I’ve been trading and buying my seed-hoarding heart out- and today, I’m presenting a list of “new to me” varieties (and likely new to you, too!) that I’m absolutely over the moon about!
This past fall, I was largely focused on trading as many seeds as possible in order to grow my personal collection of seeds; I was largely focused on tomato varieties, but I’ve got a lot of cool, new stuff for the entire garden.
I want to share why I’m so excited for each seed variety, hopefully spurring some excitement in your own garden planning!
It’s not too late to buy and start seeds, so if anyone would like to compete with me (whether it be tomato size, end harvest weight, shape/form, etc), I’d be happy to accept a friendly challenge!
I mean, don’t we all love a fun, motivational push in the garden?
Now, some of the seeds I have are not widely available, some may be quite rare and virtually impossible to get your hands on. In those cases, I do apologize for the lack of availability, but I greatly encourage you to dive into the world of seed trading (I have my huge blog post on seed trading for beginners here) to find some of these varieties!
*I apologize ahead of time: I do NOT have images to use for these different varieties, as I have yet to grow them. Each can be found with a simple search, and some have videos to follow!*
Variegated Tomato: Beautiful Foliage
This is one of the few plants I’m growing this year that’s both ornamental AND productive! Not only will it produce delicious tomatoes…
It’ll also produce beautiful variegated foliage, too! While traditional tomato plants are green, these will have splashes of white and cream throughout the stems and leaves.
I can’t wait to share photos of these beautiful plants.
Reisetomate Tomato: Ornamental and Productive, Too!
Alright, here’s another garden beauty! The Reisetomate Tomato is a really neat oddity; its a tomato made up of several small fruit clusters! It looks much like an out of control and disproportionate blackberry, with some of the individual pieces being large, others smaller, all fusing together to form one weird looking tomato.
If you search for “reisetomate tomatoes” on Google, you’ll see some wild looking fruits! This is supposed to be a great snacking tomato as you can rip off small pieces of the fruit on the go. This is one of my biggest picks for this list!
Lady Godiva Pumpkin: Ultimate “Seed” Pumpkin
Pumpkin seeds are absolutely delicious, but the hulls can be a pain. Therefore, I found a couple different varieties of pumpkins that produce hulless seeds, including the Lady Godiva Pumpkin.
Lady Godiva Pumpkin seemed to be a fairly carefree variety, with each plant producing many small pumpkins (that are beautifully striped) for lots of people. The flesh seemed to be on the average side of things, but that’s okay; I’m after the seeds!
Eucalyptus Citriodora: Natural Repellent and Remedy
Eucalyptus Citriodora is also known as Lemon Scented Gum. This is actually a tree that is only hardy in zone 9+; therefore, it would not survive a winter here. However, I should get lots of use out of a few plants over the growing season!
This stuff isn’t safe to take internally (so, don’t do it if you have it), but it can be used as an incredible mosquito repellent. It’s actually grown commercially for this purpose. It’s also good for use in salves for muscle or joint pain, and it’s apparently said to be effective against toenail fungus. It’s quite the multitasking plant, huh?
This fragrant plant will also add a beautiful, exotic touch to the front garden, which is one more