What not to grow your first year

Bulky crops hide whether you can water

Corn wants a block, not a row, and it is done in a weekend of raccoons. Winter melon and pumpkin will occupy the whole bed and tell you nothing about your soil. Cauliflower is a timing puzzle that punishes a late spring.

A first year is a water-and-calendar test. Lettuce, radish, beans, a cherry tomato, basil, and a zinnia report back in weeks. Corn reports back in August, all at once, or not at all.

The heirloom trap

Brandywine is a 90-day tomato after a 6-week indoor start. In zone 6 that can work if you transplant on time and the nights cooperate. It does not work if you sow it in June because the packet was pretty.

Grow one flavor tomato in year two, when you already know your last frost by watching it, not by reading it.

What to skip on a balcony

Indeterminate beefsteaks, vining squash, sunflowers over four feet, and anything listed as 'needs a fence.' A 5-gallon bucket is a cherry tomato, a pepper, or a basil forest. It is not a homestead.