2014 seed list

So it's still 4 weeks or so away from starting my onion seeds, but I've got all but 2 packets of seeds I'm planning on growing in 2014 (combination of new packets and leftovers).  Here's my list, anyone see a favorite?

Tomato:  Sungold, Black Krim, Celebrity, Wisconsin 55, Golden Monarch, Purple Bumble Bee
Sweet Pepper:  Yummy Mix Mini Bell, King of the North Bell
Hot Pepper:  Serrano, Fish Pepper
Tomatillo:  Toma Verde
Lettuce:  Buttercrunch, Baby Green Oak Leaf, Red Romaine, Bronze Beauty, Flashy Butter Oak
Spinach: Space
Radish:  Champion and Rover
Cucumber:  Telegraph Improved
Summer Squash:  Lemon and Tatume
Pea:  Super Sugar Snap
Bush Bean:  Dragon Tongue and Blue Lake 274
Zucchini:  Green Bush
Carrot:  Calliope Blend
Garlic:  Chesnok Red and unknown softneck
Onions:  Copra
Broccoli:  Apollo, Asparabroc, and Purple Summer Sprouting
Misc:  Arugula, Corn Salad
Sweet Potato:  Patriot
Marigold:  Mowgli Bicolour
Herbs:  Thyme, rosemary, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, and summer savory
Might try one plant of Clemson Spikeless Okra (want to see if we'd like it grilled, someone at work suggested that method for cooking it)

I am impressed. I have looked at a seed catalog and some things online. I only have 2 - 4 x 8 boxes, but I really could lay out the squares and dream of warmer weather.

The idea of grilling okra is new to me. Here in the south it is usually fried or put into soup. And sometimes pickled. Has anyone else tried grilling?

I'll post back if we do a plant and grill it. I enjoy it fried @ BBQ joints when I'm in Oklahoma for work.

I haven't tried grilling okra but I have eat it just about every other way you can cook it...fried-yum!, in gumbo and soups, added in a pot of butter beans and crowder peas, stewed with tomatoes. But I have to say that our new favorite way to eat it now is roasted. It is so good so I'm sure grilling it would be good to. We drizzle it with olive oil and then add whatever seasonings that you like, sometimes we go spicy and sometimes not, just depends on what we are having with it.

Nice list btw, looks like a you are set to go for 2014!  

I planted one plant and got a single okra!!    I'm going to try 2 plants and see if I can get 2 okra this summer.    Only for DH

jms....I see a few on your list that I like; Sungold and Celebrity toms, Buttercrunch, Red Romaine and Oak Leaf lettuces, Apollo broccoli plus Arugula, and herbs Thyme, Rosemary, and Flat-leaf Parsley.  But the one I'll comment on is Super Sugar Snap peas.  They are superb.  I ate them all summer long, off the vine, and snacking in the evenings.  Everyone in the family just loved them.  Better than candy.
 
Unlike you, I can't make up my mind about what I'm growing this year.  I'm cutting down on the veggies (health reasons only) and making some hard choices this year.  I doubt I'll have a final list til they are actually growing in my beds but I'd really like to try Campari tomatoes.  Does anyone have any seed to share?  I have several great varieties I can swap with you.

I haven't been at this long enough to develop many favorites, but I've grown sungold tomatoes for three years and they were always productive and good. My neighbor who plants them in very rich soil full of compost gets them to taste so great they ascend to another level of deliciousness. They don't have that certain wild savoriness some rare cherry tomatoes have, being more on the sweet side, but they haven't been cloyingly sweet and at their best they develop rich and complex flavor.

sanderson wrote:I planted one plant and got a single okra!!      I'm going to try 2 plants and see if I can get 2 okra this summer.      Only for DH

With tomatillos I know they are not self-fertile, if you only plant 1 plant you'll get very little fruit. Does anyone that grows okra know if it self-fertile, meaning you can get good production from only 1 plant or are 2 or more necessary?

Marc Iverson wrote:I haven't been at this long enough to develop many favorites, but I've grown sungold tomatoes for three years and they were always productive and good.  My neighbor who plants them in very rich soil full of compost gets them to taste so great they ascend to another level of deliciousness.  They don't have that certain wild savoriness some rare cherry tomatoes have, being more on the sweet side, but they haven't been cloyingly sweet and at their best they develop rich and complex flavor.

Hear, hear.  Well said.

