Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach It bolts way to easy here. Swiss chard grows like a weed can be used raw or cooked. Ya my spinach gets the boot. Chard gets the O.K. Sugar Snap Peas get the boot to sweet for my taste yuck! Corn, why? I live in corn country, why go through all that work when friends will give me more than I can eat. Ha! all 4 ears or so.

Curt :-)

bomber095--Use row covers. They're the best thing since pockets on shirts. You'll never go back to Bt.

The more arthritis creeps through my body, the less I'm able to grow and care for garden produce. Like others here, I've decided to buy corn, for instance, from the farmers' market starting next year. Hard choices, yes, but it makes sense to focus your energy on garden produce that just isn't as good store-bought and doesn't require intensive labor! For me that is lettuce, tomatoes, bush cukes, pole beans, and bell peppers.

Turnips: they grow very easily for me, and I like the greens. However, I find radish greens to be similar in flavor, higher yield since they are such a fast turn around crop, and there are several varieties that do well. Also, I like the radish roots and we use them in salads a lot in the winter. When it gets hot I let them go to seed and eat the sea pods in salads too. In any case, when I harvested the turnip roots I found out I did not like them! I had never tasted them before, so I was surprised, since there are very few crops I do not like.

Will not grow paste tomatoes again, with the possible exception of Opalka. I found out I can make sauces out of the large beefstakes, or any tomato really, and I prefer the versatility of using them in cooking or raw in salads. Paste tomatoes are mealy and not too good in salads.

Spinach. Oh well. I love it, but it is so hard to grow in my zone. I might try one more time, use the seed I already got and plant them with the lettuces. I have found too that chard grows so well, no pests, always in season. I do chard and carrots all year long. Spinach can be substituted for chard on any recipe too.

There are many crops I have difficulty with, and might abandon son, but will try them again one more time.

Dill is one of them, I grow all our herbs, but for some reason I cannot grow dill. I love it, so I will try other varieties this season. One problem I have with the dill is that the pill bugs (rolly pollys) get on them and eat the plants. We do not have this problem with any of the other crops.

We got no sprouts from the brussels sprouts. However, when we tasted the leaves, we found out that we liked them a lot, better than kale or collards. They are a milder green, at least for our taste. So we are growing them again (tried planting earlier this year) just less of them, and we will enjoy the leaves. If we get sprouts this time so much the better.

I am also in zone 9b in Florida and I ditto what cabrita said.

I prefer radish to turnips, same reasons.

And I grow an assortment of tomatoes, none paste.

And I rather grow swiss chard and tatsoi instead of spinach, very good in recipes and winners in the garden.

Have a lot of herbs and also dill, I only grow it in the cold months.

Also grow a lot of different greens this time of the year and we prefer the mild ones. When young can be put in salads and later in stir fry or steamed dishes.

Silvia

Have you tried salad turnips? Johnny's sells a nice one-'Harukei' i think. 30 or so days to maturity. Sweet and very nice roasted, similar to roasted daikon but better.

i have given up on my hydroponic lettuce bed. Mosquitoes. Plus it seems weird to eat something that grew in Miracle Gro and water. Fun experiment, tho.

{{gwi:119137}}

I agree with switching to swiss chard. Swiss chard no bolting and very disease resistant. I noticed with swiss chard, the taste gets a natural salty taste longer its left in the ground. It taste great as baby greens or mature greens depending on the taste you are seeking.

mmqchdygg,

DH could stand for "dear husband" or maybe "dumb husband"...I'm guessing you mean the latter since you can't bring yourself to tell him he was right.

-bloo

I don't think I'll be buying my seeds off the racks again. The seeds I bought from Johnny's made such better produce, it's amazing.

To answer the question, I'm giving up on 'early' corn. I managed to get the long season corn to ripen at almost the same time by covering the bed with clear plastic to warm up the soil.

I bought some corn seed off the rack locally to plant the fourth planting of corn because I ran out of catalog seed. Forget that. Taste was average.

