New potatoes are potatoes that are harvested young, or before the potato plant dies back and the potatoes fully mature. They have a thin, tender skin which is rarely peeled, are generally sweeter than mature potatoes, and are particularly delicious when pulled fresh from the garden.
Read MoreFavorite Tomato Varieties of 2014
In some climates, tomatoes are endlessly bountiful. Here in the Pacific Northwest, where even in mid-summer temperatures remain moderate, tomatoes can be the most unpredictable and uncertain of crops. Professional growers in our area nearly always grow tomatoes under cover (meaning in a greenhouse or field tunnel), but this isn’t always a feasible option for the small-scale grower or home gardener. Regardless of your tomato management techniques, if you want a prolific and tasty harvest, it helps to start with the right varieties.
Read More2014: Year of the Tomato
It turned out 2014 was all about tomatoes! Tomatoes seem to be the crop that excites our clients and gardeners all around Seattle the most. While tomatoes are very easy to grow in many parts of the country, our summers tend to be relatively cool and short. While many Seattle transplants are used to eating fresh tomatoes off of the vine all summer long, it isn’t uncommon that we find ourselves harvesting tons of green tomatoes off dying vines at the end of September.
Read MoreEggplant Growing Tips and Recommended Varieties
Eggplants, Solanum melongena, are beautiful, colorful, unique, and among the most fun crops to grow. Rich in fiber, potassium, and manganese, the eggplant is a nightshade and is related to tomato, potato, and pepper and is considered a native of India. Eggplants come in a variety of colors, including purple, white, pink, and green and can range from 12 in long to only 1 or 2 in.
Read MoreRhubarb
Horticulturally Rhubarb is a vegetable, but it is often used more like a fruit. It has a relatively sour taste which makes it well suited to mix with honey or sweet fruits such as strawberries.
Rhubarb is a hardy perennial from Asia and has long been used as a food and medicine in Chinese cultures. It has large, almost jurassic-sized green leaves on bright red or green stalks. The large leaves create great visual structure in a landscape, but only the stalk are eaten, as the leaves contain high concentrations of oxalic acid, which is toxic to humans.
Read MorePlanting Beans
Beans, one of the oldest domesticated crops, are a fantastically versatile, easy to grow, and can be highly productive in small spaces. Some beans are eaten fresh in their shell (your everyday snap bean), and some are removed from their shells and dried for long-term storage (shelling beans). Despite the difference in how we eat them, most beans are closely related and have similar growth habits. In our Seattle gardens, we tend to only plant the snap bean type because the shelling beans usually require a longer growing season.
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