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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Sweet Corn

  Denyse Cummins and Carl Motsenbocker

  Corn is a member of the Poaceae family, also known as the grass or cereal family, which includes wheat, oats, barley, rye, sugarcane and rice, as well as bamboo and many ornamentals, such as the lawn grasses. There are many types of corn that can be grown and used for human food although there are two major types: corn that is harvested when mature as a dried grain (field corn) and corn that is harvested immature as a vegetable referred to as sweet corn. Grain corn types include: popcorn, ornamental corn, flint corn, flour corn, waxy corn and dent corn. Dent corn, also called grain corn, is mostly grown in the United States. Sweet corn as a vegetable was introduced to Europeans in the 1700s.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Beet and Carrot

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Beets are members of the Chenopodiaceae (or Amaranthaceae) family, also known as the beet or Goosefoot family, which includes other cool-season crops like spinach, Swiss chard, orach and quinoa. The beet, or beetroot, is an ancient crop dating back to 2000 B.C. Beets were likely domesticated in the Mediterranean region, taken to Babylonia around the eighth century B.C. and introduced into China in 850 A.D. The Romans ate beets in the 3rd and 4th centuries, as they were believed to promote good health.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Blueberries

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Blueberries are a member of the Ericaceae family, also known as the Heath family, which also includes cranberries and huckleberries along with thousands of other flowering plants like rhododendron, azaleas and heather. Characteristics of this plant family often include tolerance to acidic soils and flowers that produce a berry. The blueberry shrub is a deciduous shrub and one of the few fruit crops native to North America, existing in the wild for thousands of years. Blueberries were commonly harvested, dried and stored by Native Americans, and the entire plant was said to be used for medicinal purposes. European colonists learned how to grow and care for blueberry plants from the Native Americans, but domesticated blueberries have only been grown since the early 1900s.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Broccoli and Cauliflower

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Broccoli and cauliflower are herbaceous plants (meaning they have nonwoody stems) and are widely adapted throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world. They are closely related members of the Brassicaceae family, also known as the cabbage family, which includes other cool-season cole crops like cabbages, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, collards and radishes. Cole crops can tolerate frost, are generally hardy and mature in cool weather. The name broccoli came from the Italian word “brocco,” meaning “shoot,” which refers to sprouting broccoli. The name cauliflower is believed to have been derived from the Italian word “cavolfiore,” meaning “cabbage flower.”

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Cabbage

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Cabbage and Chinese cabbage are members of the Brassicaceae family, also known as the cabbage, mustard or crucifer family, which includes other cole crops like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, kohlrabi and radishes. Both cabbage and Chinese cabbage are cool-season, frost-tolerant crops that are widely adapted to temperate and subtropical regions. The center of origin of cabbage is most often considered to be the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, the British Isles and Western Europe. Cabbage is thought to have been first grown by the Greeks for medicinal purposes over 3,000 years ago. Today’s cabbage varieties are likely derived from wild, nonheading cabbages with an origin in the eastern Mediterranean, although a perennial weed native to England and France may be a wild ancestor of cabbage.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Cantaloupe and Watermelon

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Cantaloupe and watermelon are members of the Cucurbitaceae family, also known as the gourd family. This family includes crops such as cucumbers, summer and winter squash, and gourds. Melon is a general term for a fruit produced by various members of this plant family and refers to netted and non-netted fruits, including the cantaloupe, muskmelon, honeydew and Asian melon. Cantaloupes are often referred to as muskmelons. Musk is a Persian word meaning “perfume,” which refers to the fruit’s musky, sweet fragrance. Most Americans use the word cantaloupe rather than muskmelon to describe this fruit.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Citrus

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Citrus trees are members of the Rutaceae family, also known as the Rue family, which includes mostly flowering woody trees and shrubs. Trees in this family produce citrus fruits, including popular crops for Louisiana, such as satsumas, oranges and kumquats (see Figure 1). Citrus trees cannot survive in areas that regularly freeze, so production is concentrated along the Gulf Coast, particularly in southern areas of Louisiana and Florida.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Cucumber

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Cucumbers are members of the Cucurbitaceae family, also known as the cucurbits or gourd family. The group includes crops such as winter and summer squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins and gourds. It is believed that cucumbers originated in India over 3,000 years ago and then spread to China, Greece, Italy and North Africa (see Figure 2). By the 9th century, cucumbers were grown in France, likely transported by the Romans. They were not documented in England until the 14th century. Cucumbers were then transported to the Americas during colonization, led by Columbus around the mid-1500s, and were grown in early Virginia and Massachusetts settlements. By 1650, cucumbers were grown in South America.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Eggplant

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  The eggplant is a member of the Solanaceae family, also known as the Nightshade family, which includes crops such as the Irish potato, tomato, tomatillo and pepper. The eggplant is thought to have originated in Asia (mainly parts of India and Burma/Myanmar), and the first record of this vegetable was from a 5th century Chinese book. The original eggplant was a wild plant with orange, pea-sized, spiny fruit — very different than the present-day eggplant!

