Garden Plan: What To Grow

Procrastination Pays Off! 

Growing compost isn't my idea of time well spent, although psychologists might argue. The food pantry gets a good bit of our crop each season as well, but it's the stuff I keep and never use that lingers in my conscience. So, seed and plant selection is becoming more important as I get older and less willing to grow compost.

Plants and seeds are safe, or getting the boot by these criteria:

1. What do we eat when it's laying around the kitchen?
Or in the "Go Rot" drawer of the fridge?
Lets face it...
if I bought or picked that type of veggie three times, and it went bad before we ate it three times, well, it gets cut from the list. Even if we love it when it is cooked. We'll buy it cooked from somewhere else.
However: It can stay IF I can find someone to give it to and they will give some back. COOKED.

2. What would we eat more of, if it was not so expensive?
Basil and shallots. Leeks and beets. 

3.Things that aren't tasty when they are bought from the store, like radishes.
 
4. What will grow here?
Live this advice:
There is an equivalent chart for your area:
Growing Calendar for Georgia

5. What will the thieves not touch? 
This information has gotten me invitations to 4 Prepper Networks:
Nobody steals radishes. Thieves are to lazy or pressed for time to pick beans. So am I.
Thieves don't go for high end foods like arugula and shallots. 
Tomatoes and watermelon don't stand a chance. You could put a GPS tracking device in them and they would still get stolen. In fact, that's a pretty good idea!

6. Thieves will steal basil.

7. What things do we only eat a few at a time and most of the package goes bad? Like potatoes? I grow this stuff because it rarely goes bad in the ground. So, I only dig what I am going to use. Ta Da! No waste!

8. Is it perennial?
I am some kind of lazy, let me tell you, and I just don't always get around to planting all the things I dream of growing. Solution: Perennials! 

Arugula grows year round in many zones!

Yes, there are some edibles that only have to be planted once, weeded occasionally, fertilized just like annuals and they grow vegetables AGAIN! Every year! No more planting! Well, since there is not a perennial tomato, some things will have to be planted. But asparagus, fruit bushes, trees, or vines, Jerusalem Artichokes, some herbs...
You get the picture. Sounds like another post for another day.

I'm exhausted. Time for my nap.