how to cook prepare fresh green beans with garlic shallots tomato

Steamed fresh green beans flavored with garlic, shallots and tomato. After steaming the beans without boiling first, since we know that boiling looses much o…
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Question by Alexis: What to plant in a very small garden space? Fruits and Vegetables?
I have a small garden space it is a little garden area with a foot wide stone path running through it, so it is like two separate garden areas. I wanted to plant green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, lettuce bell peppers, celery, and potatoes along with a few herbs that I would plant inside on the widow ledge in a planter (thyme, rosemary, basil, sage, mint, chives). How should I arrange them? What plants go well as companion plants to these? What other plants climb upwards to maximize my small garden space? I want to have enough of these for my roommate and I to share with a little extra left over. That being said how many of eat plant should I put into my garden?
Gardensallday : That was the most helpful and detailed answer I have ever gotten on this site. I am trying a garden because I am in college and every penny saved helps pay for my student loans and makes life easier. I am in Montana where it is cold in the winter and we have very mild summers it’s about 65 degrees right now but it was snowing a week ago. Is there anything I shouldn’t plant or should because of my weird weather?

Best answer:

Answer by gardensallday
What I suggest is plant those veggies where home grown is SIGNIFICANTLY yummier than grocery store fare, and expensive stuff. Tomatoes, lettuce, and green beans are in the much yummier category, and leaf lettuce and herbs are in the expensive category. Potatoes and celery are really cheap in the grocery store, unless your primary reason to grow them is to avoid pesticide residue. Cukes are cheap, and the homegrown ones are only somewhat yummier, and cukes take a lot of space for what you get. There also isn’t much nutrition in a cuke. I know nothing about okra. I’m in Minnesota, and I get about 3 bell peppers per plant – not much pepper for the space the plant takes. Grow tall indeterminate tomatoes for a yield all season, and the most tomatoes in your limited space. You won’t get much off a few small Roma tomato plants.

I don’t do companion gardening, because my garden is big (60 ft square, plus I have 2 smaller ones) and they plants are spaced widely so i can water less and get less disease.

I grow my lettuce in a big pot that I can move into the shade on a hot day, so there’s a little tip for you on that one. Basil grows big very fast, so it will probably overwhelm your other herbs. Put that in the main garden. It will grown into a 2 1/2 foot tall bush, unless you’re growing a small variety. A lot of people kill off their rosemary plants, so good luck. My sister has a big rosemary shrub she brings indoors every winter. She pretty much has to bonsai the thing, since it’s so big.

To me, tomatoes are the best thing about a home garden, and I chow on tomato sandwiches when they are in season. So I personally would grow many tomatoes, a few green beans, some lettuce, and hot peppers, and herbs in a pot as you say you will be doing. I would get the cukes and bell peppers at the grocery store, along with the aforementioned potatoes and celery.

Good luck! You might kill a few things off due to lack of experience, so don’t get discouraged. That’s to be expected.

PS gardenweb is a good site. They have a square foot gardening section, I think it’s called.

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It is a late spring here too, and I grow veggie and flower transplants for farmers market and can’t put them in my outdoor greenhouse yet. Too cold. Plants are coming out of my ears! So you aren’t the only one with garden problems.

Pick plants with a short season. I love heirloom tomatoes, but since you are saving money, and also short season (as I am) I suggest hybrids with disease resistance. It seems to be cold, wet weather that spreads disease, so honestly, you probably won’t have any problems with disease in MT. I rarely have bug problems in MN either, but when I lived in CA or MA, it was horrible. I think our harsh, northern climate kills most of that stuff. black plastic can speed things along, but unless you are in the mountains, you probably won’t need that except for melons, maybe hot peppers, or if you want to try some other longer season thing. I always use black plastic for my squash and pumpkins, but I don’t even recommend you grow those in a limited space.

Make sure when you buy your transplants that you harden them off first – the greenhouse may or may not have done that already. Google “hardening off” for instructions.

The Rodale books are very good, and the library probably has them. I don’t grow 100% organic. I use chemical fertilizers, and also work in compost. You probably have decent dirt being there is so much mountain sediment there with good clay minerals, but may be lacking in humus (unless you’re on former grasslands, like I am. I have the most wonderful dirt here). If there is little humus in your soil (decaying plant stuff, like compost) get some compost for free from your local recycling center where people drop off their lawn clippings. It’s ok to email me for more advice if you want.

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