Okra is one of those interesting vegetables like Cowpeas that for some reason you seldom discover growing in backyard vegetable gardens. Also like those Black Eyed Peas, okra is more popular as a Southern specialty crop; however it will grow perfectly well even in Northern gardens. If you can raise tomatoes and peppers in your garden you should have no trouble growing a healthy and productive crop of okra.

Celery is a vegetable plant that is often excluded from the home garden because of its reputation for being demanding and difficult to grow. But in exchange for the effort home grown celery will reward you with flavor and nutritional value that surpasses that of the commercial varieties found at your local grocers.

Rhubarb is an interesting perennial vegetable that offers an ornamental appeal with its bright red stalks and huge elephant ear sized leaves. While it doesn’t win many popularity contests when it comes to eating or preparing this vegetable, I always grow a plant or two in the garden.

You’re probably sitting there asking “what could possibly be so exciting about any summer squash?” Well, if you’ve limited your gardening to the typical zucchini and crookneck squash varieties, then there’s a lot that you may find interesting and exciting about some of the less common summer squashes.

Okay, there’s really no vegetable called Mock Broccoli that you’ll find in any seed catalog or gardening book. I made the name up, but it perfectly describes the edible seed stalks that you can harvest right now from your raised bed of spring greens.

If you enjoy eating fresh peas but aren’t crazy about the idea of picking and shelling bushels of pea pods, then sugar snap peas may be the perfect vegetable to plant in your home garden. Sugar Snap Peas are delicious and just as easy to grow but eliminate the effort required to shell and prepare the peas for cooking.

Edamame is a nutritious vegetable that’s popular with commercial farmers, but hasn’t caught on with the home gardener. That’s unfortunate because edamame, more commonly known as green soybeans, are easier to grow and more productive than the popular lima beans found in many backyard gardens.
Reasons to Grow Edamame in the Home Garden
Soybeans are touted for their [...]

Kohlrabi is definitely a strange looking vegetable. It’s difficult to describe, so rather than try I’ll just attach a picture below. You’ll see what I mean; it looks like a baseball on a stem with leaves growing out of the top.
As unusual as kohlrabi looks, it’s very attractive and the purple color provides an ornamental accent to [...]