Wednesday, May 25, 2016

What's Planted In My Veggie Garden

It might not look like much yet, but there's a whole lot going on in this little crooked country veggie garden of mine! 

Today I thought I'd share with you what I've planted this year in my veggie garden. This will be a great record from year to year of what works and what doesn't. Which is fabulous, since my memory isn't the best!

A couple of these items have been planted only in my garden OR my sweetie's garden, but most of them are in both gardens, for a double yield. The dry beans, garlic, celery, and kalettes are in my garden only, the string beans and beets are in his. 


The garlic was put in last fall, and some of it succumbed to the bizarre winter we had. So there has been more planted this spring, for quite the mixed variety of unknown origin. 

It's all good - I love all types of garlic!


It's happy. That's all that matters. 

Descriptions for the rest have been taken from Johnny's Selected Seeds for the most part, which is where I ordered all my seeds this year. 

99.9% of the items in the garden were started from seed, in my utility room. Or direct sowed into the garden. The kalettes were an exception as they were purchased at a local organic market. 

Not too shabby for a girl from New York City, eh? 

Everything has been planted....now bring on the sunshine and the sweet spring rains!

White Cherry Tomato
Appealing, pale yellow cherry tomatoes average 15-20 gm. and have a good, mild taste. Plants are compact and easy to pick. 

Sun Gold Tomato
Intense fruity flavor. Exceptionally sweet, bright tangerine-orange cherry tomatoes leave customers begging for more. Vigorous plants start yielding early and bear right through the season. Tendency to split precludes shipping, making these an exclusively fresh-market treat. The taste can't be beat. 
Marbonne Tomato
Superlative flavor and appearance. Marbonne is a hybrid version of the long popular French heirloom Marmande, but with improved disease resistance and vigor. Beautiful, deep red, ribbed tomatoes are borne on healthy plants. Flavor is among the best with smooth, soft texture. 
Valencia Tomato
Sunny orange fruits with full tomato flavor. Round, smooth fruits average 8-10 oz. Their meaty interiors have few seeds. This midseason tomato is among the best for flavor and texture. Our own selection of a Maine family heirloom with a Spanish accent. 
German Johnson Tomato
More vigorous, higher yielding Brandywine type. Excellent flavor. Deep pink tomatoes are earlier, more uniform, and slightly smaller than Brandywine at 8-16 oz. Fruits have lots of deep, acidic tomato flavor and a rich, creamy texture. 
Vermont Cranberry Dried Bean
Very large beans for soups and baking. Long, avg. 6", bright red-mottled pods are borne on large, upright plants. The shelled beans are oval, medium-sized, plump, red and pink streaked. This old-time Northern New England variety can also be grown for shell beans. Mild flavor. 
Cannellini Dried Beans
For fresh shell or dry bean use. We offer the variety 'Gentec 401'. Heavy yields of attractive, white kidney beans. Pods avg. 5 1/2". Large, upright, bush plants keep beans off the ground. Excellent eating quality both as a shell or dry bean. 
Fortex Bean
Early, dependable pole bean with an extended harvest period. Growing to over 11", Fortex produces extra long, round pods. Early and very productive, the beans may be picked at 7" in length for extra slender, "filet" beans. Dark green, firm-textured pods are completely stringless and delicious at all lengths, even after the seeds enlarge. 
Nelson Carrot
Consistently sweet, early variety. Nelson is reliable and widely adapted. A favorite for early sowing and harvest during warm and hot weather, when growing sweet carrots is most difficult. The 5½-6½", cylindrical, blunt roots are very smooth, brittle, tender, and crisp with deep orange color. 
Bolero Carrot
Ideal storage carrot. Medium-long, 7-8", roots are uniform, thick, slightly tapered, and blunt, with a medium core and average internal color. The flavor is good fresh, and tops the charts after long-term storage. A great choice for fall and winter harvest. 
Rainbow Carrot
Colored carrot mix. The flavor varies a bit with root color, but all are tender, sweet, and flavorful. 7-9" tapered roots with strong tops. 
Sienna Peas
Most flavorful midseason variety. Sienna's vines are relatively short but set heavily for a high yield potential. Attractive pods avg. 3 1/2" long and contain 7-8 peas. 28" vines may be grown with or without support. 
Sugar Sprint Peas
An almost stringless snap pea with excellent eating quality. Flavor as good as Sugar Ann. Diminished strings do not require removal before eating, making preparation faster and easier. 3" pods grow on 2' vines that can be grown with or without support. 
Ace Pepper
Huge yields of medium sized 3-4 lobed fruits. Has apparent tolerance to blossom drop as nearly every flower produces a pepper. Widely adapted but performs particularly well in cool climates where bell peppers are difficult to grow successfully. 

Joe's Long Cayenne Pepper
Long, slender cayenne with medium heat. Bright red fruits are excellent for homemade hot sauce and dry well for ristras and delicious, dried hot pepper flakes. The 8-10" long, thin-fleshed fruits taper to a skinny point. 
Goddess Pepper
Sweet banana for pickling or fresh eating. Long, thick-walled, smooth fruits are borne on large plants. Avg. 8-9" long, the fruits are mild when yellow and moderately sweet when they ripen red. 
Carmen Pepper
Best tasting Italian frying pepper. A beautiful pepper of the Italian "bull's horn" (corno di toro) type from Johnny's plant breeders Janika Eckert and Rob Johnston. Carmen has a lovely, sweet taste for salads and roasting, especially when partially or fully red-ripe. Tapered fruits avg. 6" long x 2 1/2" wide, 5 oz. (142 gm), and ripen from green to deep carmine red. 
Calliope Eggplant
Small white and purple variegated fruits. Calliope is a beautiful, oval, Asian-style eggplant. Suitable for baby (2" long by 1 1/2" diameter) or mature (3-4" long by 2 1/4-2 3/4" diameter) harvest. High yielding, even in the North. 
Olympian Cucumber
High yields over a long harvest season. Broad disease resistance. Olympian's beautiful, dark green, straight, 8-9" fruit are crisp with fresh flavor. 
Gentry Squash
Outstanding yields even in the hottest weather. Dependable producer of smooth, butter-yellow squash of excellent quality, even in stressful conditions. 

Alexandria Squash
Mid-East type squash with excellent flavor. Alexandria has the classic color and blocky, bulbous look that is popular in parts of the Middle East. Better flavor than most other squash and zucchini. 
Sunshine Winter Squash
Stunning, scarlet fruit. Tender flesh is smooth, sweet, and bright orange for baking, mashing, and pies. Deep scarlet fruits are slightly flat-round, avg. 3-5 lb. Vigorous, short vine. Sunshine's appearance and eating quality are superior to other varieties of this type. 
Carioca Lettuce
Dark red summer crisp with good flavor. Carioca produces dense, upright heads with dark red leaves with green centers. For Spring, summer, and fall crops. Compliments Nevada in both size and shape, and flavor is good even in the heat of the summer. 
Monte Carlo Lettuce
Dark green, compact romaine for mini and full size heads. Unique growth habit with savoyed leaves forming in a whorl. Very attractive, uniform plants that are extra dark green. Dense heads can be harvested at a mini size or slightly larger. Creamy centers with great flavor. 
Rhazes Lettuce
Dark red leaves with a bright green heart. Very uniform and slow to bolt. 
Edox Lettuce
Edox is suitable for spring, summer, and fall. 
Premium Greens
An amazing palette of greens and reds in an array of leaf shapes and textures. The flavors are equally diverse: spicy to mild to slightly sweet. This mix includes Red Mustard, Green MustardChinese CabbagePac Choi, and Tatsoi
Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix
A specially designed blend based on two years of trial research to make your salad mix stand out from the crowd. Selected varieties yield darker reds and greens even under low-light conditions. Ruffled edges and unique leaf shapes provide loft, interesting texture, good shelf life, and fancy appearance. Includes Green Oakleaf, Red Oakleaf, Green Romaine, Red Romaine, Lollo Rossa, and Redleaf lettuces. 
Space Spinach
Tried and true variety. Medium dark green leaves are upright and smooth to slightly savoyed. 
Kalettes
The inspiration behind Kalettes came from a desire to create a kale type vegetable which was versatile, easy to prepare and looked great. The result is a truly new vegetable with fantastic flavor which combines the best flavors from brussels sprouts and kale, resulting in a fresh fusion of sweet and nutty.
Tango Celery
Tango is as adaptable as Conquistador, but the flavor is better and the stalks are more tender and less fibrous. The plant is also a few inches taller. Tango performs well under less-than-ideal growing conditions such as heat or moisture stress. 
Roxanne Radishes
Heat tolerant and reliable. Roxanne, like Rover, has the ability to produce good crops of round radishes, with very few ovals, in warm weather. It also has performed well in the spring and fall.  
Red Ace Beets
The best all around red beet. Round, smooth, deep red roots grow rapidly and uniformly. Sweet and tender, even when older. 
King Richard Leeks
Remarkable earliness and size. Beautiful full-sized leeks. In favorable soil and culture, the white shank are over a foot long to the first leaf. Medium green leaves with full habit. For baby leeks, plant closely (40 seeds/ft.) and harvest at finger size. While not hardy enough for overwintering, it will withstand medium-heavy frost (32° to 20°F/0° to -7°C) without losing its healthy appearance. 
Evergreen Hardy White Onion
The most winter hardy bunching onion. Sow in spring for summer use or sow in fall for overwintering. Little or no bulbing. If your winters are severe, this is the one to grow. May be handled as a perennial by dividing the clumps the second summer to produce a new crop. 
Redwing Onion
Superior red color, long storage. Uniform, large onions with deep red color. Thick skin, very hard bulbs for long storage. Consistent internal color. 

22 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, you will be eating well indeed! I have never heard of kalettes before and am curious to know how you like them. I grow regular kale here and need to get the new ones planted because the ones that overwintered all bolted when we had the freaky hot weather.

    Enjoy!

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    1. I've never heard of them either and I couldn't resist when I saw them!

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  2. I love all the wonderful things in your garden. My favorites are the peas and yellow squash. Yummy. You have done a lot of hard work..no wonder your muscles were achy honey. Blessings, xoxo, Susie

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    1. I think my favorites are the tomatoes. Oh my, a good home grown tomato just beats all, doesn't it?

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  3. Oh how you will be reaping sweet sweet rewards for all your hard work! Great job! I have not heard of kalettes, but am now intrigued! As of last night, most of the plants are in my garden (in containers)...I can't dig (or draw) a straight line so need hubby to string a straight line for me ;-)

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    1. Woo hoo, you're ready to get busy planting for sure! Are these the egg shell seedlings?

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  4. That's a wonderful garden indeed. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. I, too, had never heard of kalettes. I hope you have a bumper crop of everything this summer. Mine garden is smaller and it's crooked, too. lol

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    1. I hope I have a bumper crop also - mmmmm home grown veggies, yummmm!!

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  5. Wow, what an ambitious plan, but you'll have a lot of great meals! I am hoping my two little tomato plants produce some tomatos, and that the lettuce that is coming up flourishes for weekly salads. I have two broccoli plants, a yellow squash and a zucchini, all in the early stages. Hope is eternal with gardens!

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    1. SO true, Carole, so true....and I hope the critters leave me some and don't eat all my crops!

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  6. I LOVE veggie garden posts! I have been reduced to container gardening, alas, but I still get a rush with every planted seed.

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    1. Container gardening is not a bad thing for sure, Pattie - it's a lot less work than in the ground digging up giant rocks!

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  7. Oh my goodness, you sure are growing a lot of veggies! I can't wait to see how they all do in your garden. We have tried a little bit of everything over the years and we haven't had much luck, so now we just basically stick with greens (grown in pots) and tomatoes.

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  8. Ive never heard of a scarlet fruit.
    Lisa

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    1. I never tried that form of winter squash before but I couldn't resist the description, Lisa!

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  9. Everything looks so yummy! I need to copy down the varieties you listed. The lettuce that is slow to bolt is one of the plants I need to check out. The kalettes are another plant that was unknown to me. I had a delicious kale salad at Ted's Montana Grill and the recipe could be duplicated. Speaking of kale, some seeds were dropped in hub's greenhouse and grew all winter long. One plant was taller than me. xoxo

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  10. What a great garden you will have! Good for you starting so much from seeds!! Nancy

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    1. This is the first time I've started so much from seeds, Nancy, and I really loved it!

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  11. oooo, so exciting! *Does the garden dance*. Can't wait to see all the baskets of veggies you'll be picking! We still need to plant our Summer crops outside, just anxious about the weather! Also, jealous of your celery, we forgot to add it to our seed list this year and couldn't find any starters nearby, will make sure to try next year!

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    1. You may be able to find some celery up near your new land....I bought some last year and the year before at a local country store.

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