Okay, I admit I'm a gardening junkie, but honest to Pete, why do I get sucked into trying out every weird vegetable I can find? I was at the hardware store (which also sells seeds and plants) and one of my favorite people there said I had to try these varied colored carrots. Do I really want to grow purple carrots, or yellow ones, or white ones? I have two carrot plots in the garden now--looks like there's a third! And bush beans--Blue Lake Bush beans. My neighbor down the road (who can grow anything) swears by them, so now I have Blue Lake Bush beans in the garden, along with Tendercrop. Why do I have five rows of beans? Because I'm a sucker for vegetable seeds! Then I stopped by the local nursery to get some basil plants for a friend. I left with 18 Homestead tomato starts. The lady there told me they were indeterminate, open-pollinated and were ideal for drying. Gosh, I sure hope she's right, because they are going in the seasonal garden (no room in the big garden because of the 18 Celebrity tomato plants). My husband is building trellis for the Homesteads. Anyone else genetically unable to say "no" to a plant or seed?
Jane, I have 26 tomato plants but some have two or three plants in the space because I couldn't separate them. I'll make tomato sauce out of some of them and hopefully eat the rest of them. There is always the farm market on the square for what we can't use. Yep, every time we go past somewhere that sells plants we stop. No wonder dr thinks we need another vegetable bed. I just have two short rows of carrots but odd colored ones....I've been looking at those purple ones in the store but haven't tried them yet. I do like Blue Lake beans though. dooley
Oh I love unusual seeds or plants, and always buy something if it's "new" to me. Last year it was white tomatoes, and I loved them. Low acid and sweeter than a regular tomato, they were so good in many of our baked dishes. Now I'm on the hunt to find them again this year. My husband wants me to grow purple potatoes this year after we bought some from the grocery.
I once read a book named 'The Botany of Desire' The premise was that plants make themselves 'attractive' to cater to humans so that the people eat/take home or otherwise have others do the same so that the plant propagates by human nature without much work by the plant. You fit that model and the plants know it. Jerry P.S. Plants are in charge of producing the garden seed catalogs.
I tried some of those purple carrots once. I dunno... it wasn't bad... but I guess my mind told my taste buds that something just wasn't right.
Jane, I grow the most unusual fruits and vegetables I can find. Bosque blue : cherry tomato, looks like concord grapes http://jandlgardens.com/catalog/index.p ... 2q3tan8to7 Yellow submarine blush: cherry Plum-ish witha pink blush http://jandlgardens.com/catalog/index.p ... 2q3tan8to7 Tasmanian dwarf tomato Wild dwarf Fred tomato Summertime green Dwarf tomato carbon tomato Purple russian sugardrop cherry tomato Fried Green tomato Austins black cherry Costoluto genovese Quadrato rossi peppers Quadrato yellow pepper purple cayenne pepper only to name a few..... Then I have the colored carrots, too. Pink, blue, gold, and red varieties of potatoes (which I planted most of them yesterday) I can't remember them all right now, but I have lots more of odd things to try this year.
I grow a large organic vegetable garden at work for the kitchen and the Chef is always asking me to grow different varieties that might "WOW" the guests. He seems to lean towards colors that are different and will look good on his buffet table LOL Bright lights Chard, Royal Burgundy Beans, Purple Potatoes, white and black radish etc I like trying new things so I'm always game
Count me in! I'm always trying new things too, especially different colors. Speaking of purple potatoes...Once i had no white potatoes and had to put our homegrown purple ones in the chowder I was making.They tasted really good, but the color purple in a chowder, I dunno! ain't that the truth!!! mg, the Homestead Tomato is a good one. I grew them for many years.
I can relate, I've always had the desire to try the new varieties as each year's new seed catalogs arrived.. Hank
It's very comforting to know I'm not alone in my inability to say "no" to a vegetable seed! Bunkie, thanks for the thumbs up on the Homestead tomato. I hope they dry well, since I'd really like to do more of the sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. I have my doubts about purple carrots, also white ones, but if we don't try them we'll never know! Jerry, you are so right! I am a "plant enabler"!
I don't experiment with veggies but give me an oddball flower and I'm in heaven! The only problem is our growing season is so short I can't get too wild and crazy :-D
You will not be sorry with the Blue Lakes,, Homestead and Celebrity are almost the same identical tomato so if I can`t get one,,, I get the other. Both are good medium size tomatoes for canning or eating.
Heh heh heh....MG you paint a good picture. It is a little easier for me to resist every offer that comes along by the fact that I just do not have the room any more after having given-up my second lottie. So--no room, no extra trials. It doesn't stop me from being very curious and enjoying hearing about the trials of others. I try new things every year, but not as many now as I used to, sadly. :?
I tried a real weirdo two years ago; a decorative member of the nightshade family called "Pumpkins-On-A-Stick" whose end product looked like Japanese Lanterns, grew on upright stalks similar to eggplants. Started seeds in a greenhouse; when big enough..and night's warmed up..out they went into an Earth Box. Had some GOOD Wyoming winds that knocked over a few when about 2 feet high; got some stakes and went to straightening them up. I NEVER wear GLOVES, never gave the stalks a THOUGHT; grabbed one and went into a FIT of HURT: buggers were all FINE SPINES that penetrated the skin! Spent the next HOUR with tweezers extracting SPINES you could hardly SEE, then DID put on gloves to straighten plants up, get them tied to stakes! By then, ALL they GOT was water..IF LUCKY! Plants WERE a conversation piece, certainly decorative at maturity, BUT talk about "human haters"? Sure got this unwary gardener GOOD..rest of seeds went right in the garbage and I still shirk every time I think about that variety. The "owWies" were AWFUL from such pretty plants, ain't had anything HURT like that since stepping on chain fruit cholla "heads" while wearing moccasins many years ago! Whole story IS funny when I think back on it now, just am surprised the plants didn't drop over and DIE from what they were called every time I looked at them (lol!!!). Since then, I'm very, very careful about trying the new off-the-wall items..you never KNOW what you'll end up with!! They just MAY be out for vengeance!