Have you tried saving seeds from them to plant the following year yet?  It worked well for me but I did notice a slight decrease in production.  It could have been due to planting them in 6" of MM instead of the original 10", or early blight which didn't happen the first time around, or them being hybrid, but I'm not sure which.  I'll use the same seeds again this year in the 10" box again and see how they do.

CC

And because I can't pass up trying new things I'm trying two new sprouting broccoli types: aspabroc (like broccolini) and summer purple sprouting broccoli. And Germain giant radishes too.

quiltbea wrote:But the one I'll comment on is Super Sugar Snap peas.  They are superb.  I ate them all summer long, off the vine, and snacking in the evenings.  Everyone in the family just loved them.  Better than candy.

Couldn't agree more! I'm jealous you can enjoy them all summer--by late June they are done here.

CapeCoddess wrote:

Marc Iverson wrote:I haven't been at this long enough to develop many favorites, but I've grown sungold tomatoes for three years and they were always productive and good.  My neighbor who plants them in very rich soil full of compost gets them to taste so great they ascend to another level of deliciousness.  They don't have that certain wild savoriness some rare cherry tomatoes have, being more on the sweet side, but they haven't been cloyingly sweet and at their best they develop rich and complex flavor.

Hear, hear.  Well said.

Have you tried saving seeds from them to plant the following year yet?  It worked well for me but I did notice a slight decrease in production.  It could have been due to planting them in 6" of MM instead of the original 10", or early blight which didn't happen the first time around, or them being hybrid, but I'm not sure which.  I'll use the same seeds again this year in the 10" box again and see how they do.

CC

I haven't saved seeds from them because sungold is a hybrid. Though I did see in one catalog a tomato said to have come from sungold and been bred to stabilize the qualities we like sungold for. I'm sort of curious about that.

One of my neighbors grows such great sungolds, and so many of them, that this year I won't grow any. I'll grow blondkopfchen and others, and we'll just trade what we grow.

My seed-saving plans this year were largely defeated by eating most of my stock anyway. I wasn't serious about it because I still have almost-full packets of most everything I planted this year. So tomatillos have been the only seeds I saved. My attempts to save brandywine seeds were foiled by a combination of blight and, er ... eating most everything.

Don't forget the Seed Traders Corner! If you are in search of (ISO) or have available (HA) seeds, you may post about them there.   

Sungold is my all time favorite snacking while out in the garden and our pet hen, Gracie, loves them.  She's lives apart from the other hens and is allowed to mess around in the garden till she gets too destructive.  Finished laying.

It took 4 days but I finally finished seeding 6 trays of 2" pots.  I thought I would list what I seeded, and WILL seed directly in a month, such as beans, corn, etc.  Or, from plants such as garlic and potatoes.  I've been gardening for 11 months and I'm hooked.  [Note:  If someone wants some samples, please post under the Seed Exchange or what ever the correct title is??]

Beans, bush: Dragon Tongue
Beans, pole:  Kentucky wonder, Chinese Red Noodle, Purple Podded, Rattlesnake
Bok Choy:  Ching Chang, Bonsia
Cabbage: Early Jersey
Cantaloupe: Iroquois, Hale's, Petit Gris de Rennes, Minnesota Midge
Carrots  Parisienne (nice looking greens!), Tendersweet, Little Finger
Celery:  Tall Utah
Collards:  Georgia Southern
Corn: Silver Queen, Golden Cross Bantam
Cucumber:  Straight 8, Marketmore, Crystal Apple, Lemon
Eggplant: Black Beauty, Astrakom, Thai Round Purple
Kale: Blue Curled, Vat's
Parsnip:  Half Long Guernsey
Peas: Melting Sugar Snow Peas
Pepper: Jalapeno, Cayenne, Poblamo, Red, yellow and green bells, Cubanelle Sweet, Jimmy Nardello, 4 from produce culls: Orange bell, a long green bell, a mystery red pepper, a long red hot chili
Radish: Cherry Belle, Pink Beauty
Soybean: Envy
Squash: zucchini Black Beauty, yellow straightneck, spaghetti, Lemon, Butternut Rogosa Violina Gioni, Baby green Hubbard, Winter Canada crookneck
Swiss chard:  Ruby, large ribbed green, Rainbow
Tomatillo:  Verde
Tomatoes:  Arkansas traveler, Roma, Brandywine, Amish Paste,Yellow Pear, Cherokee purple, Beefsteak, San Marzano, Gypsy, Brandywine, and two un-named: a black tom and and orange tom

The usual herbs, plus: Cinnamon Basil, borage, capmint, catnip, lavendar, lemongrass, Stevia

Flowers: common ones, plus Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate