul Robeson- as it is both uncommon and uncommonly good, but what else? I'd like to get seed that is somewhat unique but not so much that it'll get tossed. Doesn't have to be a veggie..we are a short season (90 day frost free) area, in case that's useful to know.

So...what do people like to grow, what's the default plant/variety that your garden can't be without?

[helene_t]

we tried to plant some berry bushes but were not very successful. So now we are mainly growing grass.

[jjbrr]

i think basil plants and mozzarella bushes would go wonderfully with your tomatoes.

[Vampyr]

Three that go well together are silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row.

Just kidding. Rosemary is really hardy. Well, mine has died because I haven't been watering it, but it had stayed alive for years. Geraniums are hardy. These might survive for awhile in the cold.

[blackshoe]

 Vampyr, on 2015-January-14, 16:59, said:

Three that go well together are silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row.

Just kidding. Rosemary is really hardy. Well, mine has died because I haven't been watering it, but it had stayed alive for years. Geraniums are hardy. These might survive for awhile in the cold.

I think it depends on what you mean by "cold". Last night when I got home, it was -1 degree Fahrenheit, which if you ask me is pretty darn cold.

[mikeh]

I take it that you are looking at vegetables or fruits.

I grow a variety of foods, which over the last few years have included (never all in the same year):

strawberries, raspberries, blueberries

carrots

lettuces (romaine, mixed, iceberg, etc)

spinach

swiss chard

kale

various beans

peas

onions, walla walls (very sweet), or red

green/spring/bunching onions

lots of varieties of tomato

leeks

asparagus (tho I lost all my plants when we dug up the entire back yard and never replanted....it takes years for asparagus to start yielding)

broccoli

cucumber

various squash

garlic

Based on my experience, I would strongly suggest a package of carrot seed. Ideally, find a package that has seeds for multiple colours of carrots. You may need to go to a specialty gardening store, rather than, for example, a local supermarket or Home Depot type establishment.

I grown multiple colours every year, and they grow and taste exactly like regular orange carrots, but make a great presentation on the plate, whether served raw or cooked, and surprisingly few people seem to know about them. Typical colours include white, bright yellow, green, red, purple, almost black, and the traditional orange. One is even a mix of dark red on the outside and a lighter colour on the inside. I don't recall the cost of a package, but I am sure I'd remember if it was a great deal more than the standard package, and it may be the same price....seed packages are almost always very cheap anyway.

You can grown them in almost any container...so long as the soil is at least 10" deep. I plant them in raised beds that have about that much soil, maybe a little more... and they grow to a good length.

Herbs are also good. We grow basil, but not from seed and only late in a warm summer, since it needs a lot of heat which we don't usually get, being in Victoria, on an exposed location with prevailing winds blowing into the garden. Thyme, various varieties, is easy to grow, but doesn't look as good as some and, to my thinking, wouldn't be my first choice. Rosemary.....one of my favourite herbs, looks good...a rich green and then it flowers as well. In Victoria, it winters outside and eventually grows into a pretty good shrub, with a significant woody trunk. Marjoram, grows well but is a blah herb. Oregano...another favourite with a good smell, if you like oregano. Sage is also a good grower here.I haven't grown any from seed..I bought plants years ago and they have survived every winter, other than the basil which is outside for no more than about 10 weeks anyway.

Hope this helps. I really think the carrots are a good idea.

[kenberg]

Tough problem/ Currently I grow tomatoes and strawberries, I am thinking of adding rasberries. Some years back I grew a lot of stuff. Beans, peas, squash, watermelon, asparagus, strawberries, carrots, lettuce and other things that I can't recall. Some herbs. And that might work.

I am now several degreesa south of you, but I did grow up in St. Paul. Still south of you, but less.
Our lot was, if I recall correctly, 40' by 120'. Maybe 60 by 120. Not large anyway. We had two apple trees (one of them crab apple) , current bushes, raspberry bushes, a grape arbor, all placed here and there plus a garden with peas, beans, lettuce, chard, rhubarb tomatoes, cucumbers etc. And a flower garden. I recommend this for kids, by the way. Rhubarb might be something people would not think of but would like. You can't eat teh leaves, as I recall.

When I was gardening more, I would go through the Burpee catalog, tell them what I wanted, and it came. I expect most people who garden with some enthusiasm have their regular sources and a regular routine. Maybe you know some flowers or decorative plants that grow well in your area that people might not think of?

[Trinidad]

We grow a variety of berries:
Raspberries
Strawberries
Wild Strawberries (much tastier than strawberries)
Gooseberries
Grapes

We have an apple and a pear tree

And each year, we typically grow
potatoes
tomatoes
bell peppers
chili peppers
carrots

basil
thyme
oregano
parsley
koriander
chives
dragon
rosemary
sage

My wife does most of the gardening, so she knows exactly what is grown.

