What new varieties are you dreaming about this year?

With many of us drooling over seed catalogs right now and putting in seed orders, I thought it would be fun to list some of the things you are the most excited about.

Last year my idea of "variety" was checking out Home Depot, Lowes, AND Wal-Mart Oh, what a world I've discovered since then!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Bakers Creek got me to order um, well, let's just say possibly more packets of seed than I have squares

Here are a few I'm really excited about:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/jun/tatume.html
Tatume squash: the supermarkets down here have it all the time and it's from this area, so it should do really well...I hope...since all my squash plants always get sick and die. One article I read called it "practically bombproof"

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/peppers/sweet-peppers/bell/pepper-sweet-tangerine-dream-prod000838.html
Sweet Tangerine Dream pepper: Just looks really cool and in my experience the small peppers set better in the heat down here than the larger ones, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to grow this even into the summer (I'm growing bell peppers on my porch right now in containers so I can take them in if we get a freeze)

As for tomatoes, well, there are so many varieties I'm excited to try, but I'll tell you more after I find out if any of them work out for me!

What "new toys" are you getting this year?

Toys and books, I want I want I want!

I actually added a side bar on my blog of things I wanted to try this year. I had fun with the artichoke Ray got me for mother’s day last year that I ordered a pack of purple artichokes to try from seed.

I have never grown fava beans before, I've been afraid to try them since watching Silence of the Lambs, but I have put in an order for two different types. The apparently well known Windsor and a dark seeded kind are both on my order. It must be the year of the legume. I am also ordering cranberry beans and borlitti beans. My aunt used to have a row of beans for drying every year. The economy says it is time to do so again. I also have some fruit on my list but it won't be a square foot garden item (pink blueberries !!)

Deborah….whose artichoke is covered with shredded paper in case we actually get that snow that is predicted. (good topic ellie)

So many choices.... where to start....

I'm going to try okra... figured I should now I'm south (I think... it's still a debate). This year I hope to wrestle a few of my tomatoes from the tobacca horn worm... I now know when to plant my cold crops so I hope to see peas, kale, and spinach.. oh my!!

For new stuff.... scarlet runner beans on a new trellis I'm setting up. She'll grow along with strawberry spinach, birdhouse gourd and luffa gourds.

I love trying new stuff and when those seed catalogs come.... well my husband would like to know when he's going to be seeing the savings I promised him by growing our own veggies

Way kewl Selandra....another gardener who speaks of "her" and "she" when talking of plants in the garden!

Strawberry spinach is also on my try-it list. It sounds like she has dandelion like roots and that worries me just a tad, but so does fava beans (times three or four) and they do not worry me.

Our plan is for two more rows of 2x8 beds. On graph paper they are already full even with two double rows for tomatoes and vines. I saw a ladder like trellis that will open to straddle the pots or the 2' boxes. My son tells me he can easily make a bunch that will not cost what one goes for in the catalog. In 30+ years of gardening I have only used trellises for peas. My mountain valley garden always had room for vines to sprawl wherever they would. I'm not exactly sure how a big pumpkin (not that I've been able to grow a full size pumpkin at the new place) will do hanging suspended above the ground. Cucumbers, yes, (white by the way, never grew those before though I have tasted some from the farmers market-yum!) but not squash.

Take your husband to a farmers market; let him see what fresh and local costs.
Deborah....hoping to do more canning this year

the new varieties i will be growing will be
several very old varieties
Melocoton
Delice De La Table Melon
Prescott Fond Blanc Melon
d'algers melon

Since I've recently returned from overseas, I'm starting from scratch. So I decided to grow ALL new veggies! : )




Chinese Five Color Hot Peppers


Suncherry Tomato


Black Tula
Tomato


Long Purple Eggplant


Stringless Green Pod Bush Beans


Stonehead Cabbage


Savoy
Express Cabbage


Early Wonder Beets


Green Magic Broccoli


Tigger Melons


Nutri Red Carrots


Silver Queen Corn


Persian Middle East
Cucumbers


Gourmet Salad Blend Lettuce


Mesculn Blend Lettuce


All Year Round Lettuce


New York
12 Lettuce


Small Sugar Pumpkins


White Lady Turnips


Red Creole Onions


Oregon
Sugar Pod Snow Peas


Sugar Ann Snap peas


Cash Flow Squash (Zucchini)


Papaya Pear Squash


Red Zebra Tomato


San Marzano Tomato (for sauce)


Sugar Baby Watermelon


Vera Lavender

It's all pretty new to me too. I started my SFG in the fall and did just ok. I'm excited about tiny watermelons and tiny cantaloupes. Oh... and currant tomatoes. I took some seeds from my basil that I pretty much ignored last year, I hope the seeds sprout!
I'm also excited about a sunflower forest for the kids to play in!

