2011 Vegetable Varieties

It is always fun to see what fellow urban homesteaders have growing in their backyard. After carefully sorting through my many seed packets, I narrowed down the list of what we are growing. Here is a recap of the varieties I am planting this year:

• Arugula
• Beets, Early Blood Turnip-rooted (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants)
• Beets, Gourmet Blend (includes golden, Chioggia, Detroit Dark)
• Broccoli, Early Green
• Cabbage, Early Jersey Wakefield (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants)
• Carrots, Cosmic Purple
• Carrot, Royal Chantenay
• Spinach, Bloomsdale
• Kale, Red Chidori Hyrbid
• Lettuce, Buttercrunch
• Lettuce, Brown Dutch (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants)
• Lettuce, Mesclun Blend (includes Lolla Rossam Marveille de Quatre Saisons, Redina, Red Oakleaf, Red Salad Bowl, Rouge d’Hiver, Ruben’s Red)
• Radish, Cincinnati Market
• Radish, French Breakfast
• Radish, Icicle Short Top
• Strawberry, Alpine (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants)
• Tomato, Large Red (from Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants)

All of the seeds from Jefferson’s Monticello estate are growing together in the SE corner of the garden. They are from the TJCHP Kitchen Garden Sampler which I received as a gift from a super-sweet friend. I am really excited to try them out in our Pacific NW climate and see what these old time favorites end up looking like. Their names are so clunky too. Who would want to pick a “brown” lettuce off the garden store shelf?

I still have eggplant, more tomato and some pepper varieties to decide on. The plants on this list though are all now in the ground! Now comes the waiting game to see which ones pop their heads up first.