Coastal Gardening in the Pacific Northwest by Carla Albright

Author:Carla Albright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Published: 2007-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

PLANT CHOICES

As we have discussed many times so far, the choice of plants is crucial to any successful garden; this is also true of vegetables and fruits.

Perhaps the easiest way to start discussing plant choices is to talk about vegetables to avoid. The Pacific Northwest coastal areas have generally cooler summers, so plants that need a lot of heat to set fruit are more difficult to grow here than the same plants would be to grow even 30 miles inland. Forget about corn, melons, sweet potatoes, and eggplant. Concentrate on the ones that can be grown and you won’t be disappointed in your crops.

Lettuces, peas, and other cool-weather crops are excellent choices for a Pacific Northwest vegetable garden. And in most years, you can have more than one planting, sowing an additional crop in early September. By the time the lettuce has sprouted, the cool weather will have returned and the plants will thrive. In the United States and Canada, newly popular types of crops for cool weather are Asian vegetables such as pak choi (or bok choy), Tah Tsai, and Chinese cabbages. These have the added benefit of being able to try fun new recipes to use these interesting vegetables. Read the seed packets for harvest information as some are best when left to bolt, while others are picked earlier than usual to avoid getting tough.

Summer and winter squash are also good growers on the coast. Again choose with time-to-harvest dates in mind. They also need the sunniest location possible and starting the seeds early indoors is again a benefit.

One of the most fun and exotic vegetables to grow is the artichoke. These dramatic plants do take up a good bit of space in the garden, however, so be sure you like to eat them before you plant them. A good artichoke plant will produce three or more chokes each year and can be left in the ground over the winter.

A list of specific vegetable varieties for the Pacific Northwest coast appears at the end of this chapter.

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