Garden Planning: First Seeds
What could be more fun than picking out your veggies, flowers, and herbs for the new gardening year? There may be no better way to overcome the mid-winter doldrums than to imagine your next garden and decide what to grow this year! You probably already have some old reliables in mind but how about trying some different varieties and some completely new plants to add some adventure to the season. Despite the calendar, now is the time to get your plans and seeds in order so you’ll be ready when spring arrives. Further, unlike “normal” times, this year is going to be especially challenging to get just what you want to plant. Some popular seeds and varieties are already “out of stock” and at least two major seed companies are restricting sales! Let’s look at some recommendations for local conditions so you can get the seeds you want.
My previous article discussed how to choose what to plant, now let’s look at some specific recommendations for local gardens. If you’re still undecided, here is a nice list of Easy-to-Grow Vegetables in Vermont. Of course, if you aren’t into starting your own seedlings but prefer ready-to-plant seedlings then you have time to think. Two big disadvantages to buying seedlings is that the best varieties are rarely available from nurseries and the costs are much, much higher. Perhaps more critically, this year looks like it will be especially difficult to get what you want due to high demand. Seeds are already selling out from major companies.
Everything I suggest here is based on about 10 years of gardening in Mount Holly (1,750 ft. elevation, southern exposure, acidic, clay soils). I practice organic methods (no chemical fertilizers or synthetic pesticides) on no-till (no rototiller needed!) raised beds. Soil conditions and microclimate are very important to plants so your garden will probably have some differences from mine. Please note, there are many other excellent varieties available, these are the ones I have had good luck with:
Vegetables Variety
- Arugula Ice-Bred – cold tolerant, slow to bolt, spicey
- Beans (pole): Fortex – great producers, delicious long pods
- Beans (bush) Provider – vigorous, high yields
- Beet Red Ace – great fresh or pickled
- Broccoli Fiesta – primary head & many small heads
- Broccoli DiCicco – standard old variety
- Broccoli Tendergreen – nice heads and secondary heads
- Broccoli Green Super – excellent primary heads
- Cabbage Storage #4 – late season, firm heads
- Cabbage Ruby Perfection – reliable, red cabbage, stores well
- Cabbage Kaitlin – late season, good for sauerkraut
- Carrot Bolero – reliable yields, sweet, tasty, good storage
- Carrot Napoli – early, can over winter for spring harvest
- Carrot Purple Haze – purple outer, orange inside, showy slices
- Carrot Yellowstone – high yield, large, less sweet
- Cauliflower Snowbowl – reliable yield, big heads, flavorful
- Cucumber Suhyo long – long English type, very flavorful
- Cucumber Cross Country – short pickling cukes
- Cucumber Marketmore 76 – high yield, standard cukes
- Kale Red Russian – delicious, nutritious, cold hardy
- Kale White Russian – delicious, nutritious, cold hardy
- Lettuce Buttercrunch – reliable, small heads, delicious
- Lettuce Mesclun mix/blend – flavorful, spicy mix, very productive
- Onions Ailsa Craig – huge, sweet, juicy, store well
- Onions Patterson – medium size, yellow, long storage
- Peas (snap) Sugar Ann – early, smaller, good yield
- Peas (snap) Sugar Snap – larger, very tasty
- Pepper (sweet) King of the North – large, blocky, ripen early, high yield
- Pepper (sweet) Ace/ New Ace – early, high yield
- Pepper (sweet) Lunchbox – tasty small fruits, orange is best
- Potato Green Mountain – high yield, white, good storage
- Potato Red Maria – red skin, high yield, store well
- Radish Cherry Belle – round, standard radish, fast growing
- Radish French – elongated, fast growing
- Spinach Space – reliable, high yield, compact, tasty
- Squash (summer) Spineless Zucchini – very high yield, good when large
- Squash (winter) Spaghetti – high yield, reliable, spread widely
- Squash (winter) Waltham – butternut, high yield, large, delicious
- Squash (winter) Delicata – delicious, medium size
- Sweet Potato Covington – good yield, large tubers, delicious
- Tomato Juliet – very reliable & high yield, multipurpose
- Tomato Big Beef – good disease resistance, delicious
- Tomato Sun Gold – sweetest cherry tomatoes, skin cracks
- Turnip Oasis – white, sweet, salad turnip
- Turnip Hakurei – white, sweet, salad turnip
- Turnip Gilfeather – classic, large Vermont cooking turnip
New England seed companies:
High Mowing Seed Company – Vermont based, all organic seeds, big selection.
FEDCO Seeds – based in Maine, good seeds, supplies, & tools, lower prices
Johnny’s Selected Seeds – based in Maine, organic & non-organic seeds, huge selection
Maine Potato Lady – specialize in potatoes & onions
When to order? The sooner the better! This year seed companies are already running out of the most popular varieties and are limiting orders. If you don’t want to be forced to accept the leftover, cheap seeds at a big box store order soon.
Who is your favorite seed company? What did you learn in your garden last year? What are you going to do differently this year? Please share your lessons learned. Leave a message in the Comments below.
One thought on “Garden Planning: First Seeds”
We continue to follow and enjoy your postings. Thanks so much! In response to your request for input on successes in our Belmont garden, I’d like to offer the following:
Pepper – shishito – wrinkly, small, flavorful grilling pepper. Produced a ton with added bonus that 1 out of 10 peppers turns out spicy.
Cucumber – Poona Kheera- blocky, yellow turning russet brown when ripe. Retains crunch, flavor even when ripe. Very hardy plants and a high producer.
Also, we’d love some guidance on when best to start seedlings indoors for transplant for peppers and Ground Cherries (which are fun to plant and do well here also).
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