This Year's Vegetable Growing List

I've decided to try and grow corn this year, it's been a long time so we'll see how that pans out.

I tend to go back and forth when it comes to varieties, my choices may change up until the time the seeds get sown. This is especially true when it comes to tomato and pepper varieties, so this list is in no way finalized.

*new varieties

Peppers:
Jalapeno Gigantia*, Padron*, Ajvarski*, Red Marconi*, Figitelli Sicilia*, Melrose*, Feher Ozon*, Boldog Hungarian*, Odessa Market*, Corno di Toro, Pablano, Jimmy Nardello, Shishito, Sweet Antigua, Corno Rosso, and Carmagnola Rosso

Tomatoes:
Be My Baby gene pool cherry*, Sweet Aperitif (F1) cherry*, Indigo Blueberries cherry*, Black Vernissage cherry*, Reisentraube cherry*, Large Red cherry, Sun Gold cherry, Brandywine, Black Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Dark Brandywine, Prudens Purple, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Kellogg's Breakfast, Cosmonaut Volkov, Celebrity (F1), Peron, Coustralee, Pink Berkley Tie Dye, Goldie, Jubilee, Granny Cantrell German Red, Ananas Noire, Big Zebra, Big Rainbow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Orange Icicle*, Mariannas Peace*, Peach Blow Sutton*, Cherokee Green*, Anna Russian*, Juane de Flamme*, and Green Zebra*

Corn:
Buhl (early)*, Stowell's Evergreen (middle)*, and Maiz Marado/Kulli corn (late)*

Leek:
American Flag, and Asian leek/garlic chives.

Onion:
Cipolle di Tropea*, Cipollini Borettana*, Australian Brown, and Bronze d'Amposta

Shallot:
Matador* (F1), and Zebrune

An Accounting of the Vegetable Plants

All the plants are hanging out inside because there's threat of a frost tonight with forecasted temperatures down to 34 degrees (1 Celsius). So I went through all the plants and did an accounting of the varieties I have growing. None of the Aunt Ruby's German Green tomato seeds sprouted, and not one of the Melanzana eggplants germinated. There was also no germination from the spicy serrano and anaheim, or any of the sweet peppers.

Tomatoes, 27 Varieties:
10 Pink Brandywine
6 Pantano Romanesco
5 Hillbilly Flame
4 Break O Day
3 Granny Cantrell's German Red
3 Cour Di Bue
3 San Marzano Lungo #2
3 Cosmonaut Volkov
3 Ingegnoli
2 Moneymakers
2 Mortgage Lifters
1 Jersey Giant
1 Paul Robeson
1 Mystery
3 Big Zebra
3 Ananas Noire
2 Djeena Lee's Golden
2 Pilcer Vesy
2 Kellogg's Breakfast
2 Cherokee Purple
2 Black from Tula
2 Black Krim
2 Berkley Tie Dye
2 Pruden's Purple
1 Purple Calabash
1 Wapsipinicon Peach
1 Golden King of Siberia

Total: 72 tomato plants

Not all of the Brandywines have potato leaves, 2 of the non-potato leaves were from the actual seed packet and the other one is from saved seed. Interesting. I wonder if they will produce true to type. Kellogg's Breakfast, Golden King of Siberia, and Wapsipinicon Peach are very unhappy looking plants growing in a peat moss based soil medium, so they got repotted in potting soil with compost.

Peppers, 3 Varieties:
14 Jalapeno
9 Hungarian Hot Wax
8 Santa Fe

Total: 31 plants

Eggplants, 10 Varieties:
6 Applegreen
6 Thai Round Green
5 Thai Long Green
5 Cambodian Green Giant
3 Ping Tung
2 Pandora Rose
2 Bangladeshi Long
2 Malaysian Red
2 Thai Long Purple
1 Mazu Purple

Total: 34 plants

My husband wants to get more involved in the garden this year. We have decided to use all the extra wire fencing as support systems for the tomato plants, similar to the way people use cattle panels to sandwich growing tomatoes. We will probably end up with 6 rows of tomatoes supported by fencing, and one row staked and pruned. Bamboo stakes will be used for the tall peppers plants, pole beans, and cucumber vines. The 3 rows of eggplants will be covered with agribon floating row covers, which should take care of the flea beetles. The garden area gets 10 to 12 hours of direct sunlight daily so everything should grow fairly quickly.

I am not much of a weeder. I am more of a plant things close together to shade out the weeds kind of person, which really works for bush beans whose shallow roots don't take to hoeing kindly. To counteract my non-weeding tendencies the garden will be mulched this year, that should also keep the soil from getting crusty which makes it difficult for directly sown seeds to break through. The city makes mulch from collected yard waste which they sell by the truckload.