Also, I bought some 'Bonny Bell' or similar muskmelon plant starts at the Lowes. The taste was blah compared to the variety of melons I bought from Johnny's.

I planted three or four varieties of strawberries. One of them makes huge berries, but they're not very tasty. They're getting eliminated.

I also planted three varieties of raspberry in an attempt to get succession harvests. The 'Heritage' berries are such a better idea, I'll be sticking with them.

My wife doesn't like the color of the blue potatoes, so they're history. The Yukon Gold and the reds were good, better tasting than something you buy in the store. (BTW, that's also why I grow my own corn - tastes better.)

Next season; start everything from seed that I buy from Johnny's.

I'm in the replace spinach with swiss chard crowd. I tried spinach once and got maybe 5 baby leaves, that's about it.

No more scarlet runner beans either. They produced a handful of pods all season, that's it. I think it is just too hot and humid in my area for them.

You know, I really should give up trying okra, it rarely does anything much for me. The past two, exceptionally cool summers especially were especially bad for it. It's not really adapted to my cooler summer climate. I may try with "Pentagreen" or "Pentland Green" or whatever the name of that cool-summer climate cultivat I've heard of, sold by Johnny's and Sandhill Preservation. If that one doesn't work, forget it.

I have abandoned almost everything except some xeriscaping because of cost of water.

I may try a purple kale in one place just for some fall color.

I refuse to give up!, though this year was the most trying I have experienced in 40 years of gardening. The resonn to grow corn is that when you pick it and cook it within 20 minutes or so it will be the best tasting corn you ever had, and this holds true for "cow" corn as well as all the rest. Most of the corn you buy, even local grown, was picked at least the day before and more than half of the sugar has turned to starch, sometimes under less than favorable conditions too. Yes, in my new home/garden I have had problems with radishes and carrots, but I know this stems from soil quality not plant type. Yes, I stopped growing Cherokee Purple tomatoes, but only because I wanted to try and find a variety that tasted more, better, that liked my soil type. I may go back if my soil improves. Try cooking your radishes like a boiled potato, yummm. In my new garden I have the most decrepit potato yields, but I know this is due to soil quality as before I experienced 2 to 3 times normal yields in clay soil. There is nothing like a home grown potato. Sweet, smooth, moist, melt in your mouth, and yes they are cheap in a bag at 20 cents a pound, but it's all about flavor. Before you give up, look at what your choices need and try to provide it. Sometimes this takes years. Saving seed from one crop to another also helps produce crops that are more acclimated to your specific conditions. Remember the adage "if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again". By the way, as to the "more experienced potato growers in Maine", New Hampshire is were the first potatoes were grown in North America by Irish colonists. It was called "cow horn", and appears to have been a fingerling type. Ronnigers offered it three or four years ago but I have since been unable to locate it. Too bad, may be an important heirloom lost forever!

I gave up on radishes years ago because I just don't like them in salads. I might try them again this year and boil them like Anoid suggested ~ interesting sounding, not too much space or time wasted if I don't like them.

White acorn squash and baby hubbards ~ never again. They were nasty! The white acorn tasted "bleh with a hint of bitter" and the baby hubbard was totally bitter.

I used to have good luck with radishes - now something has changed and they no longer grow well. Mostly all there is to them is the leaves - and a very skinny, narrow root.

They are planted in about half sun and I used the cherry belle variety - but I've read that radishes will do OK in partial shade - maybe not?

Cauliflower is off the list completely. I grew six of them and had one decent head, but the rest were small. I don't believe I'll plant broccoli either - just because it takes up quite a lot of room for the produce received.

Other than that, I plan to try different varieties next year. I'll still grow the California Wonder peppers, Bush Blue Lake 274 bush beans, Black Simpson Elite lettuce, Best Boy/Roma tomatoes, Burpee Pickler cucumbers, Burpee A#1 carrots, and the yellow/white variety of onions for bulbing.

