Flowers in the Kitchen Garden

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

With seed orders complete and February coming to an end, I’ve been working on a planting calendar and planting plan for the garden year ahead. Deciding when and where to plant this year’s vegetables is always a pleasant late-winter task, but so is deciding when and where to plant flowers. Over the past few years, I’ve given more attention to this colorful side of the kitchen garden. All the green shades of vegetable foliage are beautiful, but so are bursts of color.

For years, rudbeckia had a place at the ends of the long rectangular beds that make up my kitchen garden. There were a few established plants that had overwintered but more often there were self-seeded new plants. I’d transplant these volunteers throughout the garden and looked forward to their bright yellows and rusty browns and oranges.

Nasturtiums occasionally found a place too, weaving through vines and stalks and leaving seeds to germinate the next year.

Then, some years ago, to add to the rudbeckia/nasturtium palette, I started planting zinnias and cosmos. A few years later, I added calendula, borage, sunflowers, new varieties of zinnia and cosmos. Now I can’t imagine the kitchen garden without all these blooms. Bees and hummingbirds love them and so do I.

Of all these blooms, the most fun have been zinnias. Not having grown them since I was a little girl, I was delighted to rediscover this timeless flower. There’s classic State Fair zinnia, large, double blooms in red, orange, purple, yellow, and pink growing to three feet tall, reminding me of childhood gardens. Fast forward to today, there’s the Queen Series, a new zinnia, a mix of double, semi-double and single blooms on plants that grow nearly four feet tall. The series includes Queen Red Lime, Queen Lime Orange and Queen Lime Blush. Red Lime has red to pink petals,

Lime Orange has orange to peach petals, Lime Blush has creamy to pink petals, and all have red centers surrounded by small, lime green petals. They are gorgeous. Territorial, Pinetree and Johnny’s all sell seeds of this great new zinnia.

Cosmos is a close second favorite to zinnia. While I like the classic Sensation Mix, their four-to-five-foot-tall plants are too tall for the kitchen garden. Instead, I plant the Sonata Mix because it grows only two feet tall but has the same classic blooms in whites, pinks and reds.

I also grow a cosmos from the Double Click Series, Double Click Cranberry, for its rich cranberry color and double and semi-double blooms. It pairs beautifully with the Queen zinnias. And this year, tempted by a catalog photo, I’m trying Uprising Seeds Chocolate cosmos, “long-stemmed, deep garnet, single and double velvety blooms.”

I start zinnias and cosmos in 2-inch pots indoors in late March and set out plants a month or so later. It’s been easy to take a foot from each end of the eighteen-foot garden beds and give these flower starts space and a place on the irrigation line. Throughout summer and into fall their blooms add to the already great pleasure of wandering the garden and harvesting vegetables. Some of these blooms fill a basket too, becoming bouquets for table and gifts to friends. On this cloudy, cold February afternoon, with snow flurries in the forecast, it’s wonderful to imagine summer flowers.

Seed Catalog Websites

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Over the years, seed catalogs and seed packets have been my quick go-to sources for planting advice. When to plant, how deep, how far apart, how long to germination and to harvest. The advice is always useful, and I still double-check these sources to be sure I haven’t forgotten some particular detail. Recently, though, I’ve found another source of advice that is even more useful: seed company websites. The websites of two of the bigger pacific northwest seed companies, Territorial Seeds and West Coast Seeds, contain the advice from their seed packets and catalogs, but they contain a great deal more advice because there is so much more space. And it’s all a click or two away.

I was prompted to explore West Coast Seeds website by emails from the company that showed up in my box with titles like “Seeds to Sow in February” and “Seeds to Sow in March.” Clicking on March, I opened a site with this introduction:

Below is a list of seeds to start in March. Seeds started in March will be ready for transplanting into the garden by the time the nighttime temperatures have warmed up in May. Other seeds actually benefit from cool weather and the risk of frost, and they are shown below for direct sowing in March.

Click on the links below for full planting instructions.

What followed were two lists of flowers, herbs and vegetables, one for seeds to start inside and the next for seeds to start outside. Both lists are useful, but the even better part is that clicking on any flower, herb or vegetable on the lists takes you to a page of information with everything you need to know about planting, growing, harvesting, diseases and pests. I’m a long-time kitchen gardener, but I learned something new or was reminded of something I’d forgotten from each article I explored.

You can access West Coast Seeds’ growing information for all vegetables, not just those to start in March, from this link: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/blogs/how-to-grow/tagged/category-how-to-grow-vegetables And this additional link takes you to their very useful planting charts https://www.westcoastseeds.com/pages/regional-planting-charts.

Territorial Seed Company has a similarly useful website. Their Growing Guides link to a planting calendar and to extensive planting, growing and harvesting information for each vegetable. The format is more table-like than the narrative format that West Coast Seeds uses but equally useful. They also offer a Garden Planner that I haven’t explored but that one day could replace all the sheets of paper I shuffle around each year.

Now that we’re a week past the Spring Equinox, indoor planting is underway with tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce for my kitchen garden growing under lights and in flats in the greenhouse, but as soon as the soil dries out a bit, outdoor planting can begin. I’m looking forward to using these websites for reminders, advice and encouragement. Happy Kitchen Gardening!

Kitchen Garden Year 2022

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Looking back on the 2021 kitchen garden year, what stands out are unusual extremes in the weather. A cool, dry spring was followed by a record hot dry summer, followed by a very wet fall and capped off by record cold and snow at the end of the year. I remember bemoaning the lack of warmth in late spring as summer crops weren’t thriving and then worrying about summer crops suffering from extreme heat as I acknowledged that I need to be careful what I wish for. Then there was the worry that fall rains, while good for hydrating summer beds for cover crop planting, were drowning fall and winter vegetables. And finally, there was the winter kitchen gardener’s anxiety over extreme cold killing rather than sweetening winter roots and greens. Kitchen gardeners always notice the weather, but this past year provided more than the usual opportunities to worry about it.

As 2021 ended in the ten-degree days and fierce winds of late December, I turned for comfort to 2022 and the garden year ahead. As I do every year, I began with an inventory of my vegetable seeds and then opened seed catalogs to find refills of favorites and read about enticing new varieties. As I considered what to plant for each season, the pleasure of remembering familiar vegetables and imagining new varieties carried me away from cold winter outside and into plans for spring, summer and fall.

