From: hmjem@usho44.hou281.chevron.com (M.J.Emanuel)
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: essential veggies to grow
Date: 29 Dec 92 18:22:17 GMT
Organization: Chevron


Hi Keerthi,

I tried to send you mail after your pre-Xmas post, but it bounced.   I'll try
mailing and posting this time. 


In article <1992Dec29.144659.3004@hou.amoco.com>, you write:
|> 
|> Alice Ramirez writes:
|> > If we are going to discuss essential vegetables to grow, the ones that
|> > absolutely are inferior in the stores, I have to cast my vote for homegrown
|> > leaf lettuce.  There is no comparison between the tender, picked-slightly-
|> > immature leafs grown at home and those motheaten heads of pale, medium
|> > and/or reddish lettuce
|> 
|> 
|> I am going to start my FIRST garden this summer.  Santa was good and brought me
|> the book entitled "Square Foot Gardening"  I am planning to try the same concepts
|> but in big pots or wooden boxes.  I live in an apartment in New Orleans... long hot
|> summers  
|> 
|> 
|> The vegetables I am planning to grow are:
|> 
|> Any recommendations on what kind to buy and where to get them would be greatly
|> appreciated.
|> 

When I lived in Slidell, I got a vegetable info sheet put out by the state from a garden
store.  It lists proven varieties and planting times for growing vegies in Louisiana.  The
gardening store I got it from also had a bi-monthly newsletter from the St. Tammany "County"
Extension Service.  You can probably find the former in any reputable nusery, or if you
can't, call the Orleans Extension Office.

|> a. tomatoes ... just enough for me and my husband... I am thinking 1 plant with 
|>     three plantings

I tried Creole and Better Boy varieties last year.  Creole is supposed to be suited to
Southern summers.  Both did pretty well, but the squirrels got more than their fair share!
If you buy transplants from a garden store, you should plant them in the first week of March.
If you are growing from seed, you should plant them now.

|> 
|> b. Lettuce.. I was thinking Boston lettuce... but I would like to try others... 
|>     store bought lettuce is expensive and you end up throwing most of it away.
|> 

Lettuce likes cool weather.  Leaf lettuce is matures the fastest of the 3 types (leaf,
heading, and semi-heading).  So your best bet
at lettuce in the South is leaf lettuce, so that it can mature before it gets too warm.
Then the plants turn bitter and go to seed.  I don't know whether Boston lettuce is a
leaf variety or not.  Last year I grew Black Seeded Simpson.  My garden was too shady and I
planted too late so and most of the lettuce bolted before it could mature.
  You need to plant it within the next month!
  
|> c. Yellow, Red and Green Bell Peppers --- I am hoping they will be easy to grow.
|> 

Green peppers are immature Red or Yellow sweet peppers.  Buy green pepper plants (California
Wonder is one variety) and leave the fruit on the plant till the get red.  You have to
get special varieties to get yellow peppers.  You might have to grow them from seed, or
you can plant sweet banana peppers.  I grew bell, sweet banana, and cayenne peppers
last year, and yes they are easy to grow.  Hot peppers do better in the hot Southern summers
than sweet peppers though.

|> d. Something else ... kind of exotic... but I haven't figured out what.
|> 

I checked out a book from the St. Tammany library last year called "Unusual Vegetables".
(I wanted a copy for Xmas, but it's out of print.)  The title tells it all.  See if you can find it.

|> 
|> 
|> Keerthi McIntosh

Jeff Emanuel
hmjem@chevron.com
Newsgroups: rec.gardens