The nearly-official tally: 1 lb, 9.75 oz of pinto beans from 24 square feet of plants. Nearly-official, because the beans haven't thoroughly dried out yet so our yield will probably be under that. I'll put them on the drier tomorrow. Right now the drier is occupied with some shiso that I am preparing for making a shiso/sesame/salt condiment. I hope it's delicious! I'm very curious to try dried shiso as an herb. I love the fresh with sushi. Fun to try out new ideas.
So, what do you think? Is it worth it to grow beans? I have limited space this year (need to clear some major foliage, not something we can do ourselves, but out of home improvement funds for this year). So, I am thinking just salad ingredients for now - radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes (put in 30 seeds today), onions, lettuces, dill (never had luck, always too buggy), basil, parsley, peppers, carrots, beets. What have you found easy?
ReplyDeleteIt's not really "worth it" but it was really fun! With each year our yields should improve as the soil improves. :) Pole beans give a lot more per square foot than bush beans, so if you want more quantity that would be a better bet.
ReplyDeleteI never did well with root crops before, but this year (for whatever reason!) I have very happy beets and carrots (other than having planted them a little too close together...). The easiest here are definitely the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. They love our HEAT (more than I do!).
I think all the things you mentioned are pretty easy, except possibly the carrots/beets. Sometimes germination rates on the root veggies are trickier; I learned you have to be VERY careful about keeping the soil constantly a bit moist during carrot germination or it's toast.
Summer squash is really easy, if you can elude the evil vine borers. One plant is enough for a whole family.
Do you like arugula? That's easy and a nice green to add to the lettuce (and on pizza!).
Oh, yum. Getting hungry again... :)