Growing Food: The Nopes

I have grown quite a wide variety of different vegetables in gardens over the years. Although it's always fun to experiment, now, as an older and wiser (and more tired) gardener, I have less patience to devote to things that are a consistent challenge or that I just don't like that much. 

I'm going for maximum food for minimum effort, true, but I also have no interest in having bushels of kale on hand, even though it's easy to grow, prolific, and long-producing. I just don't like kale much. So I don't grow it. Along with these things . . .

Swiss chard--I feel about swiss chard the way I feel about kale: I should like it, but I don't.

Ground cherries--I got a free packet of these with a seed order years ago and finally tried them a couple of years ago. I really wasn't fond of the flavor. Off the list and out of the garden.

Mushrooms--I actually really wish I could grow mushrooms, but it's way too dry here. I just don't have the perseverance necessary to keep an inoculated log damp in this climate. I can barely keep the drought-hardy plants watered.

This sun is no friend to mushrooms.

Broccoli--I do love broccoli from the garden. I do NOT love the cabbage worms that are inevitably in the broccoli from the garden. Even soaking in salt water won't get them all. They hide in the florets so well you don't see them until they're floating in the steaming water. Gross. After one too many meals featuring worms, I gave up. Actually, the breaking point was probably the time A. found a cabbage worm in his broccoli, and, to the delight of our toddler sons at the time, ate it.* Kind of ruined garden broccoli for me.

Onions--I never succeeded in getting onions of any reasonable size from the garden. And there are few things more irritating than having to peel and chop a dozen tiny onions just to have enough for a recipe. Give me those baseball-sized store onions every time. Although I am going to try some green onions this year. I like them in my salads, and they're stupid expensive (and perishable) to buy.

Celery--I never grew this myself, but I remember the MiL growing it a couple of years, and it was always much greener, tougher, and more bitter than store celery. I suspect the issue was lack of water. Since that issue is much more of a problem here than New York, I'm not even going to attempt celery in my High Plains garden.

Of course, the great thing about growing a garden is that you can grow whatever you want (and have the patience for). So while I think it's worth it to devote a bed to space-hogging kohlrabi and will persevere with watering beets, you might think those are a total waste of space and time.

So tell me, my fellow gardeners! What vegetables have you banished from your garden, and why?

* And then remarked drolly, "The worm tasted better than the broccoli." Such a card, that A.