One of my plans for the spring kitchen garden this year is to plant early and to plant more so we’ll have good crops of spring roots and greens for a much-anticipated family visit in June. I usually plant seeds outdoors around Earth Day, the third week in April, but this year, I may start some carrots and spring turnips a few weeks earlier in April, just to be sure to have lots to harvest in mid-June. I’ll also start some lettuce indoors to set out in early May. I’ll plant my usual lettuce mixes but also some romaine, Mayan Jaguar and Olga, for big, crispy salads. Finally, I’ve ordered seeds of Asian greens like Tatsoi, Chinese cabbage and Pac Choi for these adventurous eaters.

One plan for the summer garden is to plant enough bee-attracting flowers to pollinate summer and winter squash, cucumbers and other vegetables. In addition to ordering borage seeds to go with the calendulas that volunteer each year, I studied the sunflower offerings in various catalogs to be sure I ordered open-pollinated varieties. As I learned from this site “be sure to plant open-pollinated varieties that produce pollen. Bees need pollen for protein and to feed their larvae. There are a lot of varieties of sunflowers that lack pollen, popular among people who don’t want to clean up the pollen mess from cut flowers and for the allergy-prone.” I’ve ordered a Sunflower Mix from Pinetree “A phenomenal mix of open pollinated sunflowers. Tall and short as well as single and double varieties. Everything to delight you and all of your garden pollinators.”

Another plan for the summer garden is to plant vegetables that are most fun to share with others at picnics and outdoor dinners. Corn and tomatoes top the list. Last summer’s heat did result in amazing corn, for us and for friends. Corn on the cob, fresh corn salad with shishito peppers are always hits. Café is the corn variety I’ve planted the past few years and Takara Shishito produces loads of flavorful small peppers. Bowls of cherry tomatoes, red Sweet Million, Orange Paruche, purple Sunchocola and green of the delicious Green Doctors as well as plates of sliced tomatoes, red Dester and Momotaro, dark red Cherokee Purple, yellow Golden Jubliee all signal summer at the table. So do bowls of green and yellow pole beans and plates of roasted purple eggplant. Green Fortex and Nor’easter, yellow Golden Gate and Monte Gusto produce all summer as does beautiful purple Galine eggplant. Peppers complete the summer palate with red Carmen and Stocky Red Roaster, orange Etudia and yellow Flavorburst, delicious fresh or roasted. Summer vegetables are for sharing, and I’m hoping that we’ll have less isolation and more large gatherings in summer 2022.

For the fall and winter garden, I once again plan to have a good supply of seeds of hardy roots, brassicas and greens. These vegetables thrive in our marine winters, but they do need protection in cold spells like the one we just had. Before the deep cold of late December and early January hit, I covered the beds containing winter vegetables with extra hay, then tarps. Fortunately, the five inches of snow that fell provided another layer of insulation against the ten-degree nights. And knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get to these crops for a while, I harvested two weeks-worth of celery root, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, leeks, Brussels sprouts, carrots, radicchio and chicory before layering on protective coverings. As I studied seed catalogs for the year ahead, I was glad to have a fridge full of winter food even though I was anxious about what would survive the cold. The fridge is nearly empty now, and with the January thaw that has set in, I’m relieved to see that all the remaining winter vegetables survived the cold and will see us through the rest of the winter.

There will no doubt be more weather to worry about in 2022, but I have seeds and plans to see me through the next gardening year. And lots of meals ahead with family and friends.

Planting Plans and Crop Rotation

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Spring is a week old and cover crops in kitchen garden beds need turning soon, but what I really need to do right now is make a planting plan for 2021. Beans and peas, beets, carrots and fennel, cucumbers and squashes, spring turnips and radishes, corn are still in seed packets, and tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, onions, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower are growing indoors in pots and flats. Where will I plant each vegetable this year?

I have a paper layout of all the kitchen garden beds, twenty-one of them arranged in three groups of seven, each bed divided vertically into three sections for recording three years of planting. I also have a table where I’ve recorded what’s grown in the beds each year since 2001. It should be an easy process of looking at what I’ve planted in each bed for the previous three or more years, selecting the appropriate vegetable for that bed this year and entering it on the piece of tracing paper I place over the garden bed layout. Quick to describe, but not so quick to carry out.

Crop rotation is what gardening books and websites call the process I’m puzzling over as I make a planting plan. It’s the practice of planting vegetables in different beds or rows each year. Three reasons for crop rotation are to discourage insects that may have overwintered in the soil and could feast on the same plant again, to minimize build-up of diseases plants may leave in the soil over time and to improve soil fertility by alternating plants that take a lot from the soil with plants that return nutrients.

I know why I should rotate vegetables from bed to bed or row to row, but how I should carry it out is a yearly puzzle with lots of pieces. Fortunately, there are many excellent websites on crop rotation providing charts grouping all the vegetables I grow into their respective families and reminding me which families help each other and which don’t so much.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension Fact Sheet on Crop Rotation in Home Gardens is a helpful two-page document that defines crop rotation, describes why it is important, and explains how to do it. It also has an easy-to-use chart separating vegetables into their families and a printer-friendly version.

Seattle Tilth offers a short description of crop rotation that includes a useful sentence alerting gardeners to the disease susceptibility of several plant families:

Certain plant families are especially susceptible to specific diseases, including the cabbages (broccoli, cabbage, kale, and many more), the nightshades (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes), and the onions (leek and garlic).

These are the families that I pay particular attention to when I’m making each year’s planting plan. I do my best to avoid planting members of the same family in beds where other members of the family have grown in the past two or three years, but one vegetable requires me to modify the rules: tomatoes. I grow tomatoes every year in a greenhouse with permanent beds. My solution to the diseases that tomatoes can leave in the soil is to swap the dirt in the greenhouse beds with dirt from beds in the garden, avoiding beds where other members of the nightshade family have grown. A couple of afternoons with the wheelbarrow accomplishes this task and has worked very well for the twenty years we’ve planted tomatoes in the greenhouse.

A very useful site covering all aspects of crop rotation is Portland Nursery’s newsletter on crop rotation. In addition to describing the benefits of rotating vegetable crops and providing a list of vegetables and their families, it offers suggestions and sample plans for crop rotation in small year-round vegetable gardens. It also includes cover crops as vegetables to include in crop rotations, useful for those of us who plant cover crops each fall. And in a side bar, it lists helpful rules for crop rotation.

Portland Nursery’s Rules for Crop Rotation:

Two growing seasons should pass before a plant family returns to soil it has already grown in.
Heavy feeders such as brassicas, cucurbits, and solanums should follow light feeders (all others).
Surface feeders such as corn should follow deep rooters like brassicas.
When removing a finished crop, clean up thoroughly in that area, and leave no debris in which pests or diseases may overwinter.
Keep records of what happens and use this information to help plan future plantings.

