Nine New Vegetables for Your 2009 Garden

Of all the gardens that I tend, it’s the vegetable garden that’s my favorite. I love the food, of course, but I also love the way it looks. And I love being able to reinvent the whole garden every spring.

With that clean slate in mind, I’m busy choosing lots of new varieties to try out this season. Here are some of the ones I’ll be planting – maybe you’ll want to give them a try as well!

Touchstone Gold from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

I love beets, and especially golden beets. Last year I discovered a new variety called Touchstone Gold, which has a much higher germination rate than regular golden beets. This year, I’ve also ordered some Golden Grex beet seeds from Fedco Seeds. It’s billed as a slightly larger beet than Touchstone, with bands of red coloration inside like the Chioggia beets. I usually cover newly planted beet seeds with garden fabric to help retain the moisture that’s needed to soften their hard seed coats.

After growing pole beans for a couple years, I’m switching back to bush beans. The Fresh Pick bean from Johnny’s Selected Seeds is described as tender and rich-tasting, with the deep green color of a pole bean and even better flavor. The plants are big and bushy, tolerate hot weather and yield over a longer period of time than most bush beans.

Spigariello Liscia from Johnny's

I made my first-ever visit to Italy last spring, and now all things Italian are catching my eye. Spigariello Liscia is a “leaf broccoli” that’s popular in southern Italy. The plants eventually form tiny heads that are similar to broccoli raab, but the Italians grow Spigariello Liscia for the leaves, which are supposed to have the flavor of broccoli and the texture of kale. I had a terrible time with broccoli last year, with most of the heads rotting in the wet weather. Though I’ll be planting regular broccoli again this year, I’m also going to try Spigariello Liscia. I’ll grow it under garden fabric to protect the leaves from flea beetle damage.

I grew four different types of arugula last fall, and Astro II from Johnny’s and Gourmet Seed International was my favorite. The flavor is a little milder than some of the old-time wild arugulas, and the leaves are oval — like leaf lettuce — rather than deeply lobed. This means more tasty leaf and less chewy mid-rib.

Last year I also fell in love with butterhead lettuce. I always grow a mesclun cutting mix and romaine for summer salads, but butterhead lettuce was a discovery. I can’t think of a good way to describe the leaves other than delicious. I’ve ordered Ermosa butterhead from Johnny’s.

Tomato Cages make fine supports for rangy tomatillo plants.

Sarah Taparauskas, the gardener who tends our display gardens here in Burlington, raved about the sweet little husk tomatoes that she grew in the gardens last year. So this year I’m going to try Goldie husk tomato from Johnny’s Seeds. It’s always fun having a little something to snack on as you cruise by on your way to pick some parsley or grab a few cucumbers. The plants can be a bit rangy, so I’ll probably grow them in a tomato cage.

I don’t know how it happened, but last year most of the peppers that I grew wound up being hot. This year I’m determined to even it out a bit more. With that in mind I’ll be trying the long, slender and super-sweet Atris red pepper from High Mowing Seeds.

Fiskeby edamame from High Mowing Seeds

When I was visiting Seattle last fall, I finally discovered why green soybeans – known as edamame – have become so popular. Yum! The heat-loving plants have a long growing season and are a bit of a risk up here in zone 4, but I can’t resist trying some Fiskeby edamame from High Mowing Seeds.

Last but not least are Brussels sprouts. They’re another of my favorite vegetables, but I’ve never had very good luck with them. Nautic, which is available from High Mowing and Seeds of Change, is touted as being “vigorous, sturdy and disease-resistant” and is supposed to “hold well” in the field. I’m usually not in the mood for Brussels sprouts until mid-October, so it’s a good thing if the little heads can stay firm and tight until I’m ready to eat them!

What fun to have all these new varieties to choose from every spring. And even if something is a flop, there's always next year, with a clean slate.

Kathy LaLiberte has worked for Gardener's Supply since it began more than 25 years ago. She lives and gardens in Richmond, Vt. Read more of her Innovative Gardener essays.