Next year I'll try the new varieties of Straight 8 cucumbers, Yukon Gold potatoes, Sun & Stars Hybrid corn, Snap Pea Sugar Snap V.P. peas, and Butter Crunch/Red Salad Bowl lettuce.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Brussells Sprouts - Never again!

Cauliflower - no luck whatsoever.

heirloom cherry tomatoes, the plant was big but the tomatoes were the size of peas :( It was a pain to even try to pick them. The hybrid were reg sized but I'm only going to plant one plant of the cherries and the rest of the tomatoes slicers this summer

Beer and chewin' tobacco. Still have the same wife tho'. Now I can buy more seeds!!!

Brook

I'm giving up folks who say strange things about my gardening.

Like - recently I remarked to one of them, "I must have a million seeds."

He looked at me and said, "you do?" Of course, I'm post-menopausal, and I suppose it did seem a bit far fetched.

Bejay

Yes, it's time to pull the life support plug on both spinach and cauliflower. I've had lousy success with them for four or five years. I had intended to finally drop them from the garden and then, two days ago when I was at the garden store, they were having a holiday sale on garden seed so I bought several packages. I'm just too darn stuborn, and/or stupid, to give up 'cause I really like to eat them. However, I sure wish I had read this thread on Tuesday.
dave

Sweet Corn, It is such a space hog and I can get it from others, freshly picked too!

I am surprised that so many people want to abandon Cauliflower and Broccoli. I am going to grow more of both next year for my market garden. I guess I am just lucky and have the right soil type.

Jay

I gave up on my scarlet nantes carrots an watermelon radishes. After a root maggot infestation I just gave up. All my other stuff is growing well. Including my broccoli, which is just now growing a head after 3 months of growth.

No more Dr. Wyche Yellow tomato. DH does not like them. I will plant Ashleigh for my "almost no seeds" tomato.

Only one hot cherry pepper plant - way too prolific.

No bell peppers in 2010. Will go with pimento peppers. The pimentos I grew in 2009 were far superior to the garden variety bell peppers.

No more sweet corn. Will only grow Bloody Butcher corn because we like the taste of oven roasted dent corn.

DL

Peas, I had too many other things going too well to mess with peas. Only planted because girlfriend likes chewing on them while visiting the garden. I would like to try some sugar snaps next year.

No radishes! I just don't like them well enough.
No cabbage - too many bugs
No broccoli - too many bugs, besides, I can't eat 6 head of broccoli in 1 week.
No broccoli raab - sprouted then bolted, I don't have time for impatient vegetables
No dry beans - take up too much space, plan on growing dry peas vertically

Brussells Sprouts - I now refer to them as buggy sprouts.
Paste tomatoes - Much too small for anything but sliced on a pizza.
Yellow/white onions - Cheap enough at the grocery store.
Yukon Gold potatoes - Poor keepers (I will continue to grow All Blue and I'm still on the hunt for a red-skinned 'tater that will hold up in storage).

I've developed a new garden plan for 2010, and the rule of thumb is that a veggie must be at least the size of a baseball to make the list. This includes spuds, sweets, onions, watermelons, loupes, dews, tomatoes, eggplant, and bell peppers. I'm tired of mollycoddling brassicas, carrots, radishes, and a long list of others that just aren't payday crops for me. I've got limited space, so it's out with the asparagus and strawberries. I can get three or four flips with annuals, so the perrenials aren't worthwhile by comparison. Oh, and mustard and turnip greens just can't be beat--a really easy grow with lots of nutrition. Misterbaby.

We have abandoned corn - there are quite a few good farms in the area that grow amazing corn that is incredibly tasty - and we begrudge the space needed.
Giving up on most radishes - they get to hot for most of my family to enjoy in salads, but we will plant one very mild variety.
Almost ready to give up on peppers. Just haven't had much luck with them the last few years.
Still working out Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts. I refuse to give up on them!
Haven't given up on Dill, but methinks it has given up on me - ditto Cilantro.

