I will cover a few other garden crops here. Around here, GARDENS CAN BASICALLY BECOME SUMMER JUNGLES WITH EXCEPTIONAL PLANT GROWTH IN MANY TYPES OF PLANTS! General techniques basically cover everything from radishes to potatoes to okra to onions to corn to sunflowers to leaf lettuce to spinach, please refer to general comments page. Almost all crops do well with the April Fool’s Day planting plan, as covered in general comments. And, this plan allows for a frequent REPLANTING, which is common, and often in patches. With corn and radishes and sunflowers and okra and peas and potatoes, mainly just plant and watch nature go to work! This also applies to carrots. I often harvest carrots very late in the year, after some frosts have passed. Often I bury them a little deeper to prevent freeze damage. Based on my experiences, they take a long time to develop a large size. I have found radishes and spinach, in particular, like the cold, and a very early planting. Often I have planted radishes before April Fool’s Day even, only to see my crop covered in snow several inches deep. Not to worry, the radishes just lived under the snow, and sprung to life once it melted. When it is warm, the plants tend to go to seed, and eating quality goes way down. As an additional note, I have found potatoes and corn and sunflowers to need little if any additional watering, early planting helps here. I have grown some gigantically tall sunflowers and corn, and some gigantic potatoes! As a special note, I remember giving sweet potatoes a lot of attention, in particular a decent amount of water and extra care to young plants, which critters enjoy eating. I have also not let sweet potatoes grow unprotected, until frost danger was past. Grandpa used to grow some huge sweet potatoes and tall okra. Onions, I am not certain on the April Fool’s Day planting plan, but should work. I have started onions from bulbs in the past, and put them in a bit later, weeks after April Fool’s Day. I have had good luck with onions, but never harvested really big ones. I have had great luck with garlic, my main experience being with a type of winter garlic that comes up year after year after year. All these plants do so well in Iowa! What else? Other crops do well here too, from turnips to turnip greens to other “greens” to lettuce to brussel sprouts to cauliflower.
Perennials? A lot of the garden tips still apply, but comments regarding seed do not really apply and planting dates will often be later and vary some, as living plants are more tender than seeds buried in the ground. Rhubarb and raspberries and blueberries and chives and mints and lemon balm and grapes are really strong performers in Iowa! Apple trees and many other fruit trees do well here, in the Quad-Cities area.
A SPECIAL NOTE ON GRAPES. I HAVE HAD SUPREME LUCK WITH NORMAL PURPLE GRAPES! SEEDLESS? I HAVE HAD LUCK WITH THE NORMAL SEEDED PURPLE. PERHAPS SEEDLESS COULD WORK, BUT I CAN NOT BRAG HERE. THEY THRIVE HERE, WITH TREMENDOUS YIELDS AND LITTLE SPECIAL CARE. THESE NORMAL PURPLE GRAPES TASTE LIKE GRAPES, NOT LIKE BAGS OF SUGAR, THAT IS COMMON WITH GROCERY STORE GRAPES. THEY HAVE HUGE YIELD AND MAKE EVERYTHING FROM JAM TO JELLY TO JUICE TO WINE. I HAVE VENTURED IN ALMOST ALL THESE AREAS! YES, THEY ARE GREAT FOR EATING FRESH, WITH EXTREME SWEETNESS AND A HARDY REAL GRAPE TASTE! CAN THEY MAKE RAISINS? I DON’t REALLY KNOW, I GUESS SO. AS TO WHY THIS AREA DOES NOT HAVE MORE OF AN ESSENTIALLY NATIVE PURPLE GRAPE INDUSTRY, I CAN NOT SAY. BUT, I FEEL IT IS REAL SHAME! YES, OTHER GRAPES GROW HERE. I HAVE NOT HAD MUCH LUCK WITH GRAPES THAT WERE NOT ESSENTIALLY NATIVE SEEDED PURPLE, BUT HAVE GROWN MANY SWEET AND NOT PURPLE GROCERY STORE TYPE GRAPES, EVEN SEEDLESS. BUT, TYPICALLY SMALL AND SORT OF SICKLY AND LOW OVERALL YIELDS.
We get COLD here, plants that grow well here need to tolerate it; hopefully thrive in it. But, we are weird here, we are nearly the same distance from the equator as parts of Africa. “Flowers and such?” I guess they could be considered a crop, at any rate general techniques apply and many “flowers and such” thrive here! To “cover all bases,” “flowers and such” includes of course flowers, and also trees and bushes that do not bear fruit, along with basically all other plants that grow in the extended Quad-City area in Iowa and Illinois.
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