What New Vegetable Seeds Am I Planting for 2012?

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It’s bound to be an exciting year for the vegetable garden!  In fact every year I get excited by the potential new varieties of seeds to try.  The catalogs are full of amazing, mouthwatering, and delicious pictures and descriptions. (Don’t worry I’m not eating the catalog – although I’ll bet you thought about it too!) Whittling down the choices to a reasonable amount of seed for my garden and my budget is a challenge.  I always like to add a few new plants to the vegetable garden.  When I say new, I really mean new to me.  I prefer to garden with heirlooms for their seed saving capabilities and what I believe is a tendency toward superior taste.  Today’s hybrids tend to be bred for better travel or disease resistance and there isn’t as much focus on flavor. 

So here are a few of the new choices I’m adding to my vegetable garden this year:

New Vegetable Varieties in My Garden for 2012
  • Brussel’s Sprouts: ‘Long Island Improved’ – We’ve become fascinated with Brussel’s sprouts lately.  Brussel’s sprouts are extremely healthy vegetable and very tasty when roasted in grape seed oil with salt and pepper!
  • Purple Tomatillo – I’m looking forward to making some salsa verde this year!
  • Radicchio ‘Rossa di Verona Dragon’ – At my wife’s request we’ll be adding this radicchio to our salad mix!
  • Eggplant: ‘Rosita’ and ‘Rosa Bianca’ – Anyone up for some eggplant parmigiana?  Eggplants are delicious but tricky to grow.  I’ve tried several times and haven’t gotten any to survive very well.  Usually they get eaten by some garden invader.  Last year’s eggplant survived but never produced.
  • Pepper: Quadratto D’asti Rosso: A sweet red pepper.
  • Tomato: T.C. Jones – A yellow beefsteak variety that sounded interesting!

There’s a few of the new for 2012.  There are several more on order that I’ll probably mention in future posts as they grow, as I plant them, or as I find something interesting to share!  All these plants can be found at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.   

What new vegetables are you trying this year?

7 thoughts on “What New Vegetable Seeds Am I Planting for 2012?”

  1. I'm thinking about 'cherry stuffer hybrid' red bell pepper from Burpee, 'Cherokee Purple' tomato from a friend, and yellow Brandywine seeds if I can find them. I have a question though. I feel like we're in similar zones (I'm in Chattanooga) and I was wondering when you will start your seeds? Its been a VERY mild winter so far, and I've never started veggies from seed, so I am at a loss.

    Thanks for your advice and wonderful posts!

    ~Emily

    • Emily, I'll start most of my warm season plants like tomatoes in the middle of March. The peppers I'll start earlier since they tend to take a little longer. I'll start them about two weeks before the tomatoes. It has been mild but don't let that fool you we could still get some cold weather in March and April!

  2. They all sound good to me but I've really wanted to try the radicchio. Down here that is a winter veggie. I still will try the kale & potato soup. My kale is still going. The other winter veggies I planted are up & doing good. I had salads fresh from my garden all winter so I replanted. It sure tastes better fresh from the garden.

  3. I just received my beautiful heirloom seeds catalog (I ordered from a link on your blog) and I am so excited! Yep, practically ate the pages of these gorgeous photos of so many interesting and delicious-looking varieties. It's going to be a real challenge for me to choose…I have a small container garden! But, I'm up to the challenge! I love it!

  4. So nice vegetable garden and more interesting garden shared on the site so that can be know that how to crop in this garden and enjoy it. Mostly people are very like it and more fantastic garden.

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