I especially appreciate the reminders that “heavy feeders should follow light feeders” and that “surface feeders should follow deep rooters.” And it’s always good to be reminded to tidy up and keep good records, on-going aspirations of mine.

Finally, the site Harvest to Table written by a kitchen gardener in Sonoma Valley of California is useful even for those of us gardening farther north.

He’s more specific than the other sites about plant families and their effect on soil:

Some crops are heavy feeders; heavy feeders include tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, corn, eggplant, beets, lettuce, and other leafy crops.

Some crops are light feeders: light feeders include garlic, onions, peppers, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, and turnips.

Some crops are soil builders: soil builders include peas, beans, and cover crops such as clover.

And while he suggests that: “Simple crop rotation would plant heavy feeders in a dedicated planting bed the first year, followed by light feeders in the same bed the second year, followed by soil builders the third year,”he acknowledges that not all gardeners have the space to rotate crops so tidily and offers suggestions for working in smaller garden spaces.

Last, as an alternative to thinking about crop rotation by vegetable family, this author suggests crop rotation by harvest group, an intriguing way to think about the rotation process.

Crop rotation by harvest groups is a simple rotation strategy: rotate leafy crops, root crops, and fruiting crops. Harvest group rotation is not a precise crop rotation method (for example, peppers are light feeders and tomatoes are heavy feeders, but both are fruiting crops—but it is an easy way to group plants and to remember the rotation from one year to the next. A simple three-year crop rotation divides crops into their harvest groups:

Leafy crops—lettuce, spinach and members of the cabbage family such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower

Root crops: carrots, turnips, parsnips, potatoes

Fruiting crops (flowering crops): tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, squash

In another entry, he writes in detail about the more traditional crop rotation by plant family.

After reviewing all this crop rotation information, I’m heading back to my planting plan, more confident than before that I can keep all the plant families getting along for another year.

Update: Cover Crops

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Now that summer’s warmth-loving plants have gone to the compost bin, the kitchen garden has bare dirt exposed in empty beds. With a few exceptions, like arugula and mache (also known as corn salad), it’s too late to plant winter crops like kale and chard, leeks and hardy roots. So, what can go into this bare soil? Cover crops! They cover the soil, protecting it from hard winter rains and slowly building up foliage and roots that will add organic matter and nutrients to the soil when they are turned in the spring.

Several years ago, I wrote about planting cover crops, explaining that this last step in the garden year was probably the most important thing I do for the kitchen garden. Part of this process is selecting the right cover crop. Over the years, I’ve used small-seeded fava beans, Austrian field pea, annual rye, and, as an experiment in a few beds, mache, also known as corn salad. I’ve abandoned fava beans and field pea because they were attracting pea weevil, but I thought I was making a good choice with annual rye. According to garden authority Linda Gilkeson in a recent interview, I was not.

In a February 2020 blog post from the New Society Publishers, Gilkeson says: “don’t grow fall rye as a cover crop to turn under in the spring: that’s just a magnet for click beetles.” Click beetles are the parents of wire worms, the pest that has increasingly plagued gardeners growing lettuce as well as larger-seeded plants like corn. Yikes! Was I attracting wire worms by using annual rye as a cover crop? No evidence yet that I have, and I hope it’s the same for anyone else who has used annual rye as a cover crop, but I’m not going to use it this year.

Instead, I’ve decided to sow all my open beds with mache. Years ago, a young Lopez gardener suggested I try it as a cover crop, and she gave me some seeds she’d harvested from her crop. Since then, I’ve always sowed at least two beds in mache; this year I’ll sow nine.

There are several things I like about mache as a cover crop. It germinates reliably in the first weeks of October when I am ready to plant cover crops, and its foliage and mass of fine roots break down quickly in the spring. It’s very winter hardy, surviving temperatures in the single digits and even thriving in snow. And as a bonus, between winter and spring, the leaves make delicious salads. I’ve always grown a bed of mache for winter Now with mache as a cover crop, I have enough for more salads than I could ever eat.

I’ve ordered seeds of mache from Osborne’s Seeds in Mt Vernon, WA. One 10 /M packet holds about 24 grams of seeds, enough to seed two 5-by-18 foot beds. My friend Carol has ordered cover crop seeds from True Leaf Market. I may order from them next year.

The seeds are tiny and light but are quite easy to broadcast thinly over a bed.

I rake them in lightly, tamp the soil down with the back of the rake, and then cover the bed with a row cover like Reemay to protect germinating plants from birds. Once the plants are up, I remove the row cover. If you’ve never sowed a cover crop, the video on this English site is a good guide. I was interested to see that this site also recommends mache or corn salad as a cover crop.

If you’re looking for one last chance to be out in the garden before the garden year comes to the end, planting cover crops is a great way to spend a sunny fall afternoon.

Delights and Disappointments of 2019 and Plans for 2020

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

My annual seed ordering always includes looking back on the past year and noting what vegetables delighted, both in the garden and at the table, and what vegetables disappointed. I order more of the vegetables that brought delight, and for the vegetables that disappointed, I find replacements or try harder to grow them successfully this coming year.

The biggest disappointment by far was Territorial Seed’s Ancho Magnifico Pepper. As I wrote to Territorial at the end of the season: “What happened to Ancho Magnifico Pepper seed this year? I’ve grown them for years, appreciating their habit of turning from ‘green to bright red’ and their ‘classic poblano flavor.’ This year’s peppers turned from green to a chocolate/purple color and, more troubling, had no poblano flavor, instead just a dull bitterness.” Territorial responded: “We have made note of the inconsistencies to our buyers,” and they refunded the cost of the seeds. Still, nervous about another off year for Ancho Magnifico, I’m trying a new poblano, Caballero Ancho from Fedco , advertised as having “a perfect balance of heat and sweet rich flavor in their thick flesh and ribs” and maturing to a “deep brick red.” I hope they will delight and give us lots of peppers to roast and freeze for winter 2021.

Other disappointments were my fault. My winter squash crop was very light this year, and I think a factor was that I let the plants grow too many leaves while still in their pots before setting them out. This year, I’ll try to follow my usual practice of starting squash seeds in 4” pots and setting them out as soon as the first true leaves form. My onion crop was also light, a result, I think, of neglecting the starts as they grew in their 1-inch flat, letting them dry out and then overwatering them, so that the starts that finally went into the ground weren’t strong. Finally, I had a very poor basil crop, both because the plants got a little pot bound and because I set them out in a less-than-ideal spot. The plants produced enough leaves to flavor platters of tomatoes but not enough for lots of pesto.