It was refreshing to go back and read the posts.
I am still of the opinion as posted back then.
but I will add a few green beans. Also will try OKRA.
More chive, more onions, more garlics.
Will have variety peppers, sweet, hot, ornamental.
No more gourds this year, except luffa, never grew it before.
NO peanuts; NO corns; No brassica, (chards, bok choy intead);
NO MORE TRYING TO GROW SPINACH !!!!

Brook & Bejay ... you had me laughing !!

This is only our 2nd year garden, but already I am giving up on eggplant. Turns out we don't really like it. Such a shame too ... it looks so pretty in the garden and produced better than almost everything else we had last year.

You guys are scaring me with the spinach. Trying it new for this year.

San Marzano tomatoes. Last year I tried to grow them for a paste variety & I yanked 100+ almost full-sized maters off 2 plants, all with BER, before I just gave up on them. This year, I have a very much improved fertilization plan which should hopefully help me to avoid any nutrient deficiency issues like this!

- Steve

warm season vegetables. Tomatoes are the warmest season vegetable I grow. No pepper, no okra, no watermelon, no sweet potatoes, no artichokes, no eggplant, almost no melons. You can change any soil to loam given tons of organic matter, you can modify the pH, but you can't change the weather. I love some of these veggies, but until I move south, they are out.

Also, I dropped fennel. Nasty little plant will not bulb. I just think the climate is wrong, I know a lot of people who have tried it around here, no one has succeeded in producing good size bulbs. It is a winter vegetable for warmer climates. TVG, for San Marzano, try mulching, some wood ash and no fertilization except right after transplant.

I feel sorry for those of you who decided to give up on corn. Maybe its because my parents had it in their garden every year, the first harvest of sweet corn is always the most anticipated moment in my garden every year.

The garden by my house is small (15'x9') but I always dedicate space for corn. In the picture you see here, the corn is in a 3' by 5' space, with 1' spacing each way, so there are 20 corn plants. That seems to be just enough so pollination is good. Last year I was so afraid the pollination was going to be poor since it rained every day the tassels were out, but all ears were nearly perfect.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Besides the crops I mentioned before, I will take a break from corn this year. We grew it two years in a row, and it was a wonderful experience (the first year). I wish I had more land, but I have too many tomato seedlings, and I just planted more artichokes, so I guess the corn will be put on hold, for now...

CORN - too much space, not enough yield. I have only about 125 square feet. I can't afford to donate 1/4 to 1/3 of it to corn to get about a dozen ears. I will know buy it at my local produce store in season, and then do without beyond that. This was a tremendously hard decision, because I love MY fresh corn, but the yield just isn't enough for the space it takes up.

BEANS - turns out I just don't eat enough to make it that worthwhile. Instead, broccoli, which I can't ever seem to get enough is getting more space, spring and fall seasons!

No carrots or beets - if they germinate, I don't get any edible roots.
Onions? - I just don't get large onions. I might try them again but not this year.
No Brussels Sprouts - The one year I got them to grow, I got bitter little sprouts the size of peas.
No Cherokee Purple & Brandywine tomatoes! Yes I know people seem to love these, but I have such poor production with them. There are lots of other tomatoes that do better.
No turnips - they grew! Dh & I found out we hate them.

Thank you all for reaffirming my faith in myself as a decent gardener.
I can't grow carrots (take way too long), potatoes, spinach, or brassicas. Like many of you, I grow too many radishes. I have also given up on corn, although it looks beautiful in the garden. No more snow peas- the harvest is too puny and the mildew is too much. Asparagus never grows well and the artichokes, although sculptural, are a magnet for earwigs. I can't grow dill and cilantro bolts.

I'm going to try chard this year- thanks for the tips!

I agree with hosenemesis. I fell better now that I know everybody is not successful with everything. That being said, I am trying potatoes this year for the first time. I am going to try both a red skinned variety and a totally blue type. I tilled under my asparagus and this year am going to grow alot more herbs.

