How do you decide?

Happy2BeMe

How do you decide what and how many to grow each year?

hoping4septimus

partly whatever strikes my fancy but partly past experience. I've had stink bugs the last 2 years destroy my squash/melons (even though I companion planted) so this year and next I'm not doing any. I had really good luck with carrots, beets, potatoes and onions this year so I'm going to do more this year. I always do tomatoes because they do well and we eat them. I'll do peas and beans too for the same reason. I'm tempted to do corn this year, but not sure. I heard it sucks the nitrogen out of the soil and you have to dedicate a fairly large area to it.  I've had good luck with banana peppers, but not green peppers. I end up with 1 pepper from each plant  and they take up a lot of room.

kastle

I have a small garden area, so I plant what would be more expensive at the Farmer's market to buy vs. grow (like tomatoes & herbs especially).  As far as what varieties to choose, I just experiment & try new things until I find something I love.

As for "how many" of each, my Rodale's Garden Questions & Answers has a section on how many of each to plant if your household has 2, 4, etc people.

Dr.Loretta

Avoid what failed the year before (unless I find a better location that might work)

See what my local board or newspaper recommends

See what seedlings are offered at the farmer's market

Use what my CW brings in from her gardening leftovers

 

Nebb

I grow what I am likely to use the most of or is easy to freeze or store for the winter. Its trial and error, last year I grew a lot of things I thought I would get a lot of use out of, and didnt and had to give away to prevent it going bad, so I am changing what I plant this year to reflect that. Im already running out of the dried herbs I grew, so I plan to grow more next year to last me through the summer and winter.

goldenjes

Last year I asked the boys (12, 9, 7 yo now) what their favorite veggies were and put those on a list.  I added what DH & I love fresh (tomatoes & peppers) and what we eat a lot (lettuces)

Of course, it didn't all grow as expected.  My 3 squash plants could have fed the neighborhood, and tried to take over my entire back area.  The green beans & peas grew OK but I don't think the soil was amended enough back where I planted them for them to really be successful.  DH really wanted corn (Indiana boy) so we planted 2 different types that failed.

We couldn't eat our lettuce plants fast enough (6 each of spinach, freckled romaine, mesclun, other romaine) and they bolted - even after giving it away to friends.  I learned the hard way how awful bolted lettuce tastes.

DS1 planted a carrot patch but waaaay overseeded it.  At the end of the season, he dug up the carrots (as you would potatoes) and it was all tangled blocks about 1'x1' size.  LOL.  They still tasted good, but now we know.

I'm still a newbie gardener, and it's trial & error -- and fun.  I couldn't get one cantelope or honeydew to grow last year, so I'm going to relocate and try again.  I made notes last year and hope to do better this year.

And, I am doing 12 tomato plants again. I'm slowly going through the Romas in the freezer and loving it.  I just hope the weather cooperates so we get an earlier harvest this year.

pugznploons

mostly trial and error for us too.  We will grow lots of tomatoes again, beefsteak, roma, and grape all grew really well last summer and we used them up.  Lots of basil and cilantro, but we are cutting back on the parsley as we never used it all.  While the banana peppers grew well, we realized we don't actually LIKE them, so I will not grow them again, lol.  Just jalapenos this year, the bell peppers never got big enough before turning.