Despite these disappointments, the delights, both in the garden and at the table, were many. As I look down the list, I see that a lot started with the letter C: Cauliflower, Corn, Cucumber, Chard, Chicories.

Flame Star Cauliflower: In 2018, I thought Purple of Sicily was my new favorite cauliflower, but then I tried yet another colorful cauliflower, the pastel orange Flame Star and think I have a new favorite. Not only is it beautiful in the garden, glowing orange against the crown of green leaves, it is gorgeous and delicious at the table.

Cauliflower flame It keeps its warm orange color after roasting and, more important, it has a rich, sweet flavor and creamy texture. I grew it in both spring and fall and will plant again for each season this year. And, not to leave out classic white cauliflowers, the over-wintered cauliflower All-the-year-round was a delicious wonder in early winter 2019.

Café corn: I’ve grown Café corn from Fedco since 2017, and 2019’s crop was the best so far. As in past years, the seeds germinated well even in cool early May soil, and the plants grew quickly, setting 3 to 4 full ears on each stalk along with some half ears. What impressed me this year was how long the ears held on the plant without getting tough. This meant I could bring corn on the cob to potlucks and serve it to guests at my table over several weeks. And there was still plenty of corn to make a new favorite corn salad with Shishito peppers: Spicy Corn and Shishito Salad and to put up corn for the freezer.

Cucumbers: I haven’t grown cucumbers for years because I thought I was the only one in the family who liked them. They are so tasty with tomatoes in a summer salad, though, that I had to grow them again. My friend Anne recommended Marketmore 76, a classic green cucumber. Even though my starts got a little pot-bound and I didn’t set the plants in a very good spot, they still produced lots of sweet, crisp cucumbers all season long. I’ll grow Marketmore 76 again this year and also try Marketmore 86 for comparison.

Chard: As summer cooled into fall, we started eating chard from plants I’d started in mid-summer, and I was reminded how sweetly earthy and tender braised chard can be. How could I have forgotten how good chard is, and how beautiful, especially Rainbow Chard? The harvest has continued into late fall and early winter and, given chard’s hardiness, we should be enjoying it for the rest of the winter despite our recent cold and snow. I will plant a larger crop for 2020.

Chicories: I’ve relied on red radicchios and pale green sugarloaf chicories for many years for colorful winter salads. Last year, I added variegated chicories and radicchios, plants whose heads and leaves are shades of red, pink and white as well as green with red speckles. Variegata di Castelfranco Chicory and Variegata di Chioggia Radicchio both from Adaptive Seeds, are not only beautiful, they have the perfect balance of bitterness and sweetness characteristic of this Italian green.

Chicories:Radicchios 1.2020 They make gorgeous salads on their own but also mix well with fall pears or roasted winter vegetables like turnips, rutabagas and carrots. I’ll keep growing these beautiful winter greens and keep looking for more varieties to try.

Various peppers, radishes and tomatoes also delighted this past year. Shishito pepper Takara from Fedco produced dozens and dozens of thin-walled, 1×3 inch peppers that blistered beautifully in a little oil in a hot frying pan to make a quick appetizer. These shishitos were also the star of the corn and shishito pepper salad I mention above. They were delicious green and just as tasty when they turned red.

Radishes were also especially good this year and I most often sliced them and mixed them with yogurt to make a refreshing salad, tasty with roasted meat but also delicious on its own. Varieties I grow are Cheriette and Champion from Fedco.

Yogurt Radish Salad

Makes 2 cups

1–2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar, optional

2 teaspoons coarse salt, or to taste

Cracked black pepper to taste

2 cups thinly sliced radishes

1 clove crushed garlic

1/2 cup whole milk yogurt, drained if watery

In a medium bowl, mix together the vinegar, sugar, salt and a little pepper. Toss in the radishes and allow to marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Toss in the garlic and yogurt and serve.

Finally, my friend Carol give me a start of Green Doctors cherry tomato, named for Dr. Amy Goldman and Dr. Carolyn Male, both authors of excellent tomato books. I planted it between some already established plants, and it was slow to catch up, but when it eventually set tomatoes and they ripened, I loved the sweet/tart flavor and the pretty green with yellow blush of this one-inch cherry tomato. Carol is going to give me a few seeds to start my own plants this year. With Sweet Million, Orange Parouche, and Sunchocola, Green Doctors makes a colorful bowl of delicious red, orange, purple and green cherry tomatoes to take to potlucks or serve at our table or simply for snacks.

Looking back on past gardening years and ahead to the new gardening year are especially pleasant ways to spend cool, dark January days. Soon seed packets will be arriving, days will be getting longer, and it will be time to plant. There’s lots to delight in the garden year ahead. Happy seed ordering!

Note: In January 2018 I published a post listing all the seeds I was planning to plant that year, some brief comments about why I’d chosen these vegetables and these varieties, and links to posts I’d written about many of these vegetables. In January 2019 I republished this table with updates on what I especially liked in 2018, what didn’t work so well and new varieties I was going to try in 2019. Today’s January 2020 planting plans post updates 2018 and 2019 posts in another format, paragraphs that describe vegetables delighted, both in the garden and at the table, and vegetables that disappointed. Return to the 2018 and 2019 posts for a full alphabetical listing of all I’ll be planting.

What I’m planting in 2019

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Last January, I published a blog post titled “What I’m planting in 2018.” Using a table format, I listed all the seeds I planned to plant in 2018, some brief comments about why I’d chosen these vegetables and these varieties, and links to posts I’d written about many of the vegetables over the years of this Lopez Island Kitchen Garden blog. For 2019, I’m republishing this table with updates on what I especially liked in 2018, what didn’t work so well and new varieties I’m going to try this year. These updates are in bold face below. As I wrote last year: I hope this list will be a useful resource and, more important, that anyone who has other vegetables and vegetable varieties they like will share them in return.

