Nah, I wasn't a die-hard about the cukes, squash and melons. Only took me a couple of years of bug battles to give up trying to grow those. Now, we plant a few 'sacrificial' squash plants at the school just to show the kids how many bugs and caterpillars come to them, and of course to illustrate the powdery mildew lesson. At school, it's what we can teach, not how much we harvest that counts. You should see the kids go nuts when we show them how to find the bean leaf rollers! No need for spraying when you have 20 kids hunting down your bugs and caterpillars.
The kicker was that even when I DID harvest some, they really weren't that much better than what I could buy, so that became my bench mark. If I can grow it, and it tastes better than what I can get in the store, I grow it. Tomatoes, all colors of peppers and beans, white eggplant that look like eggs, cabbage, broccoli (the Star!!) and the pretty colorful cauliflowers, plus this year I'm trying different colors of carrots as well. I also like to grow all the weird colors of veggies that you can't buy very often.
Just got some seeds today from Tomato Grower's Supply, Sweet peppers called "Sunset" that start out ivory, and shade through yellow and orange to red.
It's the cardinals that go after my tomatoes, occasionally. I just got a few yards of bridal veil netting and that deterred them just fine. It helps that my two bird feeders are right next to the veggie area. If it's too hard to get at the maters, they go back to seeds happily.
I even managed to grow celery one year, although it does take a long time. It was delicious, and really, REALLY green! When I first harvested some, I still had store bought celery in the fridge, and it looked like "ghost" celery beside the fresh stuff. Insipid pale green, you just know there's no 'good stuff' in it.
