No, this is not about who grew the most – maybe I’ll write about that when I have a chance of honorable mention (yes, I KNOW, pride goes before a fall, sorry). No, this is about what I have discovered grows well in my central KY zone 5 (I reject those charts that indicate we are zone six, go ahead and plant a Japanese Maple, see how that zone 6 classification works out for you) See I recently perused a loaner called “The doable off-grid homestead” hoping to find within it that magic wand to make my garden The Urban Farming Winner. While this was an exceptional read if you want a blueprint for starting out your off-grid lifestyle, it was less enlightening in the garden harvest category. There was however one point that stuck with me: grow what grows well. Having been playing around with my home garden for nine-ish summers now, I can vouch for the ageless wisdom of this mentality. Capitalize on your winners.

It’s not to say you shouldn’t try new things; I always try new stuff. But gardening- if your goal is to reap great harvest- can beat you up, spit you out and continue the mockery. If you are really set on growing your own food, set yourself up for success by growing what will succeed in your particular microclimate. Venture beyond the guaranteed successes with the knowledge that you may spend time and money to end up with poor or no harvest. Other pitfalls to be aware of – you may have some things grow so well you can’t keep up with the harvest and then some goes to waste. In my imagination, there will be future blogs about specific cases where this is likely, and I’ll provide loads of great ideas to help minimize waste, cause waste = no bueno. The other pitfall worth noting – something might grow well but you learn you just don’t like to eat that. My husband won’t eat green zebra tomatoes (I cannot fabricate any logical or illogical explanation for this heresy) and I….just wasn’t digging the texture of malabar spinach. It’s a learning experience, roll with it and adapt your behavior next year based on this year’s lessons.

That being said, let’s see if I can insert a table here of things that grow like rock stars for me, things I haven’t tried, and things that fail miserably – always 🙁

I want my readers to love gardening, and that’s easier if you can do it successfully. For best success, I recommend not biting off more than you can chew. Caring for a garden will take more time than you think, be wary of underestimating the work you take on. If you’re brand new to urban farming, I propose picking a couple plants from the top two categories, trying them and seeing how it works for you. Every microclimate, every garden, every gardener and every summer is unique. Try to have fun! If you’re a more experienced gardener, try several winners and some from other categories above also. For any master gardeners out there, please leave me some comments telling me why I can’t get any gourds except cushaw to grow (I don’t want to hear about the squash bug, I’m thus far too squeamish and lazy to remove it so I acknowledge this ain’t helping).

As a footnote / closing comments – there are too many herbs I love to list them all, but most have been rock stars for me at some point or other. I have also tried many different greans, with varying degrees of success. Some won’t germinate, some go to seed too fast, some are bitter by time they’re edible but overall I have a favorable impression of growing greens. Try any of them and see how they do for you, its worth the shot!