Gardeners, avoid making these vegetable planting mistakes

Q. Are there any vegetables that you do not recommend for the home gardener?

If you had unlimited space, there’s hardly anything you can’t grow here. You may have to wait until winter to grow those fancy lettuces, but you can still grow them here. 

Large yards are the rare exception in most of California, so most gardeners must focus on efficient use of their available space. Vegetable gardening is no exception. 

Artichokes are cool-looking plants with their gray-green spiky foliage and striking purple flowers. Once established, they can produce multiple spikes bearing the edible flower buds that are harvested, cooked, and dipped in copious amounts of butter. These plants can grow to 6 feet wide, making them a bit impractical for a small space. Before I knew better, I planted 2 artichokes in my garden, but the aphids promptly destroyed them and saved me from my folly.

Rhubarb grows very well in cooler areas, but it really hates intense sun and heat. It, too, can get quite large. I really wanted to grow it, so I kept buying and planting it until I found an acceptable location. After about 10 sacrificial plantings, we found a shady spot under the grapevine where it’s happy at least part of the year. Once the weather gets hot, it shows its displeasure but always comes back in the spring. Unless you really like rhubarb, I don’t recommend planting it here.

Corn needs a large, dense planting to produce acceptable ears. The kernels (seeds) only form with pollination, so if there’s not enough pollen available the ears will not fill out. We tried growing different types of corn through the years: sweet corn, popcorn, parch corn, ornamental corn. None of them produced acceptable ears. To add insult to injury, the local raccoons raided our garden, knocked down the stalks, and ate 90% of the ears. 

Horseradish root seems like a fun thing to grow. The plant grows well almost everywhere and will produce a large dense patch of raggedy-looking foliage. It is not a pretty plant and it’s almost impossible to get rid of. Realistically, how much horseradish do you need? A little bottle will last us over a year. Don’t grow horseradish.

Jerusalem artichokes are not artichokes (or even related to artichokes) but are members of the sunflower family. Sounds like a cute, cheerful, plant! Don’t be fooled. Jerusalem artichokes, like horseradish, are hard to get rid of. Just buy them from the grocery store when they are in season, and don’t forget to purchase some Beano. There’s a reason they’re called the “windy root”.

Epazote is an herb that is commonly added to beans in Mexican recipes. It is well-adapted to our hot, dry climate and grows well here. However, it produces millions of seeds and will easily take over if you are not diligent about removing the flowers.

I like to say that master gardeners are not necessarily better at growing stuff. We’ve just killed more plants and made more gardening mistakes so we can share our tales of gardening woes.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu