Have you ever tried watermelons?

I tried sweet corn this year and it was a waste of space. I did like the look of the corn plants and now they are decorations for Halloween. Besides that, I wish I had put in more tomatoes instead. If you want to try for yourself, I can send you my sweet corn seeds as I won't be planting them again.

Tall things for the back of the garden.......hmmm

Pole beans, trellised (cucumbers, tomatoes, peas), yacon, okra.

I planted 8 watermelon plants. All set nice small fruits, but somehow the vines stopped growing in the summer and I left with several 6"-7" small melons. Still try to figure out why.

Definitely I'll consider some of the tall beans and trellised plans. Trellising is still my headache. Okra and Brussel Sprout are on the plan. I already planned another row for the tomatoes.

Tomatoes do seem to meet the stated requirements. Sunchoke is another more unusual option and requires zero care. It's also invasive, word to the wise.

An advantage to yacon is the tubers will not survive NJ winter and so will not be invasive.

Perhaps southern peas might fit what you're looking for. They aren't that tall (but aren't short either) and they fill in space.

Edited to add: You could plant popcorn instead of sweet corn.

Rodney

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Sat, Oct 25, 14 at 13:42

Yacon doesn't sprout from the tubers but from the rhizomes at the base of the plant which are easily contained. Unlike sunchokes, they rarely (likely never) become invasive even here in the mild PNW.

Again, I highly recommend them as they're easy to grow, taste delicious and are rarely found at the store or markets.

I've just changed the layout of my garden, a section for tall plants and one section for short plants. This solved my problem. Thx all.