My standard produce is tomato, bell pepper, and another sweet pepper (usually banana peppers but last year cubanelles) and green beans. I try to grow as much as is reasonable and freeze what I can. I wanted to grow strawberries but never got them to produce economically so I quit trying.

Turning failure into success is how we earn our green thumbs. Most of the time the secret lies in the timing and the variety. If you really like something -- find a way to make it work for you. Here are some of the challenges that I've dealt with:

* Spinach: Bolted in a heartbeat, with some types that bolted before they were large enough to plant out! Having great luck with Melody Hybrid now, so crisp and buttery.
* Corn: Don't let anyone talk you out of planting corn until you try it. It turned out to be dead simple for me. I planted Early Sunglow a foot apart and in a small triangular space sometime around St Patrick's day. I was eating sweet ears of corn for Father's Day and beyond. Each stalk stayed small and had two nice sized ears. Dead simple. Nice compostables too.
* Peas: Never got a decent crop until I planted Wando and now all is well. Fresh shelling peas are one of the true pleasures I get from my plot. Some of them actually make it into the house for soups and salads.
* Carrots: A waste of time and effort, until I planted Short 'n Sweet. Now carrots are another treat worth waiting for. Even the family dog loves a sweet crunchy carrot!

Just don't give up on the crops that you and your family really like.

Any Squash: SVB
Cucumber: SVB

SVB kicked my a$$ then laughed at me last year.

Funny I should see this thread - this is the year that some tough decisions will be made. . .

I used to think I could learn to grow anything, then I would learn to grow everything! Yeah - no more. We have access to some wonderful Amish growers that spray very little, will tell you what has been sprayed if you ask, and sell for cheap, cheap, cheap.

So, this year, I am planting *everything* and anything that I have a repeat bad performance from, or that seems to be fussy gets the boot. Why should I continue to pour over books looking for information on cauliflower when I can buy 2 heads for $1 all summer?

The only things I will fuss with will be things we eat multiple of in one day - I am willing to put the work in for some sort of sweet peppers since we easily go through 10 pounds in a week. More, I think, if we grill.

Not even trying this year:
Eggplant
Okra
Most peppers - (putting all of my energy into sweet)
corn
carrots

On notice - behave or be cut next year:
Spinach (interesting about chard - we like chard)
limas and shell beans
winter squashes
watermelon
melon
cukes - I must be the only person who struggles with these?
Cauliflower
Broccoli

Things I am giving up starting from seed myself:
Lettuce heads (Amish greenhouse sells a 4 cell pack for $1, and I can't seem to start the seeds to save my life. With the way we eat salad, I'm OK with paying 25 cent each head.)
Tomatoes - one last try this year with WS
Pepper - same as above

My plan is to have a list of what is reliable for me in this climate, on this property, with my personality, and then go from there. I would like to concentrate on different varieties of what grows well and we like real well, like radishes, rather than spending my summer fighting things that just don't want to grow for me.

It looks like I am cutting a lot - don't feel bad for me, though. Here's what we eat a TON of (like every day) and we are keeping:
Radishes -can't seem to plant enough. Kids are like bunnies
Greens like Kale and Collards - and they last pretty far into the winter. Kale is still looking pickable, even after all of this crazy snow. . . Adding more kinds of greens this year.
Summer Squashes - want to add varieties this year
Tomatoes
Turnips - I chunk them up and freeze and use in every pot of soup I make.
Snap beans - they wil eat all that I plant, so adding varieties
Peas - they will eat all that I plant, so adding varieties

This thread is good - permission to let go of what doesn't work. . .

larenatc you said SVB kicked your A$$. MINE TOO!!

Although it makes me more determined to kick it back. This is only my second year growing squash and I am on a mission to win. We'll see in a couple years if I change my mind. I have lots of squashes planned for this year.

BRING IT ON SVB!
(i don't mean that! please be nice SVB...)

