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Garden Advice

7 Underrated Crops for Your Garden

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Many gardeners already know the joys of fresh, crisp cucumber, the sweet tenderness of fresh asparagus stems, or the juicy, sweet, yet tart flavor of tomatoes still warm from the sun. However, when we begin growing our own food, we find many vegetables and varieties we can grow that aren’t found in the supermarket. This season, we encourage you to branch out and try one of these lesser-known or underrated crops. Many of these are tasty, nourishing additions to the garden that fell out of favor with the advent of industrial agriculture.

Southern Peas or Cowpeas

Cowpeas are an underrated southern staple crop. The greens can be used as a potherb, the young pods can be used similar to green beans before the peas harden, or you can harvest them as dry peas for use in recipes like Hoppin’ John. These peas are commonly mashed and fried like falafels in parts of Africa. 

They’re good for the garden too! Many beneficial insects find them attractive, and they’re nitrogen-fixing. Some cowpeas, like Iron & Clay, are often grown as a cover crop for these reasons.

Salsify (root crops)Salsify

Salsify is rarely seen at the grocery store or even at farmer’s markets. It was brought to the Americas by European colonists, but it never gained widespread popularity. However, there’s always been a devoted few who love this crop.

Salsify has a unique, almost oyster-like flavor you won’t find in other root crops. It also keeps well in the ground, helping you to stretch the season and eat fresh garden vegetables longer. 

American Purple Top Yellow Rutabaga

Rutabaga

Rutabagas or Swedes are hardy root crops that fell out of fashion with modern grocery stores and shipping, though they remain popular in areas with cold climates like Canada. They are also still common in pasties in parts of the US, especially Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

They have a unique flavor, which some people find takes a bit of adjusting to. That said, they’re a hardy and nourishing addition to winter meals. If you’re unsure you’ll like them, try Gilfeather Turnip Rutabagas, a famous heirloom cross between turnips and rutabagas selected and named by Vermont farmer Jack Gilfeather. They’re sweeter than most rutabagas and have tender, tasty greens.

Cress

Easy to grow and with a peppery zing, it’s hard to believe cress has not gotten much recognition among the fandoms of greens like baby mustards and kale. Once a winter staple in parts of the mountain south, cress is full of vitamin C, a once life-saving characteristic when times were tough. In fact, Belle Isle Cress earned its name when 17th-century Portuguese sailors shipwrecked on Canada’s Belle Isle survived the winter thanks to these greens. Try cress as a potherb, in salads, or in the classic British egg and cress sandwich. 

Garden Huckleberry

These dark berries may look a bit ominous, but they’re a tasty, sweet relative of the tomato. Garden Huckleberries or Wonderberries have a huckleberry-like flavor, making them excellent for dessert fillings, jellies, syrups, and more.

They’re a great fruit option for renters who can’t put perennial fruit trees or bushes into their garden plots. However, be aware that the green fruits are likely toxic and should not be consumed. 

Hollow Crown (Sugar) Parsnip
Hollow Crown (Sugar) Parsnip

Parsnips

Parsnips are another root vegetable that has been used since antiquity but quickly fell out of prominent use when industrial agriculture, shipping, and grocery stores made produce accessible year-round, replacing root cellars and home canning. 

Parsnips have a sweet, earthy flavor. While they may not be gorgeous or Instagram-worthy vegetables, they are a great choice for a winter storage crop. 

Celeriac

This crop may not win any beauty contests, but it does have great flavor. Celeriac has sweet, starchy, globe-shaped roots that are excellent to use in soups and stews, boiled and pureed, fried in butter, or grated into salads.

Celeriac thrives in cool weather, making it another great option for those looking to extend their season. 

 

We’re not big into “superfoods” and don’t believe that any of these crops will change your life. However, we do think these crops are all a bit underrated. Roots like celeriac, parsnips, rutabagas, cress, and salsify can help you eat from your garden a little longer each year. Huckleberries are a fun, unique fruit to try and one of the few annual fruits you can add to your garden without a big investment. Southern peas are versatile, tasty, easy to grow, and full of protein. Try a few of these underrated crops in your garden next season!