Seed	What I’ll plant in 2019	Comments
	A = Adaptive Seeds F= Fedco Seeds J = Johnny’s Selected Seeds TSC = Territorial Seed Co. UP = Uprising Seeds
Arugula	Arugula OG F	I plant in August as a fall and winter green.
Basil	Genovese F Sweet F Round Midnight F	Genovese and Sweet are both good green basil. Round Midnight is purple and a lovely accent color.
Beans, Bush green	Maxibel F	Maxibel is my favorite bush green bean. This year, thanks to a reader, I’m going to try Beurre de Rocquencourt, a yellow bush bean from Adaptive Seeds
Beans, Pole fresh	Fortex UP Golden Gate F Northeaster OG J Rattlesnake F	I like the mixture of colors and shapes of these pole beans.
Beans, Pole shell, dry	Aunt Jean Good Mother Stallard Soissons Verte Tarbais Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends	Beans that don’t dry on the vine make great shell beans.
Beans, Bush shell and dry	Cranberry Drabo Black Turtle Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends	Cranberry I like best as a shell bean. Drabo and Black Turtle I like as a dry bean.
Beets	Avalanche TSC Kestrel OG F Touchstone Gold OG F	I like to grow red, yellow and white beets. TSC used to carry Kestrel then dropped it. I’m glad F brought it back. I was happy to order it this year. Kestrel is as good as I remembered. I’ll grow it again this year.
Broccoli	DiCicco JSS Piracicaba Fedco Umpqua F	I grew Piracicaba last year and liked its constant side shoot production. I’ll keep growing Piracicaba and also Umpqua, but I may drop DiCicco so I’m not buried in broccoli.
Brussels Sprouts	Diablo F Gustus F Hestia TSC Igor TSC Nautic TSC	Gustus was my favorite for flavor and hardiness in 2017. I’ll grow more Gustus relative to the others this year. Gustus was great again this year though so were the others. For 2019, I’ll grow lots of Gustus but one each of the others for variety.
Cabbage	January King AD	I continue to like January King best for winter cabbage. And I still do.
Cantaloupe	Prescott Fond Blanc OG F	After a few years off, I’m going to try cantaloupe again. I started seeds too late this year (end of June) but set plants in the cold frame anyway where they grew well but the melons didn’t mature. This year, I’ll start them earlier and use the cold frame again
Cauliflower	Fioretto 60 F Snow Crown F Purple of Sicily TSC Flame Star F	Fioretto with its side-shoot growth habit seems worth a try. I’ll grow Snow Crown cauliflower as a back-up. Fioretto was a disappointment, both in flavor and production, so I won’t grow it in 2019. I will, however, grow lots of Purple of Sicily cauliflower. I may even skip snow crown! And I plan to try an orange cauliflower, Flame Star.
Carrots	Mokum F Purple Haze F Red Cored Chantenay F White Satin F Yellowstone F	In addition to orange Mokum and Chantenay, Purple Haze, White Statin and Yellowstone offer beautiful colors as well as sweet, crisp flavor. Purple Haze is my favorite for flavor and beauty of these three colorful, non-orange carrots.
Celeriac	Brilliant F Tellus AD	Both celery root varieties have great flavor but Tellus is a tiny bit sweeter.
Chard	Argentata F Fordhook F Rainbow F	Rainbow chard is so pretty. Fordhook is winter hardy in the garden and tender on the plate. I’m trying Argentata this year for its thicker stems. I won’t grow Argentata this year. I didn’t use the stems as much as I’d anticipated. For a different chard, I’m going to try an all red chard this year, Red Rhubarb, described by Fedco as very hardy and a 19th century heirloom from Europe.
Collards	Cascade Glaze F Flash TSC	Despite its rough appearance, collards are very tender when sautéed. It’s a great winter green alone or mixed with cabbage. Both collards did really well this year. I especially liked Cascade Glaze both for its shiny, yellow-green leaves and its flavor. Its sweet, tender leaves were even good raw mixed into kale salads.
Corn	Café F Candy Mountain AD	Café matured early in 2017 and was very sweet. I’m trying Candy Mountain for comparison this year Candy Mountain was a disappointment. Very starchy and not at all sweet. I’ll stay with Café this year.
Cucumber	Marketmore F	I’ve grown Poona Kheera off and on over the years and liked it, but this year, on the recommendation of my friend Anne, I will try the classic Marketmore just to have a green slicing cuke.
Eggplant	Diamond F Galine F Rosa Bianca F	These three eggplant produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche. Galine was my favorite in 2018 for earliness, productivity and smoky sweet flavor. I’m tempted to grow only Galine in 2019.
Escarole/Endive/ Radicchio	Borca A Pan di Zucchero F Indigo F Fiero F Radicchio de Treviso F Variegata de Chioggia A	Borca and Pan di Zucchero, both sugarloaf chicories, have become one of our favorite winter greens. The red versions are great too. Both the sugarloaf and Treviso radicchios were great this year, but the biggest treat was the red, pink and white striped variety, Variegata de Chioggia from Adaptive Seeds. I’ll definitely grow more of this variety this year. It was beautiful as well as sweet and crunchy in winter salads.
Fava	Windsor F	I always grow favas and like Windsor for its size and rich flavor.
Fennel	Mantovano AD Preludio JSS	These two fennel varieties have been very bolt resistant in my garden, planted in early spring and again in late summer.
Ground Cherry	Ambrosia Husk Cherry F	After a few years off, I’m growing ground cherries again this year. Actually, I didn’t get to these in 2018; I’ll try again in 2019.
Kale	Lacinato F Lacinato, Dazzling Blue AD Red Russian F Redbor TSC White Russian F Winterbor TSC	If I could grow only one vegetable, it would be kale. Search my blog for the many entries on growing kale, kale puree, kale flower buds and kale salad
Leeks	Bleu de Solaize F Lancelot F	These two leek varieties seem most winter hardy, most rust resistant and sweetest.
Lettuce	Super Gourmet Blend TSC	I like lettuce mixes. They are a good way to get variety without buying a lot of different seed packets.
Mache	Granon AD Vit TSC	I can’t imagine not having mache in the winter garden.
Mustard	Red Giant F	Sautéed red mustard is a favorite winter side dish.
Onions	Newburg AD Patterson F Redwing F Purplette J	I miss Copra! Newburg and Patterson are OK substitutes but not as sweet as Copra. Redwing is a great storage red onion. Purplette is a spring favorite.
Pac Choi	Shuko F	I’ve never grown Pac Choi so this will be an adventure. I didn’t get to pac choi in 2018. Maybe in 2019!
Parsley	Gigante d’Italia F	My favorite parsley. Very winter hardy.
Parsnip	Gladiator TSC	What would winter meals be without sweet parsnips?
Peas, Snap	Sugarsnap OG F	I continue to plant this original sugar snap pea despite the off-types that still appear and the lack of disease resistance. I like the flavor better than any other sugar snap pea.
Peppers	Red sweet: Carmen F King of the North F Lady Bell F Revolution F Orange sweet: Etudia AD Gourmet F Yellow sweet: Flavorburst F Poblano spicy: Ancho Magnifico TSC Tiburon F	Like eggplant, peppers produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche. Peppers produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche. I grow red, orange and yellow sweet peppers for their flavor and colors and roast and freeze any that are left. Poblanos are mainly a winter treat, roasted and frozen in summer/fall and used thawed for sauces and mixed with mashed squash or potatoes in winter. Etudia, a sweet orange pepper from Adaptive Seeds that I grew for the first time in 2018, was flavorful and productive. I’ll grow it again this year. I may drop Gourmet. I won’t grow Tiburon again because Ancho Magnifico is so productive and its flavor is just the right balance of sweet and spicy.
Potato	Daisy Gold MT German Butterball MT	At the recommendation of Will Bonsall, I grew Daisy Gold last year, really liked it and will grow it again. German Butterball is an old favorite. Both store well.
Raab	Sorrento TSC	Though kale and other brassicas provide delicous raab-like flower buds in the spring, I like to grow a little raab in the fall.
Radish	Champion F Cheriette F	I grow radishes in the cool of spring and enjoy them alone and with new lettuce. These two varieties make pretty, mildly spicy red globes.
Rutabaga, Turnip	Joan TSC	Earthy, sweet rutabaga is the perfect winter root. Search my blog for many root vegetable recipes.
Shallot	Ed’s Red	My friend Dave Sabold gives me seed of Ed’s Red. Shallots are another winter treat.
Spinach	Abundant Bloomsdale AD	Some years I plant spinach in late fall and let it winter over and begin growing early in the spring. It’s always welcome in salads and wilted in butter.
Squash, Summer	Costata Romanesca F	Costata Romanesca is my favorite zucchini, flavorful and not watery.
Squash, Winter	Burpees Butterbush F Hunter TSC Candystick Dessert Delicata A Honeyboat Delicata A Blue Kuri A Potimarron A Tetsukabuto PT Burgess Buttercup TSC	While I like big winter squash like Buttercup and Blue Kuri for pies, mashes and soups, I’ve also grown to like smaller, one-meal squash like Honeyboat Delicata for roasting. And for the past few years I’ve also liked Butternut squashes for both roasting and stews.
Tomato	Amish paste F Brandywine, Pink F Cherokee Carbon TSC Cherokee Purple TSC Darby Red & Yellow A Dester SSE Fiachetto de Manduria UP GenuwineTSC Golden Jubilee (aka Golden Sunray) F Hillbilly TSC Jasper Cherry F Jaune de Flamme F Momotaro F Mortgage Lifter TSC Orange Paruche TSC Prudens Purple F Speckled Roman F Sunchocola Cherry TSC Weavers Black BrandywineF Aosta Valley F Flaming Burst F Sungreen Garden TSC	Each year, I grow old favorites, return to some I’ve grown and liked in the past (underlined), and try some new (italics) that look intriguing. I was especially pleased this year to find in the Fedco description of Golden Jubilee that this tomato used to be offered under the name Golden Sunray, an old favorite of mine. Search my blog for many post about drying tomatoes, roasting tomatoes, training tomatoes and growing tomatoes. Golden Sunray was as sweetly spicy as I remembered. The Fedco catalog also describes it as smooth-textured and I agree that it’s one of the creamiest tomatoes I grow. If there are any left when nights get cold at the end of the season, they ripen beautifully in a paper bag, keeping their flavor and texture better than any other bag-ripened tomato I grow. Darby Red and Yellow was a good as I remembered. “2-4 oz, red fruit with yellow tiger stripes.” Genuwine was good but not outstanding. I will probably grow it this year to give it another chance. Hillbilly was a pretty and very tasty “golden-orange” tomato with “red streaked flesh and skin.” It looks especially pretty sliced and layered with red tomatoes on a serving platter. I’ll grow it again this year. Jasper Cherry was OK didn’t develop deep, sweet flavor until late in the season. I may go back to Sweet Million, an old favorite. Weavers Black Brandywine was OK. I may give it one more year or stop. Aosta Valley: my friend Carol gave me seeds of this Fedco variety. Like Fiachetto de Manduria, it’s excellent for roasting and freezing but it’s also sweeter and richer flavored than Fiachetto. I will definitely grow it again this year and it may eventually replace Fiachetto de Manduria. I like serving big bowls of mixed-color cherry tomatoes. To the red, orange and purple cherries I grow now, I’d like to add a yellow and a green. I’m thinking of Flaming Burst yellow cherry from Fedco and Sungreen Garden green cherry from Territorial.
Turnip	Gold Ball F Oasis F Gilfeather F	Spring turnips are an amazing treat. Try them! Gilfeather winter turnip is just as great a treat. Try them too!

