My MUST GROW Garden Varieties (And what I do with them) | HEIRLOOM GARDENING

Hello everyone,

what

's up? My name is jess. Welcome back to my greenhouse here at Roots and Refuge Farm. Today we are talking about seed

varieties

. This video is one of my most requested videos all year. Many people ask. Do you have a list? of your musgrove

varieties

, your favorite varieties and last year I didn't do one of these videos that I did the year before and last year I intended to do it all winter and then while I was getting ready for everything, everything started to develop with covid and Of course, I didn't want to add any strain to the seed companies who were really struggling to keep up with the huge amount of orders they were getting and this year we're seeing a little bit of that still in the beginning.

I kind of want to get started, I'm going to share these, these are my tried and true variety and I say these are my

must

grow

s. I'm using language like they were always in my

garden

, but last year some of these were not in my

garden

because I didn't have seeds and I couldn't get seeds and this year I think I have seeds for most of

them

, but there may be some cases of the varieties I'm talking about today that I don't have. I don't even have seeds for this year, basically

what

I'm trying to convey here is that these are varieties that I've tried, I've

grow

n

them

several times and I just want to tell you what I liked about them, grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable probably we'll be here for a minute this is one of those topics that I love to talk about it's something that before I had my youtube platform I felt very alone because I found so much joy and variety that was available in growing food at home in the garden and I would try to talk to people about it who weren't passionate gardeners or if I knew someone who maybe was a gardener but didn't grow

heirloom

s or didn't grow from seeds and I would find that to be a glassed-in lookout.

I've talked about this a lot before and I felt like maybe I was the only one and when I did my first garden tour in 2018, I actually said on that first garden tour that I won't bore you. guys with the varieties and I was surprised by the response that so many people said no, we want to know the varieties, tell us the varieties, tell us what you think about them. I've loved sharing this exact topic with you because it's something I'm passionate about now you can grow a big garden without a lot of variety that's 100% true you don't have to grow 50 different types of tomatoes you don't have to grow

heirloom

s you can go buy plants started at a local store that grows a variety of things that grow unusual things that aren't something I can easily buy at the supermarket, that's been the insurance I needed against myself because every time

gardening

starts kicking my butt in July when it's really hot. and you know the plants are struggling with the heat I'm struggling with the heat and the pests have come out you know in full force I really don't want to go to the supermarket and see the food I'm fighting for in my garden for sale in the supermarket at 99 cents a pound.

Now I know that homegrown things will taste better. I'll know where it is. It's better for the earth. All of those things are true, but I'm just telling you that I feel very discouraged. When I go to the grocery store and see that, I like to grow things that if I don't put in the effort and do the hard work I won't be able to experience and that's where a lot of these varieties come in. Before I get into my list, which is divided by type, I want to cover a topic that has come up in the past every time I talk about it and that is what happens with zones and regions and the things that are grown there in the area 7b of central Arkansas. work for my garden in Michigan or in Texas or in California or in Colorado or whatever.

I'm trying to think of a real variety of climates. Just because it's in the climate I'm in doesn't mean that's the only place these things are going to grow well now, regardless of what you read about zones like, for example, my zone is 7b, some of you may live in countries where the zone chart doesn't even apply, that's something that mainly happens in the US, I think the UK at this point falls off the zone chart like Australia, basically not what the zone chart describes is the extreme minimum for your region, which is the only thing the zone chart denotes like that for zone seven, that means the coldest it ever gets here is zero degrees fahrenheit to 10 degrees fahrenheit, that's -17 to - 12 degrees Celsius, so when I know my area, I know what will be perennial here.

I know that, for example, I can grow an artichoke. plant and it will not die in the winter because it is not cold enough to kill it. I can have a fig tree here and it's not going to be cold enough outside to kill it. I can't grow banana plants. I grow banana plants during the summer. and they get really big and pretty, but they will never fruit because it's cold enough here to kill them, so being in zone seven I can't grow tropical things, but a lot of things are perennials for me, a lot of herbs. and different things that are frost resistant varieties, so when people start looking at seeds and they start thinking well, but can I grow most vegetable plants in my area?

Whenever you talk about annuals, you're going to start planting at the beginning of the season, you're going to harvest it within the first year or the first season and then you know the winner is coming and then you're going to start again the next season, in most The cases your area really doesn't have anything to do with it because you're talking about growing these things within a growing season, what you really need to know is the length of your growing season, i.e. from the last frost date. in the spring until the first frost. date in the fall, so obviously the colder the area gets, you're looking at a shorter growing season, whereas I have a 200-something day growing season here in Arkansas, in climates further north in the zone, you know, zones four and five, some people are getting up to 100 day growing seasons and even further north than that, the thing with zones and the reason why that gets confusing is that there are people in zone seven also in Washington state or in Colorado along the east coast that have the same average low temperature as I do, but have much shorter growing seasons than I do or in some cases longer growing seasons longer than me, so you can't really determine the cultivation of these annuals depending on your area.

You really need to know the length of your growing season. To talk about some peppers, if you live somewhere with a very short growing season, you may need a season extension. There, you may need a greenhouse, cold frames, or a high tunnel to be able to grow peppers because you need to add some. days to frost free growing season or you might have to start things indoors you know well in advance so I have a friend from Goldshaw Farms he lives in Vermont and he doesn't even bother growing peppers because he has a very short growing season.

It would take a lot of extra work to get them to grow there. When I talk about varieties that work for me, you really have to think about whether I have the frost-free time needed to grow this, without worrying as much. about your area and the understanding that helps you understand that maybe you are in a place with a much shorter growing season than mine, that doesn't mean you can't grow these things, you may have to start earlier or provide them with some type of protection now with that explained, it is true that some varieties are more likely to be successful in different climates, like for example, there is a tomato called the Arkansas traveling tomato, this one was obviously developed here in my home state where I work in the garden, now I grow all different tomatoes. types I grow Russian tomatoes I grow tomatoes that were raised on wild boar farms in California I grow all types of tomatoes Tomatoes that are specifically geared toward northern climates Short season climates I love growing all different types and can have plenty of time.

I can grow any of those tomatoes, but I will tell you that the Arkansas traveling tomato generally stays healthier longer than the rest in my extremely humid and hot climate because it was bred for this climate, now the others produce a lot, I still get a lot . of fruit from them, so they are worth growing and I don't find the Arkansas traveling tomato super extraordinary. I don't think it's necessarily the best tasting tomato or one that totally woos me in the garden. I don't think it's beautiful, but I still grow it just because it does so well here, so you'll see there may be things that are more prone to your climate if you live somewhere very dry.