Oh you guys are killing me the spinach. This will be only be my 3rd season as a gardener and last year was my first with spinach and it failed completely. I've already ordered new spinach seeds thinking there was too much rain and not enough sun last year. I guess I shouldn't expect much again.
Carrots, I don't know even I, newbie, had a ton of carrots last 2 years...yes very mishapped, got a lot of chuckles from friends but delish nevertheless.
Also trying onions and potatoes for the first time this year...lol. Everything I'm trying you all say to give up on :(
I'm going to get some swiss chard seeds, anything else that is an absolute must? I did amazing with pole beans last year.

Gee, Suprized to see so many of my fav's are giving others trouble. I all boils down to region I guess.

Last try for...

Melons
Cucumbers
Brussel Sprouts, these three crops are hit or miss for me, mostly a miss! All new varities for 2010, hope it works or these three are done forever.

Never again...
Corn, waste of space
Califlower, Why bother when broccoli is so good?
Eggplant, I'm not a good cook?
Leeks, I failed miserably at leek and potatoe soup, but the crop grew nicely.

No more Pink Brandywine tomato. I've grown it three years, a different location each time. I measure all the other tomatoes against them for flavor, but I only get one or two per vine. I'll leave Brandywine to the farmers and grow something more productive.

I abandoned the community bed when I moved out of state. I was sad over it for a while, but losing the garden space really wasn't a huge loss. I'll miss the people more than the garden. The trouble began when the city decided to expand the garden so more people could participate. They prepared a new section, which they called the "lower bed," in a low spot at the bottom of a hill. The upper bed was at the top of the hill. As a rookie, I was assigned one of the beds in the new lower bed. Half the season, the entire area was flooded - beds and paths under a couple inches of foul-smelling water with an iridescent sheen on top. The other half, we had no water supply, because the city dug up the pipes to figure out what went wrong. The official word was that they hit a spring during the initial digging. Gardeners discussed the odds that the "spring" was really a city water main, or a sewer. We joked about growing rice. We wondered if our food was safe to eat. The city also brought us a load of what looked like clay, completely devoid of life and organic matter, to make raised beds on top of the clay soil. They called it "topsoil."

This year, the only dirt that I have available is the lead-filled strip by the sidewalk. I'm going to abandon growing veggies in dirt for a year, in favor of containers.

I give up on cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts (outside). The cabbage loopers won that war. I'm trying to grow them inside my greenhouse in the spring and fall. Having some success, but growth is pretty slow during the short days, especially if cloudy, like this winter.

I'm thinking I will give up on potatoes. Too much work! Digging the trench to plant, then digging up the harvest is too much. Arthritis getting bad, and my pacemaker is set at too slow a pace to let me dig very fast!

Besides, my spring planted potatoes get harvested in July, when I am busy eating corn and tomatoes, and I can't find any seed potatoes in July, when I could plant a crop to be harvested in October. Even then, I have trouble storing them long.

What I can't give up on are things many are abandoning. I could not quit corn, spinach, beets, carrots, onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, asparagus, and strawberries. Well, maybe I could break my carrot habit.

Space eaters? Maybe, but I have a large space to fill, unless I want to mow more grass. They all do well for me, and, except for carrots, possibly, all taste way better than grocery store produce.

Tdscpa,

You really should look into growing potatoes in straw. You hoe a little trench, or if you don't even want to do that, just stick the potatoes on the ground, cover with 6 inches of straw, then keep adding layers of straw as they grow. When they flower, you can pick tiny potatoes right out of the straw. When it's time to harvest, you reach in and pull them out. They're clean and ready to eat- no digging necessary!

Homer:

I don't think straw would work here. Too windy, would just blow away.

Tom

Tom,
Hold the straw down with a foot of dirt ;-)
Works the same way...

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Early Potatoes 2009

I gave up growing broccoli about 20 years ago when they became infested with green worms (cabbage worms). Grossed me out completely as I couldn't be sure I got them all off.

Going to try growing a couple broccoli plants again this spring in a Self Watering Container with an insect barrier cover. Wish me luck!

Rachel
GrafixMuse's Garden Spot