5×5 Challenge: What to Grow?
Last year my choices for the 5×5 Challenge were easy, I was using the Rainbow Kitchen Garden Collection from Renee’s Garden. This year I plan on trying different vegetables. As a beginner, you may wonder how to choose which vegetables to grow when you only have a small space?
First, you have to look at what you like to eat. If you hate zucchini, don’t grow it. If you love using fresh herbs, fill your garden with fresh herbs. If you hate salad, don’t grow lettuce, plant basil instead.
Second, grow vegetables that mature quickly so you can make the most of your space. As a beginner, you’ll enjoy the garden much more if you’re harvesting vegetables often. Lettuces can be a great beginning vegetable, though they can be susceptible to slugs and other pests. Growing something like potatoes that are planted in spring and aren’t harvested until late summer isn’t the best option for your garden space.
Third, grow vegetables that maximize your space. For example, even if you love broccoli, it’s not really the best choice when you only have a small space. It takes a few months to reach harvest and only provides one head. Garden peas are the same, they mature in about 60 days, but it takes a lot of pods to make a bowl of peas. You’re better off growing something like lettuce and herbs that reach maturity faster and will provide more harvest from the same space. Some vegetables and herbs will also grow back after being harvesting, thus allowing two or three harvests from the same space.
Fourth, grow what will save you the most money. If you can buy a head of local broccoli for a few dollars there’s no point in growing it when you can grow a few pounds of lettuce or herbs that would cost you much more to buy. Zucchini is very inexpensive to buy when it’s in season, spinach is much more expensive to purchase. I grow a lot of cilantro because we really enjoy it and it’s expensive to buy. Growing it allows me to save lots of money, I also love that it grows back after cutting and will seed itself down from year to year.
Which vegetables would you recommend to a newbie as quick to mature?
Share this:
Gardening 101
The 5×5 Challenge is all about educating and encouraging new gardeners. I’ve received a lot of e-mails already about people excited to join the Challenge this year. I thought I should extend the floor to the newbies – what do you want to see in the how-to/educational portions of the challenge this year?
One recommendation is to grow climbing plants in the garden in order to show how to make/use supports for these types of vegetables.
For the newbie gardeners: what questions do you need answered in order to fell comfortable with your garden this summer?
For the experienced gardeners: what do you think are some of the important details newbies should know when it comes to growing edibles?
Share this:
ZZZZZZZ – Still Sleeping
My 5×5 garden is still sleeping, there’s a little snow on the ground now, but we’re forecasted to get a nice layer today. There will be no planting in my garden any time soon. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do, it’s planning time for the garden. Time to decide what you want to grow and plan out where they will go. For those of you that live in the southern areas it’s time to start thinking about getting started.
In case you’re wondering why there is short fencing in the garden – it keeps the chickens out. Last fall they kept scratching up my endive seedlings. Even though the garden is still asleep, I noticed my lemon thyme peeking out from beneath the snow. It will be ready to season delicious meals in a few months.
I’m undecided as to which vegetables I’ll be growing this year, most likely something different than the last. Lettuce is a sure thing, as are flowers of some sort and a tomato as well. The remaining sections of the garden are still up for grabs.
What do you think I should plant in the 5×5 garden this year?
Share this:
Will You be Joining us Again?
Well, it’s officially time to start talking about the 5×5 Challenge once again. I’ve had a lot of people excited about doing it again this year and more that watched last year and are ready to jump in and start a garden this year. I’ll be using my raised bed outside the front door again for this challenge, this year I’ll be growing different vegetables. I haven’t decided which ones, perhaps you’ll have suggestions.
This year we’ll hopefully be joined by a few members of the tiny house community, Tiny House Magazine will be running an article about the 5×5 in the next issue.
This year we’ll continue with the same schedule, Wednesdays will be the challenge days. The posts here on Chiot’s Run will focus on garden education, tasks to complete in your garden, and updates on my 5×5 garden.
Who’s in? Did you do the challenge last year? Are you a new to gardening?
Share this:
So Long Summer
Well, summer is over in the 5×5 Challenge Garden. Yesterday I cleared out the zucchini and the beans. The tomatoes are still going strong, so I left them to ripen.
The expanse of soil is nice to see after spending time cleaning up the garden. I considered adding mulch or compost for overwintering. Then I decided to plant the garden with various chicories and endives. They should do nicely in our cold fall and provide us with food for November & December.
No doubt you’re also cleaning up you little garden, think about adding a few fall/winter plants. If not, add a good layer of compost on top and you’ll be ready to go next spring.
Have you started cleaning out the garden for winter?
