Veggie plans for 2014

One DG member started a post like this in the tomatoes forum, so heck, why not start one here? LOL! Lets see what we all have planned for our entire veggie garden, not just the toms. ;)

For me, it will be the following:

Carrots:
Black Knight
Purple Haze

Cucumber:
Lemon

Potatoes:
Purple Peruvian
Russet
Red (still debating on this one)

Corn:
Glass gem (just for the heck of seeing how it does)

Lettuce:
Red Sails

And last but not least, the tomatoes:
Green Zebra
Pink German Johnson
Great White,
Paul Robeson
Better Boy
And a package of bonus gift seeds labled "Pomodoro Marmande"

We have some new ground this coming season. It's been corn/soybean land for many years. Given this extra room, we are going to grow some things we quit because of lack of space.
Adding, this year, Eggplant, Bon-Bon squash from Johnny's, Gourds of all descriptions, small pumpkins, & more tomatoes.
Going to try a couple rows of standard tomatoes on Red Plastic Mulch. Will plant the tomatoes 24" apart in the row & stake them somehow. That has not been decided yet.
We are going to try Sugar pod peas on a fence. This is new to us.
We have another high tuinnel now, so will try some things in there. For sure are
Baby Beets from Johnny's.
Early kohlrabi, cauliflower & broccoli.
A new carrot that was terrific last for us. Called Negovia from High Mowing Seeds.
We will have about 7½ acres altogether this year. Plenty of room to try new seeds & ideas.
Bernie
Check my web site; www.countrygardensmn.com

i tried my hand at broccoli this year, but i evidently planted too late, as the winter weather put a big hurtin' on them before they could even form heads, but hey, at least the leaves are edible also, and made for a good pan fried "salad", lol.

I used to make my own pickles but once we moved here to Texas I got away from it. Been working too many long hours. I've tried growing cucumbers down here a couple of times and seem to have missed the mark somehow. But last year I did pretty well so I'm going to try for enough to make some pickles again in '14. I always used to grow Parisian Pickling and Rhinish Pickle so I'll try those and probably add National Pickling just to have three and see which one grows best for me here in Texas. I used to grow Homemade Pickles up north, but that one doesn't seem to like me down here in the south. I'm excited to learn something new for my Southern garden.

Being a fool for green beans I'm trying Landreth's Stringless and Riggins Stick Pole this coming year.

So far I think that is all the new-to-me seeds besides the tomatoes, which will probably be Grandma's Pick, Purple Bumblebee, Louisiana All Season, and Glovel Tomato.

I love seeing what you all are trying out for next year!

I'm trying for chocolate habanero peppers. I tried last year & the plants grew but then just kind of stalled out :( I'm also trying sugar dot & silver queen corn, danvers carrots, buttercup squash, sugar snap peas, kentucky wonder beans, butternut & spaghetti squash, & trying chayote squash for the first time. I've also added alot of new herbs. I started with oregano, purple basil, 2 other types of basil (who's names I can't recall), rosemary, chives, & thyme. Now I've added fennel, dill, chamomile, spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, & cilantro. I've had alot of luck with all my greens, brocolli, cauliflower, tomatoes, sweet potatoes & all my peppers so far for my winter garden so hopefully '14 will be awesome. Good luck everyone!

Corn: Seven plantings....Ambrosia, Incredible, and a new bicolor.
Lima beans: Fordhook 242...yummm
Tomatoes: Big Beef, Mortgage Lifter, Pink Girl, Sun Gold, Juliet
Pepper: Sweet bells
Broccoli: Imperial and Emerald Crown
Cauliflower: Symphony and Snow Crown
Sweetpotatoes: O'Henry
Potatoes: Kennebec and Red Pontiac
Peanuts: Valencia
Lettuce: Skyphos
Peas: Super Sugar Snap and a bush snap
Onions: Candy
Squash: butternut and acorn
Watermelons: Sangria, Raspa, Yellow Crimson, and Cooperstown
Cantaloupe: Sugar Queen, Goddess, and Burpee Early Crenshaw
Carrots: Nevis, Nelson. and Achieve
Beets: Kesterol
Strawberries: Earlyglow, Mesabi, and Jewel
Blackberries: Doyle, Triplecrown, and Kiowa

Lots of good-looking veggies. You must have an awful lot of space.

I have about 8,000 sq. ft. in three gardens. Most of the varieties I plant are solid and delicious performers....been gardening since the '40s.

Since I retired, I have amended most of my good silty clay loam with generous amounts of local peat, medium/coarse sand, and much organic additions. I just love the results.

You know what you are doing and the results show it. Holy cow - 8,000 sf!

My seed list is 125 lines on a spread sheet. So I won't list them all.
26 hot peppers.
30 tomatoes.
7 acres this year. A neighbor gave us a couple acres to use this year.
These are some shots of 2013 garden.
1-Inside a high tunnel with our diligent helper.
2-Watermelons.
3-Cabbage patch for people that ordered in spring for kraut.
4-Zucchini & summer squash.
5-Onions in front & far right. Carrots beyond the onions.

Bernie, You have been raising melons quite a while. I have been and can raise some excellent ones, but have to keep finding new places because of disease [mostly types of wilt]. How do you manage? Don't you have any problems with your plantings on the same area?

We rotate around as much as possible. Try to get 2 years of something else in between melons.
Our problem is all of them ripe at one time, even with different planting dates of the same melons.

Bernie, Where my melons are really healthy, I may get a second set [almost a third].

Still, I have had heartbreaking cases of wilt and sudden vine decline in the home gardens after a couple or three years. Oh yes, they start beautifully until fruit in nearly ripe..

What, the cabbage patch wasn't for the new baby orders???? LOL!

Terri, you have to plant cukes early to be successful. I grow 2 crops a year, one in spring and one in fall.

Since I have seeds left from last year, I'll probably just plant those. Gotta get the maters started soon! New Year's Day is this week and that's usually when I start them. I also need to order my onions.

I'm already 10 days BEHIND on my tomato seed starting, and haven't put those onions in yet. Have had them since November. Waaaaaaaaaay behind.

May need to order again...

Shoot!

Put out four (4) flats of seedlings to harden off last night. Broccoli, cabbages, beets, mustard and turnip greens, and Oregon Sugar Snap peas. Have to transplant this Saturday.

Put up 7 pints of spiced, pickled beets over the weekend. Trying to hold off until Friday before opening at least one jar, LOL! My first attempt. Want those delicious spices to permeate all the beets!

And, it's not even January 1st, yet, LOL!

^^_^^

yeah you bunch of lucky buggers, LOL, i still have a couple of months yet before indoor seed sowing time

You must remember TX can't grow anything in normal summer months.

yes, we can...

we can start our FALL seedlings indoors, LOL!

Linda!! I've been wondering when you were going to start the Spring veggie thread. LOL

LOL! ^^_^^

Girl,
I'm still trying to catch up to the winter garden! Soon as I get all those seedlings planted out this weekend, I'll start the spring garden thread. And, prayerfully by then, I'll have PICTURES of what's growing for spring, LOL! Actually, this is the latest I've EVER put things out, but, I'm actually excited about the thought of harvesting this as the garden segues into March & April.

I've even MORE excited that it might still be cold enough for cranking up the heat to can the greens and veggies! I did spiced beets for the first time this past weekend. Can't wait to taste them!

P.S. About to start Ozark's new F5 "Sweet Ozark Orange" tomatoes. I promised him a pictorial from start to finish. He's spread some seeds around with some DGers, to trial the stability and document the harvests.

Should be an exciting trial!

Hugs!

oh yeah i get what youre saying exactly CG

I spent a summer with a dear friend down by Houston a couple of years ago, and the heat actually caught me by surprise. I was outside organizing some things, and the heat started to get me winded and weak much more quickly than i usually do, so i learned my lesson there. ;)

We will have a day or two of 100+ degrees with high humidity, but it don't kill us. We cope!

I'm trying to decide what kind of pole beans I want to grow. Any suggestions?

Ones that climb up a pole, LOL? ^^_^^

You're so helpful, Linda! LOL I'm looking at either Blue Lake pole beans, which we've grown before, Purple Podded Pole beans (we grew purple bush beans last year and they were good), Henderson's Black Valentine Bean, or McCaslan 42.

Ok. I've heard very good overall reviews about the Blue Lakes!

