On Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables is easier than one may think. I plan to expand my garden this year to grow more vegetables than I did last year. In a few months, my entire front yard will be green with vegetables and flowers and herbs- no grass!

Most vegetables are annuals, meaning they die after one season.

Some are biennials, meaning they can live for two seasons. Usually we grow biennials as annuals and pull them out after one season. Biennials spend their first season making what we can eat, and their second season making seeds, which we don't eat. Carrots, for example, lay down their roots (the orange part we eat) their first season, and make a flower stalk, then seeds, the second season. During the second season the root part becomes woody and not so tasty. It's still edible, just not as delicious as if you had picked it the first season.

Then there are the vegetables which are perennials. Rhubarb is a vegetable that comes back every year. We eat the stalks, not the leaves. Same with asparagus. I'm growing both this year.

Later in the week I'll be back with a list of the vegetables I'll be growing this season.