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angelcub_gw

Things you WON'T be growing in your potager this year?

angelcub
18 years ago

This year I won't be growing my glads in my potager. They just get too big and take up too much room. I will move the hollyhocks, as well. Again, too big. They come up on their own and don't seem to care who's their neighbor. I have one now that's smothering a blueberry trying its best to grow up.

Diana

Comments (21)

  • mrsgalihad
    18 years ago

    Pumkins. They just take up too much room. I am going to be growing some of the baby size ones but not in my potager.

    I haven't decided yet if the strawberries are going inside or outside. I don't think I'm going to be able to decide until all the beds are built and I can get a better idea of what will go where.

  • girlgroupgirl
    18 years ago

    Strawberries. I love them, but they took over my life. I will keep the alpine strawberries that line the thyme walk. Boo Boo my cat enjoys eating them.

    I will not be growing mint, lol!!

    GGG

  • georich5
    18 years ago

    It's cilantro for me. It just doesn't seem to like my Ohio dirt. My black-eyed susans have actually beat out the mint for space. Fortunately the lemon mint is still ok.
    I have something that has the greatest foliage but it STINKS. It smells almost antiseptic but with a fermenting after flavor. You think you like it , bring it into the house to use in bouquets, then wham stinko. It has a very woody trunk/stem. Having a brain malfunction here. Can't remember it's name.

    georgeanne who's glad to see friends here!!!

  • memo3
    18 years ago

    Hot peppers. How many of them can you eat? I have a pretty large bag of them in the freezer for putting in chili and such but even so I have enough to last a few years. I let the rest of them go at the end of the season. I'm also giving up on colored bell pepers. We don't have a long enough season to let them go until they set on their lovely colors.

    MeMo

  • harper
    18 years ago

    MeMo, do you can? Hot peppers make a wonderful jelly! The sweet/hot combination is great with cream cheese on bagels, on top of a brick of cream cheese for a cracker spread, added to olive oil and vinegar for a salad vinaigrette, added to a cream sauce for pork tenderloins, etc.

    {{gwi:1151205}}

  • gurley157fs
    18 years ago

    I gave all of my strawberries to my nieghbor. They did well but seem to be very labor intensive for the amount of berries we were getting.

  • memo3
    18 years ago

    Harper, You know someone just gave me the recipe for hot pepper jelly this past week. I thanked them kindly while thinking yuck...that doesn't even sound good. Maybe I'll have to try a couple jars and see what the family thinks. I didn't realize you could use it in so many ways. I'm too simple with my cooking I think.

    MeMo

  • BecR
    18 years ago

    Memo...someone gave me a single habanero plant last spring (simething I never would have purchased on my own). Well---it grew and grew and produced tons of peppers (VERY hot). I had no idea what to do with them. Well, I took a chance and made habanero jelly, something which did not appeal to me---but whammo it is soooo good with cream cheese on a toasted English muffin etc like Harper says. Not too hot at all. I gave some to neighbors for gifts at Xmas, and they loved it too! Now, I wish I had some jars left. Try it, you'll like it.

    Becky

  • baci
    18 years ago

    This probably would not fit the definition of potager, but has anyone considered growing strawberries in vertical towers? I understand the lack of room, but I hate to see people give up their strawberries.

  • todancewithwolves
    18 years ago

    I'm giving up on corn, watermelon, strawberries
    and hollyhocks.

  • michelelee
    18 years ago

    Zucchini!!!
    Michele

  • wolfe15136
    18 years ago

    I second the zucchini, and any and all squash. There just isn't room!

    Also, sweet corn, for the same reason.

  • harper
    18 years ago

    I gave up on squash years ago. Even the shorter-vined butternut varieties take up a lot of space.

    Harper

  • happyintexas
    18 years ago

    I gave up sweet corn last year. I've lost a few feet of garden area to shade from the neighbor's trees. That used to be the corn corner.

    I'm planting less squash this year, but adding eggplant and bush cucumbers.

    Happy

  • harper
    18 years ago

    Happy, I'm not familiar with bush cucumbers, but in the past I've grown cukes on a trellis. Takes up very little room and they seem to really like it.

    Harper

  • mrtoad
    18 years ago

    last year i grew butternut squash - it became the squash from hell as it took over the potager and parts of the yard - but i did collect a fair number of the squash and my mother-in-law has made some wonderful pies !!

  • gardenpaws_VA
    18 years ago

    Put the butternut squash up a fence - we had a "freebie" one year that covered a piece of chain link fence quite nicely, and gave us a number of fruits. They hang onto the fence well - no walking out one day and finding squash and vines in a tangle on the ground.

    Strawberry fans who find them unruly - why not use them as a groundcover? Thats what I did with some Tristars, and it has worked very well, even in half-day shade. I just transplant the ones which wander (which isnt many, since theyre next to a lawn). I got ample berries for cereal and dessert, and have a June-bearing patch elsewhere by itself (backed with a bean trellis) for freezing and jam. Note that Tristars have been especially clean-looking throughout the season, nearly fully evergreen and no leaf diseases. My Earliglows look really scruffy for much of the year, by contrast. The hardest labor, on both, has been largely picking the fruit.

  • glenna
    18 years ago

    I took out the roses last year and put them elsewhere.

    Things I won't be growing: charentais melons (doesn't get hot enough here); sweet bell peppers; cranberry beans (took up too much room); glacier tomatoes (too bland).

    I'm in year 5 of my potager and now limit my non-edible elements to the vines growing on the obelisk in the center.

  • little_dani
    18 years ago

    Gourds. I grew birdhouse gourds on my arbor last year, as I had started them in 6 packs and DH decided they were going to perish if they didn't get planted at that very moment!

    They interferred with where I planted the cukes, the squash, any vining crop except climbing spinach. And then they got ugly! I am sending them to the back of the back yard.

    Janie

  • mrtoad
    18 years ago

    i am not growing acorn squash - the vines believe they were entitled run everywhere

    mr toad

  • remy_gw
    18 years ago

    There's nothing that I'm not going to put in this year, but I'm going to try growing cucumbers on a trellis for the first time. I'm not sure why I've never tried it before, lol.

    Mr Toad, I grew the variety of Acorn Squash called 'Bush Table Queen' or 'Table Queen Bush' before. It was very compact and I got nice sized squash. There is also a variety related to it called 'Table King' that is also a bush type.

    Memo, I thought I wouldn't like the hot pepper jelly either, but I gave it a try at a party. I actually like it a lot!

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