Kitchen Gardens on Lopez Island

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

This week I gave a presentation on kitchen garden design to the Lopez Island Garden Club. As examples of kitchen gardens, I used photographs that my husband Scott took this past July of more than a dozen kitchen gardens here on Lopez Island. From his work, I selected photos of garden gates, vegetable beds, tomato houses and berry enclosures to illustrate the wide range of design options in each of these areas. My thanks to all the Lopez Island kitchen gardeners who shared their gardens, apologies to those whose gardens I missed, and special thanks to Scott for taking the photographs.

Gates: Welcome to the Kitchen Garden

Mary gate

Skyriver gate 1

Dale gate

Mino gate

McCabe gate

McDougall gate

Metcalf gate

Garden Beds: Lots of design options

Ground level beds

Raised beds at different heights

Beds sided with different materials: wood, metal, stone

Beds separated by paths of different materials: dirt, grass, wood chips, gravel

Beds that are part of landscaped lawns

Beds that are enclosed by fences

Permanent Garden Beds: Lots of advantages

Keep the growing area free of foot traffic

Build up good soil

Improve drainage

Provide a surface for attaching fencing or hoop houses

Create a comfortable height for tending beds

Accommodate sloped terrain

Mary bean poles

Skyriver corn

Taylor beds long

Garden bed May

Case beds rectangles

Case rabbit fence

Karp beds potatoes, tomatoes

Reynold's beds diagonal view

Reynolds bean support

McCabe beds stepping down

McDougall beds step down

Mino beds

Dale beds 1

Anderson beds closeup

Grimes beds long view

Tomato enclosures: plastic, polycarbonate, glass

Adams tomato house

Taylor tomato house

Dale tomato house

Grimes greenhouse

Reynolds greenhouse

McCabe greenhouse

Berry enclosures: frames and netting

Karp blueberries

Mino berry house

Reynolds berry houses

McDougall berry house

Adams strawberry house

What I’m Planting in 2018

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

One of the many pleasures of this seed-ordering time of year is sharing seed order lists with friends and family. I send my sister Sarah my annual order list and enjoy seeing hers. And it’s always fun to have seed conversations with my neighbor Carol and with other gardening friends. In this spirit of sharing, I’ve made a table listing all the seeds I’m planning to plant this year, some brief comments about why I’ve chosen these vegetables and these varieties, and very often links to posts I’ve written about many of these vegetables over the years of this Lopez Island Kitchen Garden blog. I hope this list will be a useful resource and, more important, that anyone who has other vegetables and vegetable varieties they like will share them in return.