We've grown them previously and they did very well, were productive, and tasted great. Just don't want to grow bush beans as they take up too much real estate. I also need to order my onion plants.

Are you going to grow potatoes this year?

No, I decided the return on the potatoes wasn't worth the investment of real estate.

I had to place a second onion order from Dixondale, just yesterday. I'm afraid the original order I received in November has just about dried up. I've waited too long to plant that batch out, so, oh well...I'd rather start over with a fresh batch of healthy plants to ensure a good harvest. They should arrive around January 10th, so I'll still be on track with the very 1st season I ever planted onions.

Although, getting them in in November would've been the ideal.

Shoot!

Steph,
Are Blue Lake pole beans like green beans in a can? I'm dying to grow green beans and peas, both of which have eluded me... I did grow some Kentucky Wonder green beans last year, in seven self-watering eBuckets. I was surprised they grew sitting on the edge of my patio, under the cover. I got a couple gallon bags of beans still in the freezer.

When will you plant out your pole beans? I

You all might want to check out either Fortex or Emerite pole beans. They are a filet type bean. I used to grow only filet beans as bush beans until I discovered these. Now my and my husband's backs thank us and the beans produce non-stop until frost unlike the bush varieties as long as one keeps picking them. There is also a yellow filet pole bean variety, French Gold. Both Emerite and French Gold can be bought at Renee's Seeds along with Blue Lake. http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/seeds-hm/vegB.htm#bean

Fedco has Fortex as do many other companies. Last year I bought Blue Coco for fun from Fedco and that is delicious as well.
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search.php?page=1&totalRows=1012

Gymgirl ~ next time your onions arrive early, 'heel' them in. Just tuck the bulbs into some loosened soil until you can get them separated and planted. That works for many types of plants, not just bulbs.

Sounds like you girls both need more 'real estate'!
Happy New Gardening Year to all...

I've considered Fortex. They do look promising.

Linda, I prefer the Blue Lake over the KY Wonder. Blue Lake is a round bean pod and the KY Wonder is more wider and flatter. The Blue Lakes are also less stringy.

Thanks, Pod!

Thanks, Steph!

My seedlings have been out for a couple days now, and there's sunshine today, whoo hoo!

Transplanting Saturday.

Starting tomatoes and bell peppers this evening...already two weeks behind schedule...shoot.

I should be planting out my onions this weekend. Was going to do it New Year's Day as I usually do; but the cold, cold wind chased me back inside =(.

I love pole beans. I've had good luck with Fortex and Emerite. Also, I've had good luck with Super Marconi Roma pole bean and Trionfo Violetto, a purple bean.

Another vote for Fortex. The last time I planted them many of the beans were hollow so I tried a different variety this past summer, and I'm going back to Fortex this year. Nothing tastes as good!

Don't remember having a problem with the Fortex being hollow. They can get quite long really fast if I don't watch them so maybe that would make them more hollow. My husband says he prefers the Emerites, which are very similar, so I will be growing those this summer along with Blue Coco (purple which turn green when cooked) and French Gold. Actually I prefer the yellow Ramdor but they are hard to come by in the States. I have to order them from Solana Seeds in Canada. http://solanaseeds.netfirms.com/welcome.html

Renee's seeds used to offer them in a mixed packet with Emerite but no longer (now she offers the Emerites and French Golds as separate packets) so I switched to the French Gold. They are very good too so it's fine.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2014 2:21 AM

We grew Royal Burgundy bush beans last year. They were really tasty, but took up too much space in my garden.

Gardadore, that was the first time I had that problem with Fortex, and a friend mentioned that the beans she bought at her local farm market had the same problem. Might have been a transitory virus affecting legumes in our area. I did try Emerite once but don't remember being as impressed by them.

I don't find that there is such a great difference between the Fortex and Emerite although I think the Fortex is more robust and grows large very fast. I find the flavor of both to be excellent. Perhaps the Emerite has a more delicate flavor? I didn't grow them last year, just the Fortex, so I kind of forget. I just know I love the flavor even if I can't describe it!
In the end it is truly a matter of personal taste and when one reads different threads on the internet it is interesting how people can fervently favor one over the other! It does sound as if something strange was going on in your area for others to be hollow too! No matter what, growing these pole beans has made string bean growing and harvesting a real pleasure over the bush varieties!