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Leafy Greens

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Collards and kale are both members of the Brassicaceae family, also known as the cabbage family, which includes other cool-season cole crops like cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and radish. However, collards and kale are distinct from much of the cabbage family because they do not form heads; instead their leaves are harvested.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Lettuce

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Lettuce is a member of the Asteraceae family, also known as the aster or sunflower family, which includes crops such as globe artichokes and endive, but also garden ornamentals like sunflowers, dahlias, marigolds and zinnias. Cultivated lettuce likely developed from wild lettuce from the Mediterranean area of the Middle East and was first recorded in ancient Egypt around 2500 B.C. in tomb paintings but may have been as early as 4500 B.C. This original lettuce had two main types: one with much thicker stems (like celery) and another that produced seeds used for cooking oil. The stem lettuces (similar to present-day romaine lettuce) were documented in China between the 5th and 7th centuries.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Radish

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Radish is a root crop and member of the Brassicaceae family, also known as the cabbage family, which includes other cool-season crops like cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli and cauliflower. The name radish comes from the Latin word for “root” and a Greek expression that translates into “easily reared.” Western Asia (likely China) is considered the country of origin for the wild form, and it was first recorded around 2000 B.C. in Egypt. Radishes were especially popular and highly regarded with the Greeks. The original radish was probably larger and slow-growing, similar to Daikon radish.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Snap Beans, Bush and Pole

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Snap beans are legumes and members of the Fabaceae family, also known as the Pea family, which includes other warm-season beans, peas, lentils and peanuts, along with many other plants, shrubs and trees. This crop is thought to have originated in the Latin American countries of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. Snap beans thrive in these sandy clay soils and have been grown in Mexico for over 7,000 years. However, there is evidence that snap beans may have been cultivated much earlier in Peru, as seeds were found with a mummified woman buried with pre-Incan artifacts.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Squash, Summer and Winter

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Summer and winter squash are members of the Cucurbitaceae family, also known as the gourd family, which includes crops such as cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon and gourd. The species Cucurbita pepo includes most summer squashes (scallop, yellow crookneck, yellow straightneck and zucchini), winter squashes (acorn, delicata and spaghetti), and field and pie pumpkins and gourds. This is the most diverse species in the Cucurbitaceae family in terms of fruit appearance, size and flesh color.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Strawberries

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Strawberries are part of the Rosaceae family, also known as the rose family, which includes the ornamental rose, along with apples, almonds, blackberries, cherries, pears and raspberries. Members of this plant family include woody shrubs or trees, although strawberry plants are more herbaceous with a low-growing habit. Strawberry’s scientific name, Fragaria x ananassa, includes an ‘x’ to indicate its hybrid nature, in this case, of two different species.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Sustainable Gardening Planting Guide

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  How to use this guide: 1) Find your crop 2) If your crop is within the proper planting times for success, decide if you will direct seed or grow or buy transplants. Time required for producing transplants is given in weeks, as is how deep to plant if seeding in the field or trays and how far apart to put plants or seeds from neighbors within a row or the distance from rows of like plants. Days to Harvest informs when to expect to pick the first vegetable from a direct seeded or transplanted crop (in parentheses). Knowing the Plant Family helps with planning crop rotations to reduce potential future disease in the garden.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Sweet Pepper

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Peppers are likely native to the Oaxaca region of Mexico, where they are referred to as chiles, with evidence dating back to 5000 B.C. Peppers were also widely produced in Guatemala, and evidence of this crop’s presence in Peru was documented in 1609. They were transported by Spanish and Portuguese explorers and adapted to many different climates. Columbus discovered pungent (hot) peppers in the West Indies and coined the name “pepper.” By the 16th century, peppers were introduced to Europe but were not commercially produced in the southern U.S. until 1925.

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  Sustainable Gardening for School and Home Gardens: Tomato

  Johannah Frelier, Denyse Cummins, and Carl Motsenbocker

  Tomatoes belong to the Solanaceae family, also known as nightshades, which includes the Irish potato, pepper, tomatillo and eggplant. The first wild tomato plant had bright red, cherry-type fruit and is thought to be native to the Andes Mountains region of Peru and Bolivia. Tomatoes spread to South America and Central America by the natural migration of Indigenous peoples. Confined to the Americas for several thousand years, tomatoes were bred and selected for larger fruit that varied greatly in appearance. The plants were likely bred in Mexico beginning with the Aztecs and Toltecs. There it was traditionally companion planted with corn.