Here’s a key to the seed catalog sources listed by letter after each variety:

A = Adaptive Seeds

F= Fedco Seeds

J = Johnny’s Selected Seeds

MT = Moose Tubers

PT = Pinetree

SSE = Seed Savers Exchange

TSC = Territorial Seed Company

UP = Uprising Seeds

Seed	What I’ll plant in 2018	Comments

Arugula	Arugula F	I plant arugula in August as a fall and winter green.
Basil	Genovese F Sweet F Round Midnight F	Genovese and Sweet are both good green basil. Round Midnight is purple and a lovely accent color with sliced tomatoes.
Beans, Bush green	Maxibel F	Maxibel is my favorite bush green bean.
Beans, Pole fresh	Fortex UP Golden Gate F Northeaster J Rattlesnake F	I like the mixture of colors and shapes of these pole beans.
Beans, Pole shell and dry	Aunt Jean Good Mother Stallard Soissons Verte Tarbais Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends	Beans that don’t dry on the vine make great shell beans.
Beans, Bush shell and dry	Cranberry Drabo Black Turtle Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends	Cranberry I like best as a shell bean. Drabo and Black Turtle I like as a dry bean.
Beets	Avalanche TSC Kestrel F Touchstone Gold F	I like to grow red, yellow and white beets. TSC used to carry Kestrel then dropped it. I’m glad Fedco brought it back. I was happy to order it this year.
Broccoli	DiCicco J Piracicaba F Umpqua F	I grew Piracicaba last year and liked its constant side shoot production.
Brussels Sprouts	Diablo F Gustus F Hestia TSC Igor TSC Nautic TSC	Gustus was my favorite for flavor and hardiness in 2017. I’ll grow more Gustus relative to the others this year.
Cabbage	January King A	I continue to like January King best for winter cabbage.
Cantaloupe	Prescott Fond Blanc F	After a few years off, I’m going to try cantaloupe again.
Cauliflower	Fioretto 60 F Snow Crown F	Fioretto with its side-shoot growth habit seems worth a try. I’ll grow Snow Crown cauliflower as a back-up.
Carrots	Mokum F Purple Haze F Red Cored Chantenay F White Satin F Yellowstone F	In addition to orange Mokum and Chantenay, Purple Haze, White Statin and Yellowstone offer beautiful colors as well as sweet, crisp flavor. Purple Haze is my favorite for flavor and beauty of these three colorful, non-orange carrots.
Celeriac	Brilliant F Tellus A	Both celery root varieties have great flavor but Tellus is a tiny bit sweeter.
Chard	Argentata F Fordhook F Rainbow F	Rainbow chard is so pretty. Fordhook is winter hardy in the garden and tender on the plate. I’m trying Argentata this year for its thicker stems.
Collards	Cascade Glaze F Flash TSC	Despite its rough appearance, collards are very tender when sautéed. It’s a great winter green alone or mixed with cabbage.
Corn	Café F Candy Mountain A	Café matured early in 2017 and was very sweet. I’m trying Candy Mountain for comparison this year
Eggplant	Diamond F Galine F Rosa Bianca F	These three eggplant produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche.
Escarole/Endive/ Radicchio	Borca A Pan di Zucchero F Indigo F Fiero F Radicchio de Treviso F	Borca and Pan di Zucchero, both sugarloaf chicories, have become one of our favorite winter greens. The red versions are great too.
Fava	Windsor F	I always grow favas and like Windsor for its size and rich flavor.
Fennel	Mantovano A Preludio J	These two fennel varieties have been very bolt resistant in my garden, planted in early spring and again in late summer.
Ground Cherry	Ambrosia Husk Cherry F	After a few years off, I’m growing ground cherries again this year.
Kale	Lacinato F Lacinato, Dazzling Blue A Red Russian F Redbor TSC White Russian F Winterbor TSC	If I could grow only one vegetable, it would be kale. Search my blog for the many entries on growing kale, kale puree, kale flower buds and kale salad
Leeks	Bleu de Solaize F Lancelot F	These two leek varieties seem most winter hardy, most rust resistant and sweetest.
Lettuce	Super Gourmet Blend TSC	I like lettuce mixes. They are a good way to get variety without buying a lot of different seed packets.
Mache	Granon A Vit TSC	I can’t imagine not having mache in the winter garden.
Mustard	Red Giant F	Sautéed red mustard is a favorite winter side dish.
Onions	Newburg A Patterson F Redwing F Purplette J	I miss Copra! Newburg and Patterson are OK substitutes but not as sweet as Copra. Redwing is a great storage red onion. Purplette is a spring favorite.
Pac Choi	Shuko F	I’ve never grown Pac Choi so this will be an adventure.
Parsley	Gigante d’Italia F	My favorite parsley
Parsnip	Gladiator TSC	What would winter meals be without sweet parsnips?
Peas, Snap	Sugarsnap F	I continue to plant this original sugar snap pea despite the off-types that still appear and the lack of disease resistance. I like the flavor better than any other sugar snap pea.
Peppers	Red sweet: Carmen F King of the North F Lady Bell F Revolution F Orange sweet: Etudia A Gourmet F Yellow sweet: Flavorburst F Poblano spicy: Ancho Magnifico TSC Tiburon F	Peppers produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche. I grow red, orange and yellow sweet peppers for their flavor and colors and roast and freeze any that are left. Poblanos are mainly a winter treat, roasted and frozen in summer/fall and used thawed for sauces and mixed with mashed squash or potatoes in winter.
Potato	Daisy Gold MT German Butterball MT	At the recommendation of Will Bonsall, I grew Daisy Gold last year, really liked it and will grow it again. German Butterball is an old favorite. Both store well.
Raab	Sorrento TSC	Though kale and other brassicas provide delicous raab-like flower buds in the spring, I like to grow a little raab in the fall.
Radish	Champion F Cheriette F	I grow radishes in the cool of spring and enjoy them alone and with new lettuce. These two varieties make pretty, mildly spicy red globes.
Rutabaga	Joan TSC	Earthy, sweet rutabaga is the perfect winter root. Search my blog for many root vegetable recipes.
Shallot	Ed’s Red	My friend Dave Sabold gives me seed of Ed’s Red. Shallots are another winter treat.
Spinach	Abundant Bloomsdale A	Some years I plant spinach in late fall and let it winter over and begin growing early in the spring. It’s always welcome in salads and wilted in butter.
Squash, Summer	Costata Romanesca F	Costata Romanesca is my favorite zucchini, flavorful and not watery.
Squash, Winter	Burpees Butterbush F Hunter TSC Candystick Dessert Delicata A Honeyboat Delicata A Blue Kuri A Potimarron A Tetsukabuto PT Burgess Buttercup TSC	While I like big winter squash like Buttercup and Blue Kuri for pies, mashes and soups, I’ve also grown to like smaller, one-meal squash like Honeyboat Delicata for roasting. And for the past few years I’ve also liked Butternut squashes for both roasting and stews.
Tomato	Amish paste F Brandywine, Pink F Cherokee Carbon TSC Cherokee Purple TSC Darby Red & Yellow A Dester SSE Fiachetto de Manduria UP Genuwine TSC Golden Jubilee (aka Golden Sunray) F Hillbilly TSC Jasper Cherry F Jaune de Flamme F Momotaro F Mortgage Lifter TSC Orange Paruche TSC Prudens Purple F Speckled Roman F Sunchocola Cherry TSC Weavers Black Brandywine F	Each year, I grow old favorites, return to some I’ve grown and liked in the past (underlined), and try some new (italics) that look intriguing. I was especially pleased this year to find in the Fedco description of Golden Jubilee that this tomato used to be offered under the name Golden Sunray, an old favorite of mine. Search my blog for many post about drying tomatoes, roasting tomatoes, training tomatoes and growing tomatoes.
Turnips	Gold Ball F Oasis F White Egg F Gilfeather F	Spring turnips are an amazing treat. Try them! Gilfeather winter turnip is just as great a treat. Try them too!