Hoping that 2011 will be the year of the 5# Zogola tomato ...





Oh the sandwiches I could make with these ...mmmmmmmm

I chose some new varieties this year specifically for their colors. I hope we get lucky and they taste good, too.

I'm excited to try these:

Golden Sweet peapods, a variety from India with yellow pods and purple flowers.

Alabama red okra

Moon and Stars yellow-fleshed watermelon

Purple kohlrabi

Sanguine Ameliore or Strawberry Cabbage lettuce

Several new tomatoes of all colors including Hillbilly, Mountain Fresh, Great White, Thessaloniki, Royal Chico, Jersey Giant, Chocolate Stripes, Missouri Pink Love Apple, Djena Lee's Golden Girl, and Monomakh's Hat.

Little Gem lettuce

Several new beans including bolita, greasy grits, and Dixie butterpeas

Whippoorwill field peas

ander217 wrote:I chose some new varieties this year specifically for their colors. I hope we get lucky and they taste good, too.

I'm excited to try these:

Golden Sweet peapods, a variety from India with yellow pods and purple flowers.
..snip....

I did those last year, wonderful and very pretty. Somehow I missed that they get over 5' tall, had to punt for support. 16 to a square kept us in pretty yellow snow peas all summer (but it was a chilly summer, maybe in a summer that is not so good for salad but hot for tomatoes would cut off pea production sooner)


May 30, 2010 PNW


June 14, 2010 PNW (You can see evidence of an unfolded folding tomato cage as emergency support)

Oh, thanks so much, Deb. Those photos are beautiful, and just what I'm hoping for.

I also missed the height requirement. Hmmm, I'd planned on planting them against the 3-ft. hog panels with the other peas - guess they'll have to go in with the pole beans now or maybe we'll add something for them to grow on as you did.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I'm going to branch out a bit this year, too -- I think I'm going to plant these:

http://www.willemsefrance.fr/plantes/graines-potager/legumes-de-a-a-z/tomates/tomate-rosso-cremlin-f1-type-sweet-100-r0942103935.html

We eat them like candy in the summer!

A pal sent me a packet of oxheart tomatoes, too...so that plus my Moneymakers from last year will leave me swimming in tomatoes...such a problem to have....

Lavender Debs wrote:they would. I'm not exactly sure how a big pumpkin (not that I've been able to grow a full size pumpkin at the new place) will do hanging suspended above the ground.

Actually my pumpkins did really great on the trellis, as did my cukes, birdhouse gourds, and acorn squash. My watermelon however, did not like the trellis so this year she is staying on the ground.




Here's my pumpkin, only had three this vine but then it was a very dry season and I think I planted too early.

That is encouraging Selandra! Thanks.

Selandra wrote:

Lavender Debs wrote:they would. I'm not exactly sure how a big pumpkin (not that I've been able to grow a full size pumpkin at the new place) will do hanging suspended above the ground.

Actually my pumpkins did really great on the trellis, as did my cukes, birdhouse gourds, and acorn squash. My watermelon however, did not like the trellis so this year she is staying on the ground.




Here's my pumpkin, only had three this vine but then it was a very dry season and I think I planted too early.

Howdy:

Like your's, my watermellon on the trellis did not do well. Those that spread from the trellis to the ground did well.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

elliephant wrote:With many of us drooling over seed catalogs right now and putting in seed orders, I thought it would be fun to list some of the things you are the most excited about.

Howdy Folks:

Along with several varieties of "normal" veggies I would like to try Naranjilla (from the Andes) and Pink Banana. Both are in the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

I really thought about the Pink Banana one, but didn't end up getting it. Maybe next year...my girls really liked the idea and I've got the right climate (last time I was at the zoo I noticed bananas growing in one of the exhibits)

Make sure that bananas are planted in a very protected location -- they need two years without frost to put out a bloom.

And stand back when they do...I had two bananas bloom at the same time....hooboy, do you eat a lot of banana bread and drink a lot of banana daquiris when THAT happens.

I received Chiapas Caorn Seeds from a friend as a gift so I am going to give them a try in one of my squares. I can't plant it untill we stop getting frost and it warms up a bit. Not sure if it is edible corn or just for grinding. I will keep you posted. Here is a link to there website
http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/english/store/catalog.html?producttype=Coffee,%20corn,%20and%20agricultural