Last week Curtis Jones, President of Botanical Interests Seed Company sent me a lovely care package filled with a variety of new Botanical Interests seeds. Now maybe I’m reading into this a little, but I do believe my hottie of a horticulturist boyfriend Ryan has some competition on his hands. I mean, the El Presidente sending ME, Mavis Butterfield seeds?
Hmmm. What are you going to do to top that Ryan? Drum me a tune on your bongos or perhaps make me a necklace out poppy pods?
I can tell already, there is going to be a fierce competition to win my seed filled heart.
Ahhh, it’s the little things in life, isn’t it.
Okay, enough about silly boys.
Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few emails from people wondering what seeds I’ll be planting next year, and what were some of the favorite things I grew in 2012. So I sat down and went back through my entire blog and typed up a list of my favorite vegetables from each of the major categories. This is where taking lot’s of pictures of your garden like a crazy person totally comes in handy.
Because my “favorites” list is so massive, I’ve decided to break up the posts a bit. Next week I’ll tackle fruits, and then flowers after that. How does that sound?
Okay, here are my favorite vegetable seeds:
Beans
- Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans {My kids favorite beans}
- Roma Bush Beans {My grandmother grew these beans}
- French Filet Bush Beans {The HH… Mr. Fancy Pants LOVES these}
- Broad Windsor Fava Beans {Trying these for the first time this year}
- Calypso Beans {These are great dried to use in winter soup}
Carrots
- Carrot Tonda di Parigi{pictured}
- Cosmic Purple {I LOVE these!}
- Carnival Blend {Great for children’s gardens}
- Danvers {Classic carrot}
Cucumbers
- Spacemaster {Great for small gardens}
- Lemon {I grew this a long, long time ago and loved it}
- Burpless {Do cucumbers really make people burp?}
Greens
- Ruby Red Swiss Chard {The chickens LOVE it}
- Bok Choy Toy {Great in stir frys, and my daughter likes to eat it raw}
- Redbor Kale {I’m excited to GROW this}
- Italian Toscana Nero Kale {You cannot KILL THIS STUFF}
Onion
- Yellow Granex {sweet onion}
- Flat of Italy Red Onion {great for salsa!}
- White Lisbon {green onions}
Peas
- Green Arrow {perfect for shelling}
- Sugar Snap {great for stir fry and eating fresh}
Pumpkins
- Lumina {Spooky white}
- Cinderella {My favorite}
- Howden {All around great pumpkins, perfect for carving}
- Pumpkin French Musquée de Provence {Oui’ Oui’}
Summer Squash
- Patty Pan {Fun for little kids to grow}
- Baby Round Zucchini {My kids love growing this one}
- Cocozelle {Delicious}
Tomatoes
- Cherry Rainbow Blend {perfect for salads}
- Green Zebra {LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one}
- Sun Gold {My daughters favorite}
- Speckled Roman {I’m trying this in 2013}
- Black Krim {The HH’s favorite}
Winter Squash
- Butternut {super easy to grow}
- Pink Banana { I tried this for the first time this year and LOVED it}
- Delicata Honeyboat {I’m excited to try this in 2013}
- Winter Burgess Buttercup {This makes the BEST pies}
Wowza! Was that a lot of vegetables or what? Next week I’ll write about my favorite fruits.
Have a great day,
Mavis
Thanks to my awesome readers, here is an updated list of seed catalogs. If you have a favorite one you don’t see on the list, let me know in the comment section below and I’ll add it.
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Mavis,
I love your blog and as someone also living and gardening in a semi-urban environment, it always inspires me.
I was wondering, when you were planting this past year, overall did you find the spacing instructions on the seed packets for the plants generally accurate? Or were they too close together or too far apart?
This past year (my first real year for vegetable gardeining) I followed the instructions but it seemed like most of the plants could have been planted much closer. However, being that is was my first year of gardening – maybe my plants were small.
I’d love to read your opinion.
Thanks
Absolutely to far apart. I tend to plant my seed much closer together than the seed packets recommend. Way closer.
I plan on going over this in another blog post because I think so much garden space tends to go unused.
Have you tried growing loofah gourd? Apparently you can peel off the skin and then dry it to have a homemade bath loofah. I planted a few seeds this year, but it kept dying once it got about 3″ tall. I’m going to try again this year and try in some better containers (I planted them in pots this year).
No, but ti looks totally cool. Maybe I’ll try it.
Thanks Mavis! That is an awesome list. I plan on trying some of these next year!!
Hi Mavis, I love your blog! I love seeing what you are up to each day as I have my morning coffee. Your gardening passion is an inspiration to me. What would you suggest are a few good beginner veggies to start with? I already have a raspberry and strawberry patch going and a fairly large raised garden bed and an area in the ground where I’d like to plant pumpkins. Do you have suggestions/advice? Thank you!!
Well, it depends on what you like. But I think the easiest to start with would be carrots, zucchini, cucumber, beans and maybe a few tomatoes.
Let me know how you do in 2013 and you are always welcome to submit photos.