Krystal Comerford

I have a similar problem with mixed success with my squash (all kinds) and I sent photos to a master gardener and they said it was due to a nitrogen deficiency. My soil was pretty poor to start with. I've added tons of compost over the past few years, but she explained that compost is still pretty low N, and using wood chip mulch (even though I'm careful not to mix it in the soil) ties up some N as well.

I haven't started my squash yet this year, but everything has been growing much better since I started adding Alfalfa meal to the planting holes.

Beautiful vegetables are what got me into gardening so this is a precious topic for me!

A few favourites are:
- Magenta spreen; an edible green with sparkly/glittery hot pink new growth
- Radishes with pink or purple insides, such as watermelon radish or Pusa jumani
- Rosa di Veneto radicchio, with blush pink butter leaves
- Hidden Rose apple
- Chioggia beet
- Amarosa potatoes, fingerlings with red skin and pink interior

- Salad burnet: Only 1 of 3 seedlings survived the spring slug attack, but it’s now thriving. Very nice to have another tasty, hardy perennial leafy green, and it looks pretty too.

- Strawflowers: I had no idea they would be so productive! They have bloomed non stop from late spring until now (no hard freeze here yet), and of course drying them is a bonus.

- Sugar Rush Peach peppers: Very productive, pretty and made a great tasting fermented hot sauce.

In my current garden I have had a very difficult time growing beets. They take forever to make a pathetically small, woody root. I think my soil is deficient in some micronutrient they need (boron?). This year I added some glacial rock dust and biochar, and I will fertilize with liquid kelp and see if that helps.

For the past 2 years I've also tried and failed to overwinter red cabbage. They grow slowly, never head up and just bolt in the spring. This year I'm trying January King instead since it sounds like the most reliable variety for overwintering.

I've also never managed to grow a great basil crop but I think that's pretty normal for my region. They seem to need humid heat and warm nights.

Skandi Rogers wrote:

Heather Sharpe wrote:The kind I have presently is compostable and I suspect many of them would be. I just feel safer using that than the silicone.

This, mine also states you can compost it. I have silicone mats for rolling things out on and they are most certainly worth it if you have limited or bad counter tops. They are hard to clean but don't seem to absorb soap, I also have a couple of slices and a frying pan with that nasty habit.

Just lending another vote to compostable parchment paper. I greatly prefer it over silicon mats (I find them annoying to clean), and it breaks down super fast in my compost. I use the "If You Care" brand.

D Tucholske wrote:Are you actually in the pacific NW, or just currently interested in plants from that region?

Anyway, only other good one I can think of from Ohio is Indian Potato (Apios Americana), though I don't know how it'll do in your area. People have been trying to domesticate it properly for years without much success. With the Bergamot, go Scarlet Bergamot. It's semi-domesticated & I saw seeds being sold from Outsidepride in Oregon, though don't know if that means it grows there too, or naturalized, or just used as a common ornamental. Oregon Grape & Camas are good edibles from that region too.

Overall, I'm not all that familiar beyond the Great Lakes Region, so I'd research more on the matter.

I do live in the pacific northwest. Things that need a ton of heat to thrive can be a bit lackluster. On the other hand, we rarely go more than a couple degrees below freezing. My particular region has been described as a temperate mediterranean climate. We get lots of rain in the winter and little to none in the summer.

For some reason I've had poor luck with Monarda in the past but I should give it another go. I live near a community garden and they had a gorgeous specimen there last summer.

I definitely wish I was growing more edible native plants!

I mean this in the best way but you guys are not making this any easier!

To make it worse I am now also thinking about Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress which can be used as a salad green and then as a fresh or dried bouquet filler once it bolts.

Also just wanted to add for anyone else obsessed with multipurpose flowers, my new favourite that I had discovered last year is the Ruby buckwheat available from Baker Creek. I grow it as a cover crop, as forage for my bunny and it also makes a killer cut flower! Of course, if you let it go to maturity, you can also eat it as a grain.

Definitely Cosmic Purple. In late July I sowed some 5 year old seeds under my succession crop of lettuce with very low expectations. The tops did not grow much but in December I pulled one and was surprised to have a beautiful, good sized carrot! The flavour was outstanding and the texture was perfect. In my heavy clay soil they were a bit short but perfectly straight.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) both excellent cool season salad greens
Cleavers/stickyweed (Galium aparine) is edible and medicinal, but I harvest it to feed to my pet rabbit
Dog violet (native) and sweet violet (introduced), cute edible early spring flowers
Lemon balm and bronze/leaf fennel are both "weedy" but welcome

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I don't know anything about the flowers you have posted about.  I wanted to add a couple to consider.  I grow lots of flowers in my veggie garden, and everywhere else for that matter.  Everything that is planted in my veggie garden must be eatable.  Ever since my kids were little they were allowed to eat anything they want out of my veggie garden.  Even today as adults it isn't unusual to see one of my kids grazing on what ever is ripe in the garden.  So I make sure even the flowers are eatable.  It makes for a lovely garden, and helps by adding diversity, and attracting lots of pollinators.  Nasturtium aren't perennials, but once they are established they easily reseed themselves. I have a bunch going on 3 years now.  They add color and a nice taste to a salad.  Calendula or pot marigold is a super flower to grow.  It is considered to be a perennial in some climates, but an annual in others.  It is both eatable and used as an herb.  Marigolds are annuals, but super easy to grow,  they also help control pests in your garden.  Zinnia's are another annual that is super easy to grow and eatable.  Cornflower/Bachelor buttons are actually good for rabbits digestion.  They are also eatable by people, but don't taste that good.  Lets not leave out lavender.  This is an easy perennial, that is eatable, and has a lot of other great uses.  I double checked and all the flowers I mentioned are safe for you rabbit to eat. Good luck and happy gardening.

Thank you, I already grow those plants, but I didn't know Bachelors buttons are good for rabbits digestion, or that Zinnias are safe to eat!

Another plant I should add to the list is Scabiosa. They are supposed to be easy from seed, perennial, drought tolerant, loved by pollinators, and good cut flowers.