Your Crops

Vegetable is a term used to collectively refer to plants consumed in the human diet. The term vegetable is used arbitrarily and in a culinary fashion. It is only distinguished from fruits as fruits are almost always used to refer to plants whose product is sugary and produces seeds. The term "vegetable" is more commonly used in cooking than science. Some fruits are also commonly referred to as vegetables. The tomato makes this leap as it contains elements from both groups. It is not sweet to the taste, but it contains seeds. Some other examples of this would be rhubarb, pumpkin and the avocado. For the purpose of this book, we shall keep this culinary term as described here. Vegetables are divided into different types like leafy, stem, bulb, root and legume. Vegetables are also thought of as savory, not sweet. You should keep this in mind as we go through this section.

Listed below are some examples of vegetables from each category:
Leafy Vegetables
· Cabbage
· Collards
· Lettuce, and
· Kale

Root Vegetables
· Beetroot
· Carrot
· Ensete
· Ginger
· Gobo
· Jicama
· Maca, and
· Black cumin

Bulb and Stem Vegetables
· Asparagus
· Cardoon
· Celery
· Elephant Garlic, and
· Kurrat

Podded Vegetables (Legumes)
· Black-eyed pea
· Drumstick
· Fava bean
· Azuki bean
· Lentil
· Lima bean
· Pigeon pea
· Velvet bean
· Rice bean, and
· Runner bean

Fruiting and Flowering Vegetables
· Avocado
· Chile Pepper
· Parwal
· Snake Gourd
· Tomato
· Zucchini
· Sweetcorn
· Cayenne Pepper
· Cucumber, and
· Pumpkin

Seaweed Vegetables

· Ogonori
· Sea Grape
· Sea Lettuce
· Wakame
· Kombu, and
· Nori

This completes our list of vegetable categories and same samples from each. It is obvious that seaweed vegetables are not practical for your average garden. Follow the links at the top and the bottom of this page to review specific types of vegetables, growing needs and recommendations on each vegetable type.

Tomato / Corn / Potato / Cabbage / Collards / Turnips / Lettuce / Okra / Broccoli / Squash / Chile Pepper / Onions / Leeks / Garlic / Nuts: Honorable Mention