Though I continue to try I can't get Rhubarb to grow in my yard. I may try it from seed and treat it as an annual.

I have wimpy success with Globe Artichokes but they are fun to grow so they will always be in my garden.

I garden just outside of Raleigh and don't see a lot of Apples, Apricots or cherries but plenty of Asian Apple Pears and regular pears and peaches.

You grow lettuce, arugula, mache, spinach and similar greens through the winter in a cold frame. Peas, carrots, strawberries, beets and lettuce in the spring. Tomatoes and Peppers and Eggplants in the summer along with squash and mellons, oh and basil. Pumpkins, winter squash and lettuce/spinach in the fall. Asparagus and Artichokes are perennial as are plenty of herbs (rosemary, mints, sorrel etc.)

I can also get decent raspberries and blueberries.

Maryt,
I have found that there are many different microclimates very close together here in the Carolinas that allow varying success. For example, I have a co-worker living in a major city who grows excellent spinnach almost all year, but I can not in the suburbs of a smaller town less than 20 miles away. Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage are a toss up in the spring depending on how fast it gets hot and a toss up in the fall if it stays hot and dry too long. For the most part, I think they are the hardest to grow well in the Piedmont. You might contact your County Extension agent for more specifics about other veggies.

I had very good luck last year with Kolrabi,peas,peppers, eggplant was very prolific, lima beans. Less luck with tomatoes, green beans, my brocoli looked great, but it got hot just as they should have headed and nothing. I ate the leaves. lettuce did well early, turnips, mustard, coolards were all good this winter.

What I grow is with organic methods - if you choose to spray with -cides you may have better harvest but less of the food value and with the chemical residuals.

Fruits: Strawberry, thornless Blackberry (and wild), table Grapes (and wild Scuppernog), Fig, Blueberry, Asian Apple Pear, Peach, Feijola (some years), Ground Cherry.

For veggies: Asparagus, Tomatillo, Tomato (especially heirloom), sweet and hot Pepper, Green and Wax Bean, Cuke, Onion, Garlic, Sweet Corn (Silver Queen reigns), Carrot (with deep cultivation and sand/perlite 2:1), Radish, Horseradish, Lettuce (winter), Zucchini and Summer Squash, Winter Squash (with row cover), early or late Spinach, Cabbage, Watermelon, Peanuts, Pecan, Hickory, Rosemary (very hardy here), Parsley, Chives, Oregano, Thyme, Tarragon, Marjoram, tons of Basil.

Stuff I find that won't grow, or are eaten by JB's or other bugs that would need heavy -cides to be harvestable: Rhubarb ( chill), Cherry - sweet or tart (chill - soil), Plum (soil), Apricot (chill), Apple (bugs - Cedar rust - chill), Hazelnut (chill), Daikon radish (soil friability - depth), Broccoli (bugs - unless under row cover), wine Grapes (mold), Kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, Artichoke (length of season), Lima Bean, some Soup Beans (competing with pollination), sweet Melon (bugs - soil), Popcorn (competing with sweet Corn), Potato (soil - bugs), Raspberry ( because of wild Blackberry).

Nancy the nancedar

Hi Mary,
I am in the foothills in Stokes county near the VA border. We are nearly consistently 10 degrees cooler than Greensboro. We also cannot grow rhubarb here. So far everything we have put in the ground has done great. Especially turnips! They love NC. We grow, cauli, brocc, cabbage, turnips, beets, spinach, lettuces, gr. beans, squashes of all kinds, corn(of course), sweet potatos, potatos, tomatos, cukes, onions (huge ones), eggplant and peppers.

New for us this year we are planting carrots and asparagus.

Just have fun trying different things and see what does
well for you. We love our garden, can ya tell? :)

Happy Spring,
Susan

I think that there are plenty of things you can grow in this area but some of your favorites may require a bit of extra work and may not taste the same as they did back home (wherever that may be).

Raspberries do great in the NC mountains, but I live outside Raleigh. I have a decent row of 'Heritage' which is known for performing well but eventually failing due to illness. The thing I like about it is that it fruits from mid summer into winter - BUT - the berries have very little flavor. Many people that sample them complain about it. I still find uses for all the berries I can keep from the birds.

I have a mixture of various strawberries and they all do well for me, same with blueberries.

Every so often I make a big effort with broccoli - which will grow well during the cooler parts of the year. But mine doesn't messure up to what I can buy in the store. It looks the same but doesn't have the same texture or flavor.

The idea of "gardening" is to try different things and constantly experiment. There is enough stuff to grow that you can keep yourself busy and well fed.

What about okra? They grow like weeds in FL, even in the summer. I hope I can grow them in the upstate.

I love this forum! Every time I ask a question I get tons of answers, both on the site and in my email. Thanks everyone!!! Mary

Nancedar- Do you mean by 'chill' that the ground hasn't been cool/frozen enough over the winter for the plant to come back the following year?

I would like to know what pepper plants are best grown in nc and can anyone tell me tomato varieties developed for Nc thanks deanna

mad - sorry I didn't answer in Feb! Chill means it just doesn't get cold enough and stay cold long enough to make the trees go into hibernation and then burst with Spring. That's my opinion anyway - kinda like tulips - they have to be be chilled in order for them to bloom here and then our heat knocks them out so they won't come back next year.

deanna - I have had great success with every pepper I have planted - from seed or seedling. One year my Corno di Toro were so prolific and I was so tired of canning, freezing and drying them, and begging the neighbors to take some!, that I ripped up the bushes, they just wouldn't stop. I think they even kept making peppers in the compost pile!
As for tomatoes - check out Tomatopalooza. Hundreds of varieties. I'm growing 50 different ones this year and in past years another 50 different than those. I stay away from the hybrids (developed anywhere, even for NC) so that I can collect and share seeds of the open pollinated (heirloom) ones. The flavor range is amazing, and the colors on a plate are works of art. I do use insecticidal soap and pick off the hornworms. All of mine are caged because I've found slugs and stink bugs have more access to them when allowed to sprawl. However, my DH swears by Rutgers. Just the right size, red of course, and determinate so one week of picking is all he has to do for canning. I use other tomatoes for sauce and ketchup, paste and drying, for tomato preserves and for slicing fresh on a grilled portobello. So many flavors and uses - you have to try them all!

Nancy the nancedar