If you live in a very hot place. If you live somewhere with a short season you might want to get something that fruits sooner or lasts longer or whatever, there are different attributes that different plants will have and some may work better in your region and I think it's good to find out. those things, I think it's good to ask people who live around you what their favorite varieties are to grow, but one thing you will find is that you may have someone in Louisiana who likes to grow Rutgers tomatoes or someone in Colorado whoever likes to grow the Creole tomato, I mean people will have their favorites and it may not be because it was developed in that area and I have a personal position on this that I will share and I think it is a good position to take.

I never take anyone's word when they say I absolutely hated this strain, it was horrible, it was terrible for me, I just don't listen to that like I want to have that negative experience before I dismiss a strain and there are strains that I have had negative experiences with, You know, they dye too much or they die too quickly or they just never do very well here they never produce much and I'll try them for a year and if I really don't do it. A lot of times I don't like them, I won't grow them again, sometimes I'll go ahead and try them again before I say I'm not going to grow this variety anymore, but still, if I ever tell people I don't grow them that variety It's no longer me telling you that you shouldn't grow that variety, there are too many variables that go into

gardening

to rule out a variety just because someone else has a bad experience, they may not be gardening the same way.

Were they growing it in raised beds in central Arkansas, watering it on the same schedule as me, and giving it the same attention as me? No, they didn't, so I'll let something fail before I decide that. It's a bust, so since it's a strange year and getting seeds may be a little off, I encourage you to write any of these down. I'm going to put the spelling on the screen so you don't have to discern. my southern girl accent on some of this stuff, I'm sure I'll mispronounce some of it, that's welcome too, welcome to Research Farm.

I'm going to say some things wrong, but write them down and see if it's something you'd like. Try it, I'm not encouraging you to go buy a billion packets of seeds, you don't have room to grow, but maybe you could trade some seeds and get some seeds of this stuff and try them, and if you like them, then maybe you do. a space for them in your garden permanently in the future, so let's jump in from the top and talk about a few different varieties of things and I've broken them down by category, now there are other things that I will always grow, for example, I will always grow Chinesse cabbage.

I love bok choy, but I don't have a bok choy variety that I feel particularly married to. I'm still trying different varieties and a lot of times I just haven't met anything I didn't like, I always grow chard, but I didn't necessarily include a variety of chard in this because there is nothing outstanding for me personally about any variety that makes me feel more special than another so this list I'm talking about is my varieties that I should grow. This is not an exhaustive list of things I should grow in my garden. These are specific varieties of plants that I love, so I start by talking about the herbs I have. a really extensive amount of herbs in my gardens I have sage I have thyme I have oregano marjoram chives all those mint lemon balm they are all here they come back every year and they don't have specific varieties but I have them all and obviously I grow them all every year and always I'll have those things in my garden, but I don't have to replant them every year, so I didn't really include varieties in this, I wrote down a few different types of basil I love basil, it's an absolute

must

in the garden.

I like that basil is so versatile that you can use it for so many things. There are different things I've read in different books about how basil is a great companion plant. I mean, and I don't understand the science behind this, but they say if you plant basil near tomatoes, the tomatoes will taste better. I really don't know, I know. I like to eat tomatoes with basil as I like to have both. I put them inthe kitchen, I put them together and eat them, so I definitely grow them, not always next to each other, but there are three different types of basil that are my must crops.

I have many others that I grow, but these. I definitely wanted to have three types in my garden every year, the first is Genovese basil, which is really classic, like a dark green leafy sweet basil. I love Genevieve's basil. I use it in all kinds of things making pesto, uh, putting it in all kinds of pastas putting it in salads putting it in lemonade I love just a great classic sweet basil, but there was a new one for me last year. It was the first time I grew it successfully and 100 on my mascara list and it's this basil lettuce leaf that has these huge leaves, I think it had leaves.

This basil last year became this big and what I did with them is cut them into salads with tender vegetables to eat salad and then also make wraps with them and I loved it so much that the lettuce leaf Basil has always had a place in my garden. I also always grow dark opal basil, which is purple, and if you haven't tried different types of basil before they can have such a wide variety of flavors, there is also cinnamon, lemon and lime basil. and so many different types and the dark opal basil has a more intense herbaceous flavor, it's not as sweet and it's not as pronounced in what you would classically call a basil flavor, it's just almost medicinal tasting I guess, but I really like it. in sauces things you might want a spicier flavor it's just a little spicier and what I like to do with all the basils in my garden and I grow other varieties these are just my three musgroves I eat at the end of the season whenever I i have an overabundance because i plant a lot more than i really need once it's getting to an overwhelming point and i have a ton i'll dry it all out and mix it up i'll just dry it all out we crumble it all together and i'll end up with a basil mix that has four or five different types and it's so good it's one of my favorite things to use in the kitchen, so the next thing I wanted to talk about was flowers and I'm constantly touting the value of having a diversely planted garden.

I love using flowers in the garden to attract pollinators and create a beautiful space, especially if you are gardening organically, which is what I do. I don't put any chemicals in my garden, so I like to make a place for beneficial insects to be in the house so they can help take care of the pests that I don't want, so these are like my companion plants that I should grow. The first nasturtiums, I will grow any. variety of nasturtiums that I can get, I mean, I love assorted nasturtiums and there are a few different types of them, but they are edible, they have a slight wasabi flavor, they are slightly spicy, so they're really great for adding to salads or tacos de fish and they also serve to be really beautiful and great for pollinators and also for sunflowers.

I always grow sunflowers in the garden, not just in a ton, but in the corners of the beds. I'll put in some seeds for some really tall sunflowers like titan sunflowers or mammoth sunflowers. These are some that I have made over the last few years and I love having those beautiful tall sunflowers. I think they make a really beautiful anchor for in the garden, of course they make the bees very happy. I usually don't save the seeds because we have, I mean, the birds come and eat them, but they leave my tomatoes alone when they eat the sunflower seeds, so I leave them if you want.

I wanted to save the seeds, you could grow something like a mammoth, you can save those seeds and just put a pillowcase over your head before they mature, another really great companion plant as far as bringing pollinators into the cosmos again, I'm really not picky about the variety, I like all the cosmos that I have found. I'm excited this year to grow some double click cosmos which are a sort of large frilly flower reminiscent of poppies and make a good companion plant to attract pollinators and just add a little beauty to the garden. I really love calendula for the same reason.

The good thing about calendula is that it is actually very frost-resistant, so I am starting calendula now that I will be moving it into the garden before our last frost date and it will survive. It can survive frost and can bloom even in this climate. I have kalindra flowering in the greenhouse, high tunnel at the moment. My favorite variety, if I had to choose just one, would be rosin, which is very basic, but calendula has many. of properties that are really good for your skin and the resin has a higher occurrence of oils or whatever is so good for your skin, but there are many different beautiful varieties and I usually grow a few, but I always grow the resin. which I dry and infuse in oil to make salves, another great companion plant is borage and I usually just plant, you know, your old blue borage, but it comes in white and I have seeds for a variegated borage that I'm looking forward to trying. year it's an edible flower, I'll be honest, I don't eat it, it's hairy, it scares me a little, but it tastes like a cucumber.

I've seen really cute things where people have frozen them in ice cubes before for the most part, the only time I eat a borage flower is to show people that it can be done. The main reason I grow them is that they are big, beautiful plants that pollinators love probably more than any of the other plants I have listed. they are always everywhere in borage now i also grew chamomile the chamomile variety that is on my must grow list is zloty terrestrial chamomile thats what i am probably saying wrong it is a polish variety i have grown several varieties of chamomile, but that one has been better for me, it always reseeds, spreads, becomes very large and remains very healthy.

I can harvest many flowers, which I dry and use for tea. I love chamomile tea at night and that variety. I just had a lot of success with under flower zinnias as well, specifically the queen lime zinnias, which are the red heart and the orange heart and then there are the full lime zinnias. The entire zinnia collection is my favorite, they are so romantic. I like these muted vintage colors and love them very much, but I have never met a zinnia that I didn't like, so I am going to plant a lot of zinnias this year and was able to get some different ones. the floret farm varieties are restocked and I am very excited to have those zinnias, they are beautiful cut flowers for the table, they are very easy to grow and again bring those pollinators to the garden that we really want now, in fact I have this in the list below the flowers. which isn't really um, it's basil, but it's not really basil, holy basil, tulsi, holy basil, anyway, look, my seeds originally came from my gardener, my holy basil seeds, it's at this point that it just reseeds itself in my garden.

I don't plant holy basil, it just grows on its own, it is a very good medicinal herb, it is great for tea and has many wonderful properties that are worth growing it for, but again, it is a beautiful addition to the garden, it smells wonderful and makes very happy people. to the pollinators, I just didn't include it with the other basils because if you're growing that expecting it to go in your spaghetti sauce, you're going to be very disappointed because that's not what it's for, so next beans let's talk about beans now I'm going to tell you no.

I grow dried beans I have five children to make dinner for so many people who are so hungry it takes a lot of something and I haven't found that dried beans are the type of thing that is very lucrative for me to grow, I would just have to grow so many of them, so all the beans I'm talking about I harvest tender like green beans or string beans and we eat them fresh and I'll freeze them. I will can them many times when the crop starts coming in or is slowing down and I am harvesting. I only get a handful at a time.

I will dehydrate them. I'll just cut them off. and dehydrate them to throw them as a soup mix and all of these can work for that, the first one is dragon tongue beans. I grow them every year. They were the first heirloom seeds I ordered for my first garden, which has since failed miserably. Then I have grown them every year I have had a garden and so they are very dear to my heart right now. I think they are really beautiful. They are going very well for me. No? It's not necessarily my favorite bean, they're really good because they're striped and they're lovely, but when you cook them they just turn green, so you know, I mean, the novelty wears off really quickly in a pot of boiling water for a while.

For me, it's just the fact that they have been in every garden I have ever had, another variety is the pink Tonya pod. Now when I started growing them, a friend of mine sent me about six seeds, and I grew them and saved them. Seeds over the years, I think seeds are becoming easier to get now. They couldn't be found anywhere before, but I think it's becoming where they are actually available. I think the Southern Exposure seed company sells them, I mean. That's where I have a packet of seeds from, but I just saved them from my garden every year.

They are a deep pink bean. They cook too green, but it's really good because they're really a deep pink bean and I think. They are really great, produce very well and taste like good green beans. Another one I love is potted purple beans. Dragon's Tongue is now a bush that scares away some runners. Tonya's pink pod is a true bush. Without runners, they only grow. little do you know, compact 18 inch plants, potted purple bean is a climber so it will climb any trellis you place it near, it can reach eight feet, plants can reach eight feet tall and are very good growers, they produce a deep deep purple Potted Beans, they are not terribly fibrous, but if they grow large they become fibrous.

I will tell you that I like to harvest them young, like when they are about the width of my pinky finger. I prefer to make them smaller, like they can grow and they'll be like five and six inches long, but you'll have to strain them to make them really tasty to eat, but I really like them, they're super productive, they're pretty, they're purple and they just grow really well , I mean, they will take over any trellis you put on them and they will produce like crazy. I'll have to pick them every day because they produce a lot over the course of about a month and a half, I think.

It's called kalima and they are a type of bush that are harvested young and they are very thin again, they are like a pencil and they are tender and they are not very fibrous and they produce very well if I grow one of my 48 foot long beds and if I grow all that bed with a single row of these, like kalima beans, I will harvest bushels of beans from that row, so I feel pretty good about that and they are too. bush beans so you know you don't need to have trellises for them, you can just grow them in a row.

Another bean that I grow here that I like is the rattlesnake bean, um, which is highly recommended for all humid areas. The other beans I've mentioned I've never noticed have problems with moisture. I've never noticed any mildew problems or any type of mold, those are generally the problems you have when you're dealing with humidity and such. I've been told so many times that you have to become a rattlesnake, it means you live in the south, they love the heat and humidity, but I haven't noticed that others like to hate the heat and humidity, so no I'm sure of that, but they grow the rattlesnakes that produce quite well, they look fancy, they have stripes and they are somewhat similar to the production, like purple beans in pots, they grow on a trellis, take over it and produce many beets. these are very similar to me, I don't notice any of them being extraordinarily tastier than the other and I have tried many other types of beans, I didn't hate them, but I haven't eaten any green beans that I thought: wow, this is the best bean green bean that I have tried, they are all pretty similar and I like them all, for me it's more about texture if they stay tender and don't get stringy, that's really what I'm looking for in a good green bean, another bean to keep in mind It's the Chinese noodle bean, so this is something that is always in my garden, especially grown on arching trellises and they are very beautiful.

I always grow them. I always grow them on at least one trellis of them, the red one and the green one, they're just called Chinese noodle beans, there are other varieties of long beans called asparagus beans and Tai long beans, different things like that, I haven't grown them because since I bought my original small package of Chinese beans and noodles. I have been saving seeds from them for five years and have never had to buy another seed from them. The thing about beans with Chinese noodles that you need to understand is that they are not the same as green beans. beans their texture is very different beans with Chinese noodles have a really different texture they have some meat in the pod but they are like whenthe bites are almost squeaky if that makes sense so what about beans with Chinese noodles What you want to do when you cook them is not boil them, so they are very good as a stir fry.

If you're going to boil them, you boil them for less than a minute and then just throw them into a stir-fry and sauté them the rest of the way when I've canned them because I know you don't want to boil them because they get soggy and get a little funky when I can. I usually pickles and I just make spicy pickled beans, I put a lot of garlic in them and they're really good, they're long and you can twist them in the jar and make a really pretty product. but I grow them, but for me I consider Chinese noodles and green beans to be something different.

Okay, so the next category is beets. I didn't write down a bunch of beet varieties. The one that really catches my attention and that I really like to grow year after year is bull's blood and I have had others in In the past, I might have even said at some point that these are my muscuros, but what I discovered is that yes I don't plant a certain type of beet, I generally don't like pine or anything, so bull's blood beet. They have really good red vegetables and you can take out some of the tender vegetables and put them in a salad and that's pretty good.

What I like most about blood beets is that they have a lot of juice. and it's this super dark red rich juice, hence the name bull's blood, but I like to juice beets and that's why they seem really good, which is why I've read that they are the highest vitamin A found in any beet because of that dark red and they have a lot of antioxidants, I don't know, I've never tested my beets for that, but that's the variety, if I had to grow one, that would be the one I would grow next, carrots, I like it too To grow many types different carrots, I am always trying new carrots and many times I feel that any carrot works for many different varieties.

There are three varieties that stand out and I like to have. The first one is cosmic purple and I may have been growing it for so long that I love it, but it has always done very well for me. I've always had a lot of success with it. It has that purple on the outside and orange. inside, which is nice, it will turn your food a little purple, not overwhelmingly so, but if you make chicken noodle soup and put cosmic purple carrots in it, it will have a purplish grayish tint, I don't mind, But is it worth it.

Note that it might be something to consider, but I like it, it has that more piney flavor profile, like a parsley-like flavor profile, it's not super sweet, it's like a very good, strong, base-like flavor. carrot and parsley, another variety that I eat is kyoto red. I actually tried kyoto red at Baker Creek a couple of years ago. I went and did a tour there and we liked a carrot tasting in the greenhouse and the kyoto red is like a dark reddish orange carrot and it's very sweet so if you like sweet carrots that's a good option to pair with with the last variety that I will mention is the black nebula and this was a carrot that became popular a few years ago and it is the darkest purple and the one that contains the most anthocyanins in a the carrot is very good, it is like a dark purple color all the way through, it stains your fingers, I think it's really great, the taste is good, in fact I think Kyoto red probably tastes better than black nebula, I don't find it that way.

It's sweet, but it's great to squeeze. I mean, you can dye things with this. It has a lot of color. Now let's talk about cucumbers. I actually have a pretty good opinion of this because I've had some really positive experiences with different cucumbers. So the first one that I fell in love with and that has earned a forever place in my garden is the silver slicing cucumber. I purchased Hudson Valley Seeds a couple of years ago, in fact, it was one that the owner of the company, Ken, suggested to me. I said this is a great cucumber, I think you're going to love it and I absolutely did.

I grew four plants on one of my trellises, two on each side and I don't even know how many pounds of cucumbers I harvested from that one. Trellises of these cucumbers came out and filled my large basket every day. I made a lot of pickles with them and they worked great. I was able to harvest them young and make pickles and I really liked that, but I even let some of them grow really big to see how they were and the skin stayed soft, it didn't turn bitter, they are white so they look good even when they grew up, I was able to juice them only if I had To grow a cucumber it would be the silver slicer and I will continue to grow it.

In fact, I have the seeds here. You can see the seed packet and they have the picture on the back, but I love this cucumber so much. In fact, I really want to have it again because I've missed it since it stopped production. It also produces heat for longer, as if all the other varieties of cucumbers in my garden had dried out. They tend to do that when it's really hot. I got all crunchy and stuff and the cucumbers started to turn bitter and the silver slicer was still producing great tasting cucumbers without any hassle. Now in the past I've always grown up like a Chicago piglet cooker or a national pickling cucumber, just one of those.

Basic varieties of pickled cucumbers that are often suggested and this year I am not one hundred percent sure that I will do it. I could go ahead and add one of those just in case but I don't know if it's necessary with the silver cutter and frankly last year I had so many silver cutters that were delicious than when the other national pickler in boston and chicago piggling cucumbers I don't remember what variety I used to grow one of those each year when they started to get very bitter. They were being thrown to the chickens and pigs while I was still using the silver clippers, so I don't even know if I'm going to grow those I wrote because they've been on my muscle list for so long, but I think.

They may have been replaced. I still really like the Parisian pickled cucumber because it's so small, it only gets this big for pickles and it only gets this big before it starts to fill out and get really fat. stuff, um, but it's good, it tastes really good, they come out quickly, so I guess I can't remember how many days the variety is something like 45 or 50 days, while the silver slicer takes a little longer than that, etc I still grow them and still like them. They are a good option if you are growing in limited space because I think Parisian pickle plants only reach about three or four feet.

I have grown them on multiple trellises and they don't. They don't get very long and they are smaller cucumbers, so if you were growing in containers or on a patio or in a smaller garden, I think it would be a good option and I usually also grow some type of slicing variety like the one on the market. one I've been going to for several years or eight in a row is another, but again, I'm not sure if it's all that necessary given how well the silver slicer works. The reason I grow them is to pickle cucumbers.

They have less water content, so they are for pickling, they have a firmer skin and pulp that withstands the canning process, while slicing cucumbers usually have more water content, so they are good for cutting into salads, Eat them fresh or in juice. I usually grow a pickling cucumber and a slicing cucumber. I found the silver slicer to be so versatile that I didn't really find a big need for my large slicer varieties that I usually grow, so I may re-grow a couple of those plants. just in case, but man, I'm really sold on the sour cutter and lastly, I have to mention this here in the cucumber section, but it's kind of a cross between the Armenian white yard long, it's not a cucumber, it's technically a melon.

It's marketed more as a cucumber and I think if you buy like the started plants that Burpee sells, it will say cucumber, that's something I've grown in the past and I've harvested it young, now they get really big like they're very quickly they'll get to be between 12 and 18 inches and if you pick them young when they are this big around the skin it is super soft, they have a very mild flavor and are like a cucumber even though they are technically a melon, however last year I had some that I just left them on the plant to see what would happen and in the past I have pickled them, turned them into pickles, sliced ​​them, pickled them and canned them. in bread and butter pickles, turn them into sour pickles and they are great, they work great for that they are very tasty just eating them fresh, they are very soft and sweet and their skin does not turn bitter even in the heat, but this The year last I let them grow and develop a shell and harden and I really like living their full melon shape and they got to be this big, they were almost a meter long and they were very melanistic and I thought, let me see if they are even worth it because sometimes you know if they promote something to you, this is better as a cucumber, it really is better as a cucumber, but man, they are very mild, they don't have much flavor, but they are slightly sweet and I liked a great melon texture and what I ended up making The ones I thought were really great was that I ended up scooping out the pulp and mixing it with some vanilla Greek yogurt which had a little bit of sweetener in it, you could do it without sweet and add honey. or something like that if you want and freeze it's popsicles and it was really good, very refreshing, obviously it didn't have a lot of sugar and I was able to make this treat for my kids with this soft melon. and the things were huge, I mean the amount of food in one was really great.

