Substitute These 6 POPULAR Veggies with EASIER to Grow Varieties

Mandy Onderwater

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Mackay area, QLD Australia
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What adjustments have you made to better suit your area?



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Most of the changes in my area involve things like growing slightly out of season, or providing a bit of light shade in the harsh heat of summer, etc; rather than choosing different plants. That being said, sometimes choice of plant isn't just about what will and won't grow in an area but also growing not enough or too much for the space available. I've chosen to go with dwarf fruit trees for the most part so I can have more trees and thus more variety in the same space as would be taken up by a few regular size trees. I like pumpkin but not enough to grow big ones, so I'm opting for experimenting with miniature varieties to find ones I like.

One thing life has taught me is that if we don't like a particular food, try cooking it in every different way (eg: a lot of people don't like silverbeet aka swiss chard because they try to cook it all together which results in either the stem being undercooked and yucky or the leaves being overcooked and yucky, but separating the green leafy bits from the stem and cooking them separately as different things makes a world of difference) or eating it in a different form (eg: can't get garlic to form a bulb? Pull it up when it's due for harvest and in the form of a garlic round which can be dried out and replanted next season to form a bulb, and if that doesn't work either, eat it as garlic greens instead.) If you don't like it raw, try it cooked, if you don't like it either way, maybe try it dehydrated, or as a jam, or pickled, or fermented.
 
Yes! A lot of plants can be grown still, if you are willing to experiment with different times of the year.
I find that I can grow larger tomatoes better during Winter as there are less pests around, reducing my risk of losing the crop. It does mean I need more plants if I want a good amount of fruit as it produces less/more slowly in Winter, compared to Summer.

I truly haven't figured out how to grow garlic here though, which is one of my favourite things to eat. And my green beans keep getting struck by mildew, so I have been trying to grow it in different locations (with no luck thusfar).

I do find that I have to pick and choose different species of lettuce (like Mark mentions) as the ones that need to grow a whole head just don't grow well around here. And loose leaf varieties still taste good.
 
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