Tomatoes, peppers, and a few other vegetables are planted in every garden. Try to find at least one new vegetable for your garden each year. You may find a new favorite.
For instance, you could try a melon that looks and tastes like a cucumber. It may even be better than a cucumber for the garden, since the plant survives heat very well. The Armenian cucumber fruit is pale green and can grow three feet long. They begin producing just two months after planting. The fruit grows straight when the vine grows on a trellis or twisted when growing on the ground.
Speaking of melons, how about growing a watermelon that you can eat whole in one bite? The cucamelon looks like a mini-watermelon on the outside but tastes like a cucumber. The fruit are only an inch or two long. The inside is white with small seeds. They grow on vines that can grow six to eight feet tall.
Both melons are available at BotanicalInterests.com.
Let’s go the other way for the next vegetable you should try. The yardlong pole bean is a green bean type of plant with seed pods that can grow to three feet long. The whole vine may only grow to six feet tall.
There are many varieties of your favorite garden vegetable. Try a new one to see if you like the different colors or tastes. You might find one that grows more fruit or is hardier in your garden soil or climate. Try new varieties that are insect or disease resistant so you can use fewer pesticides.
Popcorn needs warm soil of at least 60 degrees to germinate, so don’t plant the seeds too early. Plant the corn in square blocks and not in long rows because they are wind pollinated. The closer the plants are to each other the better the pollination will be. Don’t plant popcorn and other corn types near each other. The popcorn seeds will not pop well if cross-pollinated and sweet corn will not be as good either. If the two corn types must be planted near each other, plant the popcorn three weeks earlier to prevent contamination.
Corn is a grass, and it grows better with plenty of water and fertilizer. Add compost to the soil before planting.
Supplement rain to at least an inch of water per week. Popcorn will continue growing in very hot weather if given enough water.
It does take a long time for the popcorn to mature. They may take four months to mature, which is four to six weeks longer than sweet corn. Popcorn is left on the stalk until it is dry.
Like with any corn, deer and raccoons are problems. The long growing and drying time can make it hard to protect popcorn from pests.
