gardening sheet for beginners

I made this chart a couple of years ago to help beginner gardeners think of things they would like to grow.  The idea is to just circle the things you like to eat and then that gives you a jumping off place to start learning more about how to grow them.

I'd like to know if there are some glaring errors or things that are missing.  This is for people growing in zone 8 in the Pacific Northwest.

Jenny, Thank you for sharing.
I think that's great for annual vegetables and herbs. Maybe a bit sketchy on fruit, but that's fine. I would probably include rhubarb, just because I like it and it can be very productive in the right place..
You could perhaps sneak in Scorzonera as a perennial vegetable as it is also pretty easy and tasty. I would clarify you mean jerusalem artichoke in the daisy family. Are there any other good 'weeds' that could be included? Fat hen and chickweed are two that are prolific and palatable that spring to mind. You could get all excited about other native food plants, but you also don't want to over complicate things.

Jenny, I LOVE this list and love that it is lumped together with families.  Two things I usually will include are Okra and collard greens.  Clearly southern fare but have varieties for your climate too I bet.  I don't know maybe not okra, but it so easy to grow where I'm from.  

Nancy Reading wrote: I would probably include rhubarb, just because I like it and it can be very productive in the right place..

I like rhubarb too. It's in the family polygonaceae (buckwheat)? I didn't put buckwheat on there either. That family has a lot of edible weeds too.

Nancy Reading wrote:
I would clarify you mean jerusalem artichoke in the daisy family.

No I meant globe artichoke. It is a thistle and thistles are also part of the daisy family. But I could add Jerusalem artichoke too.

Nancy Reading wrote:
Are there any other good 'weeds' that could be included? Fat hen and chickweed are two that are prolific and palatable that spring to mind. You could get all excited about other native food plants, but you also don't want to over complicate things.

I am making up a separate document with edible weeds as I get good pictures of them from my garden. I'm not the best photographer so it's taking me a while.

Yes, this is for beginners, so I was trying to focus on things they would find in the grocery store or might have actually eaten. I've met so many people who don't think it's possible to grow anything more than the random tomato they pick up at the hardware store without owning land the size of a farm.

Also when I teach anyone about starting a garden, I either bring a pot of weeds to let them try eating, or if we are at my house, I walk them around and let them know "See all the weeds? They aren't weeds. They are food that I don't have to do anything to grow." 😂 Seriously, if people just stop killing weeds, they have an automatic edible garden! 😂

(I do make sure to show them the two deadly plants that grow in the area too... Pictures. I don't them them grow on my property.)

Nicky Schauder wrote:Jenny, I LOVE this list and love that it is lumped together with families.  Two things I usually will include are Okra and collard greens.  Clearly southern fare but have varieties for your climate too I bet.  I don't know maybe not okra, but it so easy to grow where I'm from.  

Oh those are good. I thought about okra but I haven't grown it in this climate though I do have some seeds to experiment with. When I made this, I wanted to be able to say, "I have successfully grown every single plant on this list in the Pacific Northwest." (Though whether sweet potato was a success is up to debate since it grew abundant beautiful edible greens but the roots were the size of pencils.) I'll try my okra experiment this year and see if I can add it to my PNW list. It's such a pretty plant too.