I don't know how it grows yet, but we'll see. This is my second year with a garden, and last year was a series of hits and misses. I got a very late start (broke ground in June, 28x19 feet, and built a 4-foot-tall fence around it) and used greenhouse-started vegetables for everything. The herbs were great, really nice output by the zucchini and summer squash, but then they got slowly overtaken and killed by a white fungus, which also overtook the pumpkin and canteloupe.
Tomatoes got healthy and big, then ended up growing so tall several collapsed on themselves, and I got many beautiful tomatoes that started, then ended up rotting on the vine instead of getting ripe (about a third of the output rotted). I got three red peppers total off two plants. Corn was an interesting experiment...about 23 tall stalks, about 25 ears of corn total, and the last half-dozen I picked were really bad-tasting, although they looked great.
This year I'm thinking more of the future. I built a couple 12x4 raised beds (one foot tall) out of landscaping timbers, and filled it with the mound of dirt sitting in the middle of the garden that was the leftover from some projects that called for using a trencher last year.
The main thing in the raised beds is asparagus - about 20, which I should be able to start picking in...like two years. I'm also putting herbs in the raised bed, and will see what fits in there as well - beets, carrots.
I put in five rhubarb starts, which also won't be producing for a year or two. I got a bit swept away by the beautiful offerings from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds...things I like but neither my wife or kids do, like kale and Swiss Chard...things like Thai eggplants, two kinds of beets (I don't think I've ever cooked a beet), Jacob's Creek and Soldier hard-shell beans (I've just recently gone from loathing to craving baked beans).
I have my seeds started, but we are just this week going to hit 70 for the first time this year, and we're still hitting 35 overnight. I put the trays out to "harden" them this morning, and after about an hour and a half, the beans' leaves were wilting from the cold.
Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to it, and I've got a much more thought-out "floor plan" for what's going to go where, and I'm hoping that it will get better every year. I also planted six blueberry bushes outside the garden - again, probably two years before they produce. Someday, I'm going to be wallowing in this stuff.
For the future, I'm thinking okra - something I've never really cooked with.
Anyhow, luck to all of us for this season!
Dave