Since I am city Dutch, I grew up with the idea that gardens are for flowers (and yes, we also have lots of tulips, crocuses, daffodils, snow bells, lillies, etc). But now I really like the fact that I can send one of the kids into the garden with a pair of scissors to get the fresh herbs while I am doing the cooking.

I would say that berries and e.g. sugar peas are great for families with preschool- elementary school kids. The kids can go into the garden and snack. They love it. When we lived in Sweden, we had currant bushes at the edge of our lot, and kids from the neighborhood were crawling through that corner of the yard to take a snack. That gave my own kids a big boost on the neighborhood's popularity ladder.

Now, my kids are in middle school age and I think they really like the fact that what 10 minutes earlier was still growing in the garden, now gives a very nice taste to their dinner. I don't think that they go around in school to tell how cool and awesome that is (it won't score many points) but I do think they like it a lot.

Rik

[Cthulhu D]

I live in an apartment, so the only thing on my balcony is my weighlifting equipment. I grow iron?

[kenberg]

 Cthulhu D, on 2015-January-15, 01:42, said:

I live in an apartment, so the only thing on my balcony is my weighlifting equipment. I grow iron?

My mind works in strange ways, so this led to a thought. When I was in an apartment I had what was (correctly or not) called a corn stalk plant. Sort of a cross between a stalk of corn and a palm tree. It grew about a foot a month, got up close to the ceiling, and croaked.

The thought: There may be a guy somewhere living in an apartment who would appreciate seeds for some appropriate plant, along with instructions about care and feeding. Or, even if you don't focus on "guy in an apartment", you could think of a person with at best modest experience with plants. Choose something reasonably easy and nice, and include instructions for the novice on what to do and what to expect. As I mentioned, when I was more heavily into gardening I planned out my order, sent it to Burpee, and I was set. But there are probably people who who have little or nothing planted that might give it a shot with your guidance.

[onoway]

I actually have two sets to get, one for a child and one for an adult. The child's packets were set fairly easilly..tall edible seeded sunflowers, Cascade snap peas to climb up and fill in the base of the sunflowers and marigolds to plant all around all around..also has edible flowers. Going to include a sheet on how to plant with an option of how to make a "teepee" with the sunflowers. Aside from giving the kid a hideaway, this also has the advantage of helping the sunflowers cope with the wind without falling over, as some of the tall ones tend to do. If the kid is living in an apartment, the sunflowers would be a problem but the other two would still be possible to grow even on a balcony...

The adult set..isn't going to fit together so nicely but.. Paul Robeson tomatoes, a package of assorted coloured carrots (great idea, thank you Mikeh) and cracoviensis lettuce..it's a form of celtuce, something that few people around here have ever heard of. (it will also come with a bit of guidance as to what it is and how to eat it). I'd thought of flowers but hard to know what colours and textures people like. Veggies, at least they can eat them. I doubt there is anyone in the world (who likes tomatoes) who wouldn't love the tomatoes, whatever they thought of the other two!

Thanks to everyone who replied! Off to order!

[mycroft]

I have about the gardening aptitude and interest of the person who was given a cactus for Christmas.

"But I don't know what to do with it!"
"You have the Weather Channel, right?"
"Yes"
"Watch it. When it rains in Albuquerque, water it."

(with a note that I know from friends that it frequently rains in Albuquerque. You can see it up there in the sky, raining. Having the rain actually make it to ground level, however...)

[onoway]

If you care what you put into your body, it might be wise to develop an interest... it isn't remotely the same sort of choice now as it was even 30 years ago. No frankenfoods then..they are everywhere now and going to get much worse. Stuff designed (using the word advisedly) to look pretty, ship long distances well, and often with poisonous chemical residues deliberately embedded in the food...nothing whatever about nutrition and little about taste beyond sugar. Just sayin'

[MrAce]

2 rows of pure South African

3 rows of pure Turkish

5 rows of Hydro but indoors.


(all is joke of course)

[Phil]

At the old house we had an awesome backyard. Two gigantic heritage coastal oaks on a flat lot of.4 acres. One week before we moved out the big one cleaved and nearly took the neighbors house.

Our garden was about 20' x 50'. We had everything you'd normally grow but also had some tasty Japanese eggplant and some yellow pear tomatoes (that the Corgi would snack on).

We had a few fruit trees including a Valencia Orange that was part of the original orchard (house was built in '59). We also had some giant figs that we took out because of roof rats.