Garden Advice

When to Plant a Fall Garden

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Growing a fall garden allows us to extend our season and get more vegetables, herbs, and flowers out of our space. In Virginia, where we’re located and farther south, it gives us a second opportunity to enjoy some cool-weather-loving crops like peas and spinach for a second time. However, as we’ll discuss below, the name fall gardening can be a bit misleading, you will be harvesting in the fall, but for many crops, you’ll be sowing during the summer.

When Do I Start My Fall Garden?

The short answer is it depends. Where you’re located and what you choose to grow will dictate the sowing times for your garden. The first step is to consider you’re hardiness zone and determine your first frost date. Then look at the days to maturity for crops you’re considering planting.

While frost may seem like the primary factor in a fall garden, you must also consider the day length. During the fall, the days rapidly get shorter, and this, rather than cold temperatures, slows crop growth.

To take this into consideration, you want to add 14 days to the days to maturity time for any variety you’ll direct sow and 14 to 28 days for any variety you will be transplanting. This longer period helps account for setback and transplant shock. 

Once you have your days to maturity plus the added days for daylight, you can count backward from your first frost date to determine your last possible start date. 

For example, let’s say we wanted to plant Capitan Bibb lettuce (62 days to maturity) in a zone 6b garden with an estimated first frost of October 20th. We’ll take 62 days and add 14 days because we’ll be direct sowing it, to get a total of 76 days. If we look at a calendar and count backward 76 days from October 20th, we get August 7th. Therefore we can sow Capitan Bibb lettuce up to August 7th in this garden and expect harvests. 

At 62 days, Capitan Bibb is also a rather quick-maturing crop. If you want a fall garden, it’s best to start planning early! In zone 7a, we begin direct sowing slower maturing crops like cauliflower as early as June 1st.

Garden Apps and Calendars

These days, gardening apps can be very helpful for determining planting dates. Our own garden planner features planting dates based on your zip code. The Farmer’s Almanac also has a planting date calculator and a first frost date calculator on its website. 

If you’d like a more analog option and are located in zone 7, like we are, feel free to check out our planting list pdf. Also, many states and extension agencies offer planting calendars, so be sure to check your local resources as well. 

What Should I Plant?

You can include a wide array of crops in your fall garden, with the exception of some long-season crops like field pumpkins.

We often lean towards cool-season crops like brassicas, peas, greens, and root vegetables when planning fall gardens. While these may last us longer into fall than their warm-weather counterparts, we can still include them in our plans as well. Especially in southern areas, you can start later plantings of squash, beans, sweet corn, and even tomatoes to ensure second harvests at the beginning of fall. 

In the past, we’ve often set out some tomatoes in the second half of June to ensure we had good production for fall tomato tastings. Here are a few of the crops you can consider planting for fall:

  • Cauliflower
  • Cabbages
  • Summer Squash
  • Beets
  • Beans
  • Peas
  • Southern Peas
  • Chinese Cabbage
  • Swiss Chard 
  • Collards
  • Corn
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Parsnips
  • Rutabaga
  • Broccoli

Planting in the Fall

There are also a few crops that you can plant in the fall to harvest next season. Some, like bulb onions, brassicas, greens, and certain flowers, we overwinter when they’re still small to get an early spring harvest. Others, like garlic and perennial onions, need a cold period to produce well. 

Planning these out ahead of time can help ensure you get a good selection when ordering. For example, we’re already taking garlic orders, even though we’ll ship it out at the appropriate time during the fall based on your location. 

If you’re always sad to see the garden season come to an end, consider adding more fall crops to your garden this season. Start planning your fall garden now to ensure all your crops are in on time and you have abundant harvests!

