What grows best for you?

Curious what best veggies and such folks have been able to grow.

For us; okra grows well and we eat tons of it. Patula (hope I spelt that correct) a local gourd, tastes fine to me when cooked. Have had very good luck with cucumbers...some issues with cucumber bugs but they move relatively slow in the mornings so not too hard to pick off and dispose of. She did have enough luck with cucumbers to be able to give many away. Definitely will keep growing cucumbers...picked up some seeds of the smaller, pickling variety ones to try out as well.

Beans do very well also; I love black eyed peas and brought back a few bags before to eat, planted some seeds and they did well. The wife picks them when the are still green to use in cooking and loves them. She plans to plant some more. I am bringing back some purple string beans that I grew years ago and expect them to do well again. Also bringing back some sweet peas, not sure they will do as well but do love the pods.

Chilis...we only grew Indian peppers we picked up in Singapore this year. They were about the most prolific we have grown, so much so the wife is giving both peppers and seeds away to her friends as there is way more than she can use. She cooks with them everyday and doesn't find them spicy but the workers say they are a bit hotter coming out than going in.

The wife has a similar resistance to spice as I have so I picked up some Ghost pepper seeds that I will try to grow when I get home. As we have so many seeds from those Indian peppers we will grow those again as well. Also looking to grow a plant or 2 of the small peppers that are so common...many times a few of those little ones go a long way.

Tomatoes have been hit and miss over the years but have done fairly decent this last planting with cherry tomatoes. Not sure why they have worked better that the larger varieties but actually prefer cherry tomatoes personally...especially in a cucumber salad. I'll keep trying the larger varieties though and see if I can finally get them to produce.

The only real different thing I will try and grow are cantaloupe. Never tried to grow them, have had mixed results with other melons.

Shawn

 

so far a bit too lazy for farming, just started with corn / mais, grows fantastic. also best growing: the local Malungay, a great vegetable with enormous healing power. Chili, mangoe, banana, coconut also no problem.

 

- Chillies
- Spinach
- Sweet potatoes
- Spring onions
- Coriander
- Parsley
- Basil
- Lemons

All thriving

 

I've been reading quite a bit and old banana plants are great for compost. I have actually been thinking about an area of our backyard garden and going with raised beds (30" high); and filling with mostly old banana plants and other leaves and sticks we can find around and then a mix of rice hulls (pH neutral) and vermicompost to build things up. We have had great results with vermicompost and it is relatively cheap but rice hulls are even cheaper and should give nice drainage.

Shawn

 

We have a relatively small area to try things out but am really curious on how green onions and spinach would do in our area. I'm assuming that we should do companion planting to provide a bit of natural shade?

Thanks,

Shawn

 

I am not sure if you intend to plant these beds out immediately after filling them but there is a problem using plant material before it has been fully broken down - the soil bacteria will remove nitrogen for their own growth needs. This can be ameliorated by adding manure to the mix.

 

Just planted in a shaded area mate, works great in Valencia.