What new plant will you try in 2025?

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Lotus! Which will be a challenge. I'm going to have to keep water in my tiny baby pool. I've moved to mostly dry gardening. Except for the two months of seasonal drought.

All about why I want to grow lotus. Edible!

Lotus that flowers put energy to seeds and the tubers will be much smaller, edible lotus rarely flowers. The 27 gal black tote or 32 gal trash can will be suitable for growing lotus if you have any.
https://tenmilecreeknursery.com/products/hubei-5-vegetable-tuber

I'd like to try some "old" plants that failed before to see if there's improvement now that I am a better gardener: blueberry, eggplant, tongho, amaranth etc. For some of them I still have the seeds but I will have to buy blueberry plant again.

Going to try some moringa from seeds. Also some alpine strawberries. Have never grown strawberries from seeds before.

On a similar theme ... I built a squash tunnel this year. Have wanted one since the first time I learned of that technique. It will have butternut squash, yard long beans, Dragon's Tongue beans, cucumbers, & probably a few tomatoes climbing on it.

No, I don't think I'll grow any new plants this year. I want to do my best to grow better plants. I mean: better maintenance of the shrubs and perennials, and more attention to the annuals (sow the seeds in the right month, add more compost to the soil, give water when needed ...).
This way I hope to have more yield from my allotment garden than last year.

Was a little dismayed by the Asheville photos as I have been planning on using the cattle panel approach to try mostly vining veggies as an experiment in my new location.  I heard that they are the most primitive varieties and thereby most likely to survive the new heat levels we are experiencing now.  Not sure if the deduction is accurate or not but I also no longer have the ambition to build raised beds to avoid bending over to tend the garden.  The plants are not the only things that like to remain vertical these days.  Have seeds for a couple each of moschato pumpkins,  small watermelons,  tomatoes, field peas & pole beans, cukes, sweet potatoes & malabar spinach .  I know I am already late for planting in N Fla but that will test their survivability.  
Not vining but tried some tree collards last year without success so am going to try that again.  Hopefully this does not attract the hurricanes as the one that hit Asheville just missed me.    

Dale Nute wrote:Was a little dismayed by the Asheville photos as I have been planning on using the cattle panel approach to try mostly vining veggies as an experiment in my new location.  I heard that they are the most primitive varieties and thereby most likely to survive the new heat levels we are experiencing now.  Not sure if the deduction is accurate or not but I also no longer have the ambition to build raised beds to avoid bending over to tend the garden.  The plants are not the only things that like to remain vertical these days.  Have seeds for a couple each of moschato pumpkins,  small watermelons,  tomatoes, field peas & pole beans, cukes, sweet potatoes & malabar spinach .  I know I am already late for planting in N Fla but that will test their survivability.  
Not vining but tried some tree collards last year without success so am going to try that again.  Hopefully this does not attract the hurricanes as the one that hit Asheville just missed me.    

Just a note on growing tree collards. They need a little babying and protection in the beginning. Once they have matured, they are hands off plants, that just need some water. I have started all of my tree collards in containers, and transplanted them when they have gotten too big for the container. The times I have planted them directly into their final home, they usually get eaten, or otherwise dies. Good news though is, that once established, they are close to indestructible.

I am trying a bunch of new plants this spring; I have hazelnut and witch hazel saplings on order, and I hope to a couple of paw paws as well,  In smaller plants, I will try to start some ground nuts from seed.

I planted a bunch of sunchokes in the fall, and hope to have enough to eat as well as leaving some to come back next year.

Ground nuts are actually New England natives, but have been forced out.  They are nitrogen fixing legumes similar to peas, but they also produce edible tubers, and have dark pink flowers that attract pollinators-- practically a perfect plant!


Here's info about groundnuts: https://www.ourtinyhomestead.com/groundnuts.html

I'm trying salsify and swede. Malabar spinach is a godsend in hot weather. It tolerates high temps well as long as it is watered. I find it is not so pleasant raw, but cooked is fine. It also seeds itself. Another virtue!

Artichokes. Starting the variety 'Imperial Star' from seed.  It has supposedly been bred to produce in one season.  However, since I am in long suspected and newly official zone 8, they may just be perennial for me.  I've made a nice new bed for them in hopes that they will stick around more than one season.

I'm trying to build a dyer's garden, so I'm going to try my hand at some dye plants - Japanese indigo and woad. Both produce blue dye. The idea is to see which one grows best in my garden and make it a garden staple.

Leigh Tate wrote:I'm trying to build a dyer's garden, so I'm going to try my hand at some dye plants - Japanese indigo and woad. Both produce blue dye. The idea is to see which one grows best in my garden and make it a garden staple.

I really, really liked indigo, it was pretty easy to grow and seemed to like the summer here in 9b.
I grew it two years in a row but didn't have the space/time to dedicate to the quantities I needed. I did some dying with the fresh leaf and am saving the seeds for next summer, I think.

Tereza Okava wrote:I did some dying with the fresh leaf and am saving the seeds for next summer, I think.

I hadn't even thought about fresh leaf dyeing, so thanks for that!

I also recently found a source for true indigo seed and want to add that to my list.

Riona Abhainn wrote:I want to do a mushroom kit, since I've never done mushroom growing before.  I feel like once I do that then I can try doing it the less expensive and more DIY way.

just got a bag of wine cap mushroom mycelium from NorthSpore.  Hoping they grow.  

Mike Barkley wrote:Going to try some moringa from seeds. Also some alpine strawberries. Have never grown strawberries from seeds before.

On a similar theme ... I built a squash tunnel this year. Have wanted one since the first time I learned of that technique. It will have butternut squash, yard long beans, Dragon's Tongue beans, cucumbers, & probably a few tomatoes climbing on it.

The alpine strawberries took very very long to germinate but I finally got two plants out of an entire seed pack. The two plants multiplied and in less than a year we have 11 plants. They have to be divided, no runners. They are so delicious it is nothing like a store-berry. :-)

Trying out bush beans, especially Blue Lake 274 and Dragon's Tongue. Hoping for lots and lots of green beans to eat and put away! Also hoping to try many varieties of Japanese turnips!