Garden Advice

How to Prepare Garden Beds

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The weather is starting to feel like spring! While we’re not quite there yet, it is an excellent time to start preparing beds. Before long, we’ll be transplanting cold hardy crops like onions, broccoli, cabbages, and cauliflower and direct sowing peas, parsnips, spring greens, and more. Whether starting from scratch or taking care of an existing garden, follow this guide to prepare garden beds for planting season.

Plan and Mark Out the Bed

New Beds

If you’re starting a new bed, it’s a good idea to start with a plan. You’ll need to consider the dimensions before gathering materials for raised beds. For beds in the ground, I like to use wood or old tent stakes and string to create a layout. This can be especially to ensure you leave enough room for pathways between beds.

Existing Beds

When preparing existing beds, it’s a good time to think about what was planted there last year and what will work well there this year. Proper crop rotation is vital to a healthy garden.

Remove the Vegetation

This is the first step major step in preparing a bed for planting. It’s best to remove the vegetation and complete the following steps when the bed is moist but not wet. Working with soggy soil is more difficult and can lead to compaction. 

New Beds

If you have access to a rototiller, simply tilling in the sod is a common choice. You’ll probably want to till early and then again as new growth comes up. This will help with weed issues down the road. 

If you don’t have a rototiller or don’t want to use one, a common choice for larger beds is to solarize the soil. Stretch clear plastic, like the kind for hoop houses, over the garden bed as tightly as possible and weigh it down. After a few weeks, depending on the weather, this will kill the vegetation. It’s tough, but you can also remove sod by hand with a shovel if necessary.

If you’re building a raised bed, hugelkultur mound, or lasagna garden, you can put down a layer of cardboard that will kill the grass.

Existing Beds

This process should be easier in existing beds. If you’ve planted cover crops into your beds, you can use a scythe or mower to kill them or till them into the soil, depending on the cover crop variety. Many gardens use their cover crop residue as mulch and plant directly into it.

If your beds are weedy, you have different options depending on the size of the beds and weed growth. For smaller beds or those with minimal weed growth, you may want to grow through with a stirrup hoe or similar tool and kill the weeds by hand.  You can also solarize the bed like I mentioned for new beds above or lay down cardboard or newspaper to smother the weeds.

Loosen the Soil

If you’ve just tilled your garden, this step may be unnecessary. However, loosening the soil in no-till gardens or existing beds is a good idea. I like to use a broad fork. Broad forking the soil essentially lifts it without turning it over. It doesn’t destroy beneficial bacteria or fungi like tilling, but it creates space for water and air in the soil and a softer bed for roots to grow into. 

Another option is double digging. This process is hard work, but many gardeners swear by it. To double dig, you remove the layer of topsoil and set it aside. Then break up the layer of subsoil and mix it with organic matter. Finally, you replace the layer of topsoil. Though it’s hard work, all you need is a spade, and it creates great fertile, well-draining soil. Fine Gardening has a more in-depth piece on double-digging available here. 

Amend the Soil

Before planting, you’ll also want to amend your soil as needed. I recommend adding 2 to 3 inches of finished compost to new and existing beds before planting. It adds fertility and improves drainage. 

Ideally, you’ll also have had a soil test done and will know whether your soil needs other amendments. If your soil is too acidic, you may need to add lime or amend for specific nutrients.

Set Up Your Watering System

It’s also important to consider how you will keep your garden watered before planting. Drip irrigation is an increasingly popular choice, even for home gardeners, because it’s highly efficient and less labor intensive. If you’re going to set up a watering system, it’s often easiest to do so before planting. Lay out your drip irrigation or sprinklers and set up timers for a low-maintenance watering plan.

Mulching and Keeping Beds Weed Free

It may seem odd to mulch before planting, but it can save you from weeding later. Add 3 to 4 inches of mulch to your beds to prevent weeds from germinating. Transplants can easily be planted through the mulch, or you can rake it aside to direct seed rows and pull it back once plants get established.

Spring will be here soon! Follow this guide to prepare your garden beds for planting. Stay tuned and follow us on social media for a future post on transplanting or check out our older posts covering the basics of when and how to start seedlings indoors.