Seed Ordering Steps 2018

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

Seed Ordering 2018

There are a couple of steps I follow when preparing to order new seeds each year. I reorganize seed packets in the shallow boxes where I keep them, replacing the spring, summer, fall planting order they’ve been in since the start of the last planting year with an alphabetical order that matches most seed catalog layouts, and then I check the contents of each packet and decide what seeds I need to order for the year ahead. This year, however, my seed boxes seemed fuller than ever and the challenge of alphabetizing so many packets prompted me to look seriously at my seed-ordering habits. Just how long have I been keeping some of these seed packets and why?

If I want more of a variety and the seed packet is empty, it’s an easy decision to order more. But if there are a few, or more than a few, seeds left in packets ordered one, two, three or more years ago, do I order new seeds and avoid the risk of running out or do I stay with the old seeds, plant what’s left, and hope for germination? I confess to the habit of ordering new if there’s the slightest chance I’ll need them but also keeping the old even though I do know that seeds don’t stay viable forever. As a result, my seed boxes have arugula going back to 2011, beets to 2009, broccoli to 2008, corn to 2007 and on through the alphabet to some really old zucchini seeds. Two boxes have become five.

Getting serious about sorting out these overflowing boxes, I searched for some seed viability charts. Of the many charts online, I settled on one from the High Mowing Seeds, a table that lists seeds alphabetically in one column and “longevity under proper seed storage conditions” in the next. Using it, I separated my seed collection into two boxes of probably viable and three boxes of most likely not viable. I’m not ready to discard these older seeds quite yet; I do remember times when some officially expired seeds of corn, peas and onions have germinated. But at least when this year’s seed packets arrive, I’ll have a much easier time filing them into the current, thinned out, viable seeds boxes.

Seed Type	Longevity Under Proper Seed Storage Conditions
Artichokes	5 years
Arugula	3 years
Beans	3 years
Beets	4 years
Broccoli	3 years
Brussels Sprouts	4 years
Cabbage	4 years
Carrots	3 years
Cauliflower	4 years
Celery/Celeriac	5 years
Chard	4 years
Collards	5 years
Corn	2 years
Cress	5 years
Cucumbers	5 years
Eggplant	4 years
Endive/Escarole	5 years
Fennel	4 years
Kale	4 years
Kohlrabi	4 years
Leeks	1 year
Lettuce	5 years
Melons	5 years
Mustard	4 years
Okra	2 years
Onions	1 year
Peas	3 years
Peppers	2 years
Pumpkins	4 years
Radish	5 years
Rutabagas	4 years
Spinach	2-3 years
Summer Squash	4 years
Tomatoes	4 years
Turnips	5 years
Watermelon	4 years
Winter Squash	4 years

Another thing I do while sorting through seed packets is to note the especially successful varieties from the year before. There were four new varieties from 2017, all from Territorial Seeds, that I will definitely plant again:

Redbor Kale: advertised as “vigorous and cold hardy…both beautiful and tasty. Mild and crisp, this finely curled kale adds a flash of color to salads.” I’ll grow even more plants next year.

Hunter Butternut Squash: I really like Burpee’s Butterbush butternut squash but the description of Hunter tempted me to order seeds for comparison. Hunter is everything the description claims and I’ll plant it again next year: “A classic butternut that sprints past most common varieties, maturing faster than any of them that we’ve trialed! The shapely fruit have creamy, smooth textured, sweet orange flesh, and average 1 1/4 to 2 pounds each. Healthy plants are highly productive too. These long-storing squash will provide delicious eating all winter long.”

Cherokee Carbon Tomato: “The best of Cherokee Purple and Carbon, these beautiful beefsteaks have a dusky blush and rich, delicious flavor.” Who knew there’d be a tomato even tastier than Cherokee Purple? From Territorial’s Heirloom marriage series, Cherokee Carbon is one that I will definitely plant again.

Orange Paruche Cherry Tomato: I’m always tempted to try taste-test winners and I can see why Orange Paruche won. It has replaced Sungold as my favorite orange tomato. “The quintessential flavor of summer is captured in these succulent, sweet and flavorful fruit. Orange Paruche excels in productivity with astonishing quantities of brilliant, glowing orange fruit that are irresistible and vitamin-packed. The 1-inch round fruit crowd branched trusses on the indeterminate, vigorous plants. The winner of our in-house taste test.”

And how long will I keep these seeds before reordering them? According to the seed viability chart, seeds of kale, winter squash and tomatoes should be good for four years. Unless I run out, I’ll try not to order more until 2021.