Tomatoes, of course, but also peppers, eggplant and more
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These are not my eggplants, that's for sure -- they were growing at the Fair Oaks
Horticulture Center in 2019. Pretty sure they are the Fairy Tale variety, which is
an All America Selection winner. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)
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The advice for beginning vegetable gardeners always is to grow what you like to eat. Makes sense -- you can test varieties of tomatoes or beans and eventually find your favorites.
Conversely, don't grow what you don't like to eat. That has always kept me from even thinking about growing eggplant. I. Just. Don't. Like. It. Though some are so pretty! The Fairy Tale variety always catches my eye, with its purple and white stripes.
And then I remind myself that the vegetables would go to waste, not to mention taking up valuable space in my plot. And food banks prefer mainstream vegetables (no green and purple tomatoes, for example).
About half of the gardeners at my community garden grow cucumbers in summer. And about half of those complain every year that the cukes came in too bitter. (I think that's a weather issue, but anyone with more experience please fill me in.) In any case, that's another problem I avoid. My household consumes maybe two cucumbers a year, and I can usually trade something for those, so I don't have to grow them.
But I do grow peppers, both sweet bells and somewhat hot ones. I've had excellent luck with shishitos, Emerald Fire jalapeños, Count Dracula peppers (so pretty!) and serrano peppers. My bell pepper plants all got mixed up last year, but generally Orange Blaze and any variety with Wonder in the name do well.
I gave up growing watermelons during the last drought; I also don't grow corn anymore because it's a water hog and you need a lot of plants to get a decent yield. (I did learn that Sloughhouse corn is the Bodacious variety -- or at least it was back when I was researching varieties.)
Ah, but melons and squash! For years I grew wonderfully fragrant little muskmelons with the uninspired name of French Orange. I haven't been able to find seeds lately, and I used up the last of the seeds I'd saved on my own. I has success with Papaya Dew, a hybrid variety that's shaped like a football. My garden buddy Dan touts Ambrosia and he gave me two of the plants last year. Delicious! More of a typical muskmelon size than the little French Orange, they are back on my list for this year.
Zucchini and other summer squash grow so well here it almost doesn't matter which variety you try. But I do like the Raven and Black Beauty dark green zucchinis, and the various straightneck yellow ones. Over the years I've also grown Sunny Delight yellow pattypans and light green 8-Ball and Ronde de Nice round zukes, too. I'm less of a fan of the bumpy yellow crookneck squash, but they certainly thrive.
I love to talk vegetables, so tell us what you grow, especially your can't-fail varieties.
We already heard from one reader about tomato plans for this year.
Patricia Carpenter is trying out Unicorn, Polish Giant, Champion II, Momotaro and Sunny Boy. (I've grown that last one and it's on my list to try again.) Her tried-and-true are Big Beef, Nova, Sungold, Celebrity, Roma II, Mortgage Lifter and Lemon Boy.
She has grown but is still testing Purple Boy, Damsel, Sakura, Chocolate Sprinkles, Goliath Sunny and Moonglow.
Moonglow is fascinating: It's a yellow-orange variety that was tested in New Zealand against a red variety, Rosalita, for absorption of lycopene into the bloodstream. Both were consumed raw. The tests showed significantly higher levels of lycopene in people who ate the yellow-gold tomato.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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