What do I grow in my gardens? Lots. Here is a list of vegetables I plant every year.
I plant with the goal of feeding my family year round. I plant what we eat and we eat what I plant. I plant a lot of different vegetables. Each thrives under slightly different conditions and conditions in the Hudson Valley vary wildly from year to year. Diversity guarantees we have plenty of food because something always does well.
I like to try new varieties. Often I grow them side by side with my old favorites so I can compare. Every once in a while one of the new varieties is added to my list of favorites. Flavorburst Peppers made my list this year.
| Days to | |||
| Vegetable | Variety | Maturity | Comment |
| bean | Rattlesnake, pole, CMB resistant | 65 | Green string bean with purple markings. Great raw when young, great flavor any time, develops strings with maturity. |
| bean | Jacobs Cattle, bush, dry | 83 | White with maroon markings. I use them for chili. |
| bean | Soy edamame | I love edamame, but I haven’t settled on a favorite variety. | |
| beets | sping variety | 51 | I always plant beets but haven’t settled on a favorite. |
| cabbage | Early Jersey Wakefield | 70 | For harvest in July. Heirloom, forms conical head, tasty. |
| carrot | Bolero F1. resists Cercospora & Alternaria blights | 75 | For winter storage. Gets sweeter in storage. |
| carrot | Red Cored Chantenay | 75 | Heirloom. Conical, broad shouldered shape good for heavy soil. Good in the fall. |
| carrot | Yaya | 60 | For summer eating, sweet & crispy. Less dense than the others. |
| celeriac | Brilliant | 100 | Knobby root is used in cooking instead of celery. |
| chard | Bright Lights | 60 | Beautiful, use any way you’d use spinach. |
| cucumber | Marketmore 76 | 68 | Reliable & tasty. |
| cucumber | Straight 8 | 58 | Reliable & tasty. |
| Kale | Winterbor | 65-80 | A frilly, deep green kale. About half the plants will over winter and produce leaves for early spring salads. |
| kohlrabi | Kolibri Hyb | 43 | Always successful, even in my part-shade garden. |
| lettuce | Pinetree lettuce mix | 40-60 | Interesting mix of shapes and colors. |
| lettuce | Cimmaron | 65 | Heirloom. A sturdy, tasty red leaved Romaine. |
| Melon | Moon & Stars | 105 | Big melons, crisp & juicy, with big seeds. Family favorite because it is not excessively sweet like some of the modern hybrids. |
| onion | Evergreen Bunching | 65 | Scallions. |
| onion | Copra | 107 | Excellent for storage, still keeping without sprouting as of 1/18 |
| onion | Yellow Stutgarter | Easy, sets readily available. Stores until early Dec. | |
| Parsley | Italian | Italian parsley has better flavor than curled. | |
| Parsnip | Hollow Crown | 110 | We don’t eat a lot of parsnips, but I like them in a winter stew. I’ve tried others, but Hollow Crown seems to germinate the best. |
| peas | Oregon Sugar Pod II | 68 | Thick, meaty pods on these snow peas. |
| peas | Sugar Snap | The original 7′ tall Sugar Snap pea has the best flavor but shorter varieties are much more managable. | |
| pepper | Carmen F1 AAS | 60 | A bull’s horn pepper that ripens to red. Excellent sweet flavor eaten raw at full color. |
| pepper | Flavorburst | 70 | An orange bell. The best flavored orange pepper I’ve ever eaten. |
| Potato | Kennebec excellent storage, resists Late Blight | 70-90 | Tan skin, white fleshed baking potato |
| Potato | Yukon Gold excellent storage | 60-75 | Tan skin, yellow flesh, very tasty potato |
| radish | Cherry Belle | 21 | reliable |
| Spinach | Tyee (also for fall planting) | 42 | I grew 3 types side by side and Tyee had the most vigorous plants and bolted last. |
| squash | Rumbo | 100 | 15 pound squashes on a spreading vine. Stores well up to 5 months. Sweet orange flesh I use for soup and bread. |
| squash | Early Butternut | 75 | Although Early butternut is not a bush type, the vines are well behaved. C. moschata type – resists squash borers. |
| squash | Tetsukabuto F1 | 91 | 4-5 pound, ribbed green winter squashes on a spreading vine. Flesh is sweet, orange, somewhat dry. C. moschata type – resists borers |
| squash | Cocozelle | 50 | a zucchini type, medium green with white stripes, fruit grows rapidly. |
| sweet potato | Georgia Jets | 100 | Sweet, deep orange flesh, stores well |
| tomato | Sungold | 65 | Produces small, orange cherry tomatoes with fruity, well balanced flavor. |
| tomato | Mountain Magic, resistant to early & late blights | Very large, sweet red cherry tomato. Not much acid in the flavor. Important disease resistance. | |
| Edible flowers | |||
| Nasturtium | almost any blend | Companion plants to squashes, said to repel squash bugs. Pretty in the garden and on a salad plate. Peppery taste. |
Mary's Veggie Garden 