In fact, I will continue to grow it because it is good as a cucumber, but it is actually also used as a melon and I think you could probably do that. Even find other uses for it, maybe make cold salads or different things like that. I thought it was really cool and I think we should give the yard-long white Armenian cucumber melon a little more credit for being amazing. Now let's move on to eggplants um, eggplants are ones that I've grown for a long time, not with much success. I've had a couple of years, there were inexplicably wonderful eggplant years and other times where they really struggled, but there are some varieties that really stand out.

For me, the first is Antigua, where my first experience with eggplants, which I really fell in love with, was before I got into gardening, but I was shopping at farmers markets and there was a farmer there selling a fairytale eggplant. fairies that that is an f1 hybrid and the old one is the first traditional variety that was very similar to the fairy tale. I also like fairy tale but the old one is like an eggplant with white and purple stripes and I like it a lot, just like ping tongue and casper I use them anyway I usually like my eggplant as a stir fry or I make something like baking it in the oven, uh, chopping up some maybe some tomatoes and zucchini and onions and just baking it all until it's kind of caramelized and melted along with a little bit of oil and garlic and all three of them come out really good.

I like all three because they also turn out well sautéed and I should also keep in mind that I really like black beauty eggplant. More like a classic large purple eggplant, it's a bit more compact in shape and I really enjoy it, I've done quite well here, it's one I've had the most success with over the years. Okay, crushed cherries, now we talk a lot. about ground cherries here on this channel, it's one of Jeremiah's favorite things in the garden, so we always have ground cherries. My kids love ground cherries. Ground cherries are like a small tomatillo the size of a cherry, they grow in a shell, um, they are the size of You know, cherry tomatoes are a little smaller than a cherry tomato and the texture is similar to that of a tomato , but not quite, they don't really have much gel, they're more solid on the inside and they have very small seeds and then of course they grow in a shell.

We have grown a few different types of ground cherries. The first one we grew was pineapple, so you'll hear Jeremiah refer to ground pineapple cherries often, no matter how we grow them. mollies ants too and I found that they were incredibly similar, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart like if you mixed them all together I couldn't tell you which is which and they start small and the plants start very small and then eventually they start to grow and grow but they are from slow starter, you can't set the seeds deep now, while tomatillos need two plants to pollinate, ground cherries don't need to have a second plant to pollinate, so at this point.

They actually reseed themselves very easily and I still start some from seed and grow them, but right now there will be ground cherry plants all over our property and I don't know what type they are pineapple. Aunt Molly is one of the others we have. I've grown that kale, you know I'm going to go in alphabetical order here, I'm not going to go in any order of things I like or what season they grow in or anything like that, so I love kale, I grow a lot of kale. curly much more than I need to give it to my animals.

I have an excess of kale. It is very easy for me to grow it, especially when I grow it not in the summer. I don't grow cabbagecurly in summer. It doesn't feel like the heat but I can grow it all winter with minimal coverage and it works very well Now I grow many different types of kale and every time a seed company releases a new variety I try it because I really like kale . I don't like it raw, but I like it cooked in soups and we juice it, we make kale chips, I like to sauté it and fry it with some eggs.

I like kale in all of those applications, but I don't really eat it raw unless it's really young and still soft, but the three varieties are always in my garden. I have a bunch of them right now in my greenhouse they are lacinato, which is dinosaur kale and it's also called nero de tuscana, which is like Tuscan cabbage. I love how it looks. It's very filling I like the flavor It's just good kale I also like the classic Blue Curly Scotch Whiskey, which is more like the kale you see in grocery stores It's very good, especially when grown in cold climates , it's much sweeter and the variety that I think is my number one favorite kale variety is called ragged jack and what I love is ragged jack because it grows outdoors here during the winter and it can snow, it can freeze, it can become extremely cold and lives through it, it is very abundant in my winter and I love the taste of ragged jack. a little ragged, it's curly and it's very pretty, it's a pretty plant and it does very well with lettuce.

I'm not very fond of a lot of lettuce. Now I like lettuce. I grow a lot of lettuce. I'm constantly trying new lettuces and I usually like them all very well. I like muslin mixes from seed companies. Different mixes of baby greens and I usually like any. I like almost any lettuce grown as a baby green. Some of them when they start to grow on the heads you deal with. bitterness or whatever, but I really think that has a lot more to do with how it's grown than the variety, because if we have an unusually warm snap, all the lead, all the lettuce turns bitter, um yeah I'm not watering it much. , you know, the flavor gets a little weird, so I think really the method of growing the lettuce really impacts the flavor in a huge way, but the two varieties, if I had to say, I'm just going to grow these two it would be simpson black seed and four seasons wonder those two lettuces I found taste very consistently good, the black seed simpsons I actually grew from a mix last year and really enjoyed them next year, let's talk personal Melons They also grew a lot of small personal melons, as I have so many arching trellises in my garden.

Melons are one of my favorite things to grow in small melons that you can grow on vertical supports by simply using a paint hose to tie them down. A lot of them are okay or even good, but you know, I don't feel like I should have that one. They are pretty interchangeable for me and I have tried many different types of the two. they're like I'm always going to grow them no matter what the kajari melon is that melon is just one of my favorites it's beautiful it's a melon that originated in punjab and I have a history with it it's something that I was really determined to grow and I really worked hard to grow it and now I always give it space in my garden, it is like a small orange melon, it does very well on trellises and has almost a musk melon flavor in its green flesh and I like it a lot and then the kiku chrysanthemum melon, so this is something interesting.

It's a very small light white melon that I originally grew because the Baker Creek seed catalog said it tasted like Greek yogurt in pears and I thought, "I just need it." so you know what it tastes like it's a little soft it has a really good texture the reason I'll always grow it is because my kids think it's the coolest thing in the world because it's a one person melon, you don't You know what I mean, it's very small, it's about the size of a baseball and it has a very thin rind and pulp and soft melon pulp, and my kids go down and take it off and just slap it on the side of the yard.

Cut it in half and eat it right there in the garden and they think it's great, they are extremely productive and that's one of the things I really enjoy: growing okra is a plant that I love, it's more popular in the south and I definitely like it. it does better in warmer climates, it really stands up to a lot of neglect, it can handle very poor soils so it's good to grow it if you're trying to establish a space in the garden because it can help break up the soil. and it can simply withstand very poor soils.

There are some varieties again. I am not a discriminatory okra grower. I grow many different varieties. I like a lot of different varieties, but I have a couple that I really like growing in Texas Hill. country or alabama red there are now two separate varieties that are very similar, they are very short and squat and I love them both. Either one will work fine. I usually grow both, but if I had them, you know? If I haven't had limited space one would be nice because they are very similar and what I like most about Alabama red is that we love fried okra which is one of our favorite summer treats and when you cut it up to fry it you get these medallions big and fat because they are such squat ocher pods and they have a fantastic flavor.

There is a very strong okra flavor, but I like burgundy and boneless clemson. Those are two different varieties. The burgundy is like a long, thin, dark red pod. Thornless is the most popular okra if you are buying started plants or buying seeds like at a Clemson box store Thornless is usually the ogre they have, it is one of those things that is more popular for a reason, it just isn't. it gets so woody fast and it's really good, now I'm talking about green peas in this and you can grow peas to shell them, which I don't actually do much, just because of time constraints and the peas have to be shelled. and then you have to do something with them very quickly because the moment you take them off the plant they start converting their sugars into starches, so if you've ever grown peas, you peeled them and kept them in your refrigerator for two days. and then you ate them and thought they tasted terrible, it's not the peas' fault, at the time it was all starch and no sugar, like you were going to grow husks like green peas, keep that in mind, though, the phone p is really good.

Shelling peas, I've grown them a little and then eaten them fresh, but I've never gotten around to shelling them. The same goes for dried beans, you just have to grow a lot for a family my size, but I love peas for their pods and we love eating pea pods. We eat them fresh from the garden or pick them and eat them in a salad or just as a snack. Kids eat a ton of pea pods when they're in season and they're also good for stir-fries and things like that, but my two favorite varieties are very similar: the magnolia flower tendrils and the purple sugar magnolia tendrils and they're similar, they have these little curly signs.

They come off and are really beautiful plants, they taste great. I have tried many others and in fact, again I have not grown any. I thought, oh this is bad, I only like them because of how pretty they are. I think they taste very good and are very productive peppers. Let's talk about hot peppers first. I don't grow super hot peppers. Nobody in my house eats them, so I'm not your girl for things like that. I know some of you are crazy. You love those ghost peppers and things that make you feel like you're going to die, but I just don't grow them.

I don't want my kids to eat them and someone get hurt. I just don't grow them. The best thing I grow is a habanero. I always grow habaneros as a plant for making peach habanero jam and you already know some hot sauces, so I'm not too picky about habanero. Growing any of them is fine for me. I grow Craig's large jalapeno which is my favorite jalapeno to grow, they get very large and I usually grow the tam jalapeno as well because they are very productive, they grow so many peppers, they do very well, they have very good flavor and Craig's large jalapeno Which I ended up using.

Whenever I make them, I like the filling and things like that, but the tams are good because they are not huge. The thing about Craig's Rendez, sometimes those peppers are this big and if you just try to make slices so you like them. pickling to have slices of pepper on things that you might not want to be so big, so I also make the tam. I also always grow cayenne peppers as a long, thin cayenne. I've tried other varieties like the purple ones, but I'm done. Back to the long thin cayennes, I just grow them, dry them and crumble them, I dehydrate them and then I grind them into a powder to make our own cayenne pepper, uh, powder, I like to grow the fish pepper, um, and always I will do that. grow that one, it's such a beautiful plant, it's varied and very beautiful, it's like a medium hot pepper for those of you who eat super hot, you probably wouldn't find it that hot at all, but I can't, I guess it's something similar in heating like a jalapeño maybe a little bit I don't know, I would say it's the same, it has a different flavor, but it works well in sauces or hot sauces, many times we make a hot sauce or a sauce we just use a mixture of the medium hot peppers that we have and the fish pepper ends up in a lot of sauce.

I also grow poblanos which are not very spicy at all, they are mildly spicy and not super spicy and Poblanos are just a very versatile pepper, they are really good for roasting and then soaking in oil and then using that oil and cooking just to add flavor to pepper things, of course, the poblanos if you let them change color where they are no longer green. they deepen, it's like a dark red and you smoke them, that's how you get ancho chile powder and then also poblano chiles are the ones that are often stuffed like stuffed chiles and things like that in Mexican cuisine, so the Poblanos are a very good versatile option. pepper and they grow very well, I like them a lot, I also always grow serranos, they are very similar to the jalapeño and look thinner and spicier.

I would say they are at least twice as hot as a jalapeno and it can't even be hotter than that, but those are my favorite salsa peppers and lastly of the hot peppers I should grow are sugar peach peppers and They have other colors like red but I have only grown the peach and they make a fantastic hot sauce, they are quite spicy, they are spicier than serranos but they have a really good fruity tropical flavor, that's why I like to make hot sauce with those sweet peppers , now with sweet peppers I call them sweet, but I also mean the mild ones, some of these are not necessarily sweet, they are just not spicy, the first one is shishito, my favorite pepper, without a doubt, I could eat my weight and the shishito peppers every summer last year, I think I grew like four or five plants.

They produced a ton, they produced so many peppers that we ate them for dinner several times a week, poked a hole in them so they wouldn't explode, and then blistered them in a hot pan and served them like an aioli. I would just distinguish it. of mayonnaise and garlic and maybe something like citrus juice or lime juice or whatever, and it was so good. Next up is korbachi, which is a Swedish sweet pepper, not a Swedish sweet pepper, and they are long, they turn red. curly type, they produce a lot, the way I like to use coracies is to dice them like a breakfast scramble and they taste really good and I really enjoyed them now, the chicken pepper arrows are something I loved. a few years ago on my tours of the garden and I didn't grow it last year because it had no seeds and it was sold out everywhere probably because I spoke very well about it and because the shortage of seeds and everything last year the artists The pepper with chicken It is a seasoning pepper that is very unique.

Arus con pollo means chicken and rice, and this pepper is, I mean, when you try it you think: hmm, it's not sweet, it's not spicy, it's definitely a seasoning pepper, it has a very unique flavor. flavor and I really liked it, I thought it was really cool, it was one that took off later, didn't do much until the end of the season and then I got invaded after habanada, one of my favorite peppers, this last one. year I grew it in the high tunnel and they tasted so delicious. This is a pepper that was recently developed and it's supposed to be like a habanero, but without the heat, I ate them for breakfast almost every morning and they just had like a sweetness that reminded me of a fruit, they just had a very fruity flavor, very tropical and I really liked them now, I will say that towards the end of the season as the plants matured more and the weather got cooler I noticed it. that the habanadas took on a more musky flavor later on, so it was very important to harvest those babies to get that flavor, like I left some of them on a plant, the plant for a long time and they still got eaten.

I liked them, but they weren't the same as when they were changingcolor, that flavor was just incredibly sweet, but if you left it longer, the walls got a little thinner as they matured and the flavor became a little musky and they weren't as good the nata peno, which is another one that was developed over the last few years, which is like a jalapeno without the heat or heat and I really liked growing them because I have some kids that don't like spicy things. So if I wanted to make stuffed jalapeno peppers, I could make some that weren't spicy or if we had, like when we had family here who didn't like spicy, I could make something that wasn't spicy, something else.

What I did with these is that if I were, for example, making cowboy candy, instead of making all spicy jalapenos, I would do half and half because one of the things we do with those cowboy candy that are like candied jalapenos is that like mix it with cream cheese to make a sauce and if it didn't have half as many pinots, it just wasn't as spicy in that sauce. The next one is probably the sweetest pepper I'm mentioning today is the red marconi they are. just very thick walled very sweet red peppers and I really like them, I also grew some basic sweet banana peppers this year, it was the first year I did it and I hadn't really grown banana peppers in the past and they were probably eaten in the garden more than most other things every time we were there with the kids.

I ate them constantly, I ate them like they were so good and they were great for pickling now, while I was making this list, I thought I didn't have a bell pepper. I always grow bell peppers, but I really figured it out when making them. I don't have a favorite variety on this list. I guess the California wonder has ended up in my garden a lot because it's pretty complete proof that it's doing very well, as has the Ozark beauty, which is another one I remember growing a lot, but I honestly can't tell you that this one is my favorite because xyz does well and I like them so I don't know if you have a great bell pepper that blows your mind please tell me because I haven't fallen in love with any.

Okay, just a couple of mentions about a couple of root vegetable rutabagas. I grow many different varieties of rutabagas. I liked them all. I would say if I had to pick a favorite, Navone Yellow has been very good, it has been very consistent. I still like it when it gets really big, it tends to get gnarlier at that point, like when you boil them and mash them, you'll have harder pieces that don't soften as quickly the bigger it gets, but it's still very edible, keep it up being good, so with radishes, like most radishes, I like them sliced ​​very thinly into tacos.

When I eat raw radishes, I don't usually eat a lot, you know, just a little bit, but I like it. I have pickled radishes and they are really good and then roasting them is the way we eat radishes the most. If I had to say a favorite I would definitely say French breakfast which is a variety that grows oblong and is red on top and white on the bottom and I have noticed that the skin stays very nice and soft and they have a nice mild flavour, they are not very spicy, the flavor of a variety will really be hindered by whether you are growing it in a cool climate versus a warm climate if you grow radishes in the summer and you didn't like how spicy it was try them in the winter, they just have a completely different flavor , but I would say it's a French breakfast if I only had to grow one radish which would be the one I would grow, but I like most of them, that's my favorite and while I think about root vegetables I didn't write this, but turnips are very similar to rutabagas in In some countries, rutabagas are called cabbage turnips or turnips, but turnips typically grow as a purple turnip, a very basic one.

I have grown many different varieties. I've grown white turnips I really liked the yellow ones and that's one of those things I don't have one that I like and hope to grow, I just like turnips any of them are great I like to eat them raw I just cut them up and you can dip them like hummus or just eat them. Raw they are very good or cooked in soups or puree. I just like the alternatives. I don't have a favorite summer squash. Summer squashes are tough because I deal with squash bugs so massively that I have yet to find a summer squash. which is really resistant to squash bugs, the longest living squash I've ever grown that got really huge and produced a ton of fruit was the English gelber squash and it's like a summer squash and yet I still crop.

It has never lasted as long as the first year I grew it, it did so well, but I'm still growing it and it's still doing pretty well and I usually get a good harvest before it dies from squash bugs and borers. um I also grow the goldenneck early because basically my game is with the squash. I can't beat the squash bugs without putting poison on them. I do. I have done all the tricks and I have done the complementary planting, but in the end. they win the battle, so my goal is to grow pumpkins that fruit early, like an early variety, that way I can get a pretty good harvest before the plant dies, so early golden curveneck is one What do I usually grow? as well as some of the others like the round ones ron denise it is an eight ball it is another its flavor is not extraordinary the only reason I grow those round ones is because they make the food very quickly and another notable one is the rampikanti zucchini which is also called tromboncino and they're really cool and they did pretty well on the squash bugs and I ended up harvesting a lot, the thing about them is they grow really long and they have like a bulb at the end and they're real. long and I grew them on arching trellises and I grew them in the ground and again I really liked the flavors on the mild side, it's not like a mind-blowingly strong pumpkin flavor, but they just produce so much food that I will continue to grow those too, now with the winter squash again, I deal with squash bugs and winter squash needs to stay in the ground and stay healthy for a long time, so as much as I love all the decorative squash and the beautiful big warty pumpkins I have.

I've never grown them before because I've never been able to keep the plants alive long enough, but I do grow spaghetti squash. I'm not picky about the type. I grow acorn squash and am not picky about the type. I usually grow some type of pumpkin pie and I have made New England pie and sugar pie and I like many of the popular ones and they have all done well, they are all on the shorter end of pumpkin pie. winter, since they require less. time than many others and will always grow them - a pie squash, a spaghetti squash and an acorn squash which was another one I always grow but I'm not picky about the variety I've actually been passing on more. the hybrid side for those again for the um the ability to take on tomato bugs I'm the tomato queen I've been here talking so long I've lost the light but I can't stop without talking about my precious tomatoes Growing a lot of tomatoes, a lot of different varieties that I grow every year, but to be brief, I'll tell you which ones, if I had to cut back, these are the ones I would cut back on.

It all comes down to um I have two favorites people say what are your favorites of all and these are the two that if I could only grow two this would be them the first one is uh dr witchy I know I'm saying it wrong I think which is watches or wishes or desires, I don't know, several people have told me how to say it and they all disagree, I'm pretty sure it's the watch, the person in this, the man who made this. my hometown told me that was it, but I love this tomato, it's a very good grower, it produces big tomatoes, a lot of big tomatoes on the plant, like lots that are over a pound and they're yellow, they're soft, they're great for a tomato sandwich, I really like them, I found that people who don't like tomatoes like this tomato because it has a lot of meat, it doesn't have a lot of that gel and it doesn't, it doesn't really have that. sour kick is milder so my next favorite tomato is the Paul Robeson tomato, as far as I know he didn't grow this tomato but it was named in his honor and it has a lot of fans for its amazing flavor it's like a reddish guy dark.

It's called purple, it's not really a purple tomato, but it's like a real dark red and has a very rich smoky flavor. The best tomato I have ever eaten was a Paul Robeson tomato that was picked in late summer in a very dry location. late, that was attributed to the flavor and it was so intensely good, that's why I will always grow this tomato, not all of them are as good as that one, it really depends on whether it's been raining lately, that flavor is going to be diluted. but that particular tomato was actually so good that I had to sit in the garden to finish it.

I just picked it up as I walked by, took a bite, and had to sit down. It was so good and it's definitely one of my favorites and so the doctor, doctor witches and paul robson are like these two if I, if I only had two packets of tomato seeds, these would be all of them and I usually save seeds from them too, but the other I like honorable mentions I'll talk about some of my favorites and why I like them. Brandywine tomatoes always get sick in my garden, but they were my grandfather's favorite variety, so I always grow them.

They are really good. There's a reason why people love brandywines. just a really good classic red tomato, climbing triple crop is a really great red variety, just a really good classic, very good growers, some of the biggest tomatoes I've ever grown come from triple crop climbing plants, so I always There is one in my garden. A few years ago I was introduced to a new one called Thor Burns terracotta. I have grown it since then and really enjoyed it and I will tell you that I have struggled a bit with it being more prone to flowering and rotting than the others. in the garden, so it's partly my fault because I didn't water correctly, but rain can cause that and yet whenever you have multiple varieties of plants facing the same set of circumstances and one variety has a more prominent problem than the other.

Others, that's what I mean they're prone to that, however, the flavor of those tomatoes is so good, they're the only tomatoes I know that are that dark terracotta color, they're like a brownish orange. intense and they are just so unique that I will always grow them even if they are a little irritating. bee lincoln This is its first year on my must-grow list. I grew it last year and it was really good, just classic red tomatoes, very large, great for sandwiches. I mean, a lot, I harvested a lot of tomatoes from those plants that weighed almost two pounds, as well as the Italian heirloom.

Now I will say that heirloom Italian and Amish pasta are quite similar. I've had two pounds of Italian heirlooms and two pounds of Amish pasta. They are both types of large ox heart that are very meaty and I like to grow both because you can cut them up and eat them fresh in a sandwich, you can eat them, you know, cut them up and eat them with a little salt or They are really great to process if you are going to make sauce, but I use all these tomatoes for sauce and I usually throw them in the oven for a while and cook some of the liquid off, drain it and then they're all good for that and then there's two from wild boar farms.

Brad Gates grows very good tomatoes and black beauty is one of them. Now the black beauty doesn't surprise me with the taste like it's not the one I. I'm growing it because it has an extraordinary flavor, however, it has this dark purple, almost black, skin anywhere it comes into contact with the sun, it's super rich in anthocyanins and I love growing the black beauty to give as gifts because you will never find that tomato in a store is really great and tastes good, but it falls to the side of some of these other ones I'm talking about flavor-wise, but I still think it's worth growing because it's the only one that gets that flavor. means it's almost black, it's great and then the big bard boar which is another variety from wild boar farms that has a really great flavor, really beautiful stripes, it's a really great plant, oh cherry tomatoes, I have them sorted so different, I really like wild boar. farm cherry tomatoes, most of my favorites are from him, blueberry and lime, which is blue boar berry, blue gold berry, blue cream berry, I will always grow them and they are beautiful, but they are also extremely abundant, they are almost always the first to produce in the garden the first one that is ripe and also the last when the rest of the tomato plants have been ruined, those are still producing and produce more than everything else in the garden, they have very good red flavor. blueberry is more acidic, while golden yellow is softer and sweeter.

I also really like Barry's crazy cherry. It's multiflora, meaning it produces these very large clusters of yellow fruits and the skin is very thin. You will see that. more with the yellow varieties and like the cream varieties, they tend to have thinner skin and a milder flavor, so one isa little more prone to splitting because it has that thin skin, but as long as you make sure to pick them before watering before it rains. I really don't have to deal with it as much and I really love the flavor. I think people who come to my house and eat cherry tomatoes comment on the crazy cherry berry quite often.

I also really like the Bumblebee series. This is not wild. wild boar farms but it's bumblebee at dawn um, I think the pink bumblebee and the purple bumblebee that series of cherry tomatoes are good, they're a little bigger than others, they're more likely to be salads, they weigh like an ounce each, like this they're this big, while other cherry tomatoes are about half that size and I grow them, they make the basket really pretty and colorful, they taste great, they don't split very easily and they are very productive and another cherry tomato which is in my muscle and I see I grow a lot of other cherry tomatoes and I like them but these are the ones I would say stand out: Sun Gold and that's one I've been growing for a long time.

It was a hybrid when I started gardening, but now you can buy stabilized, open-pollinated Sun Gold seeds, and they are small, sweet orange and do well, and I've tried a few others that are supposed to be similar to Sun Gold , but I just never found one that I liked as much as that one, well, the last topic that I don't have much input on is watermelons. I have grown quite a few watermelons here and they are all pretty much the same watermelons. I really feel like they are one of those things. That the flavor will really depend a lot on how much they've been watered and how they're growing, how they're fertilized, the most successful watermelon I've ever grown, the king of the desert, is the variety and we loved that melon that I really grew. huge, I mean huge for us, I mean it was about 30 pounds and uh, it was very tasty, but we had, I don't know, we grew a lot of different watermelons last year and they were all really good, I just didn't, I didn't really feel like any of them. of them was so mind-blowing that I had to think I'm always going to grow that, but I'll probably continue to grow the king of the desert watermelon because I was so proud of the great flavor we had, it was really good, so I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover. .

I'm probably forgetting some things. You'll notice I didn't give you any. suggestions for broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower. I probably skipped a few different root vegetables. I know I skipped the kohlrabi. All of those things are things that I just don't have an opinion on. I like all the ones I have grown. I love the variety we have at our disposal and the garden. I think it has tremendous value because even though we obviously garden to put food on the table, that's the ultimate goal, if we're honest with ourselves, our interest in something is. It's very valuable and if you're going to be more interested and more engaged with something like these unusual varieties that may have flavor or a beautiful look or color that you can't just go buy at the store, that might be what keeps you gardening every time you hit bumps on the road and might be tempted to give up, so thank you all for hanging out with me today.

I will put the exhaustive list of all the varieties mentioned below if you want to go back and spell check anything, as well as links to some of the seed companies I like to buy seeds from, if you are looking for any of these varieties in particular, just do a search on the internet, just type the spelling that I mentioned in the internet search bar and you will have some options come up and I also encourage you to make a list and make some trades. You know, find other gardeners that you can trade with and you say this is what I'm looking for and this is what I have because a lot of times.

I need a whole package of something to try something. You need five to ten seeds and that's enough for a home garden, so thank you all again. I hope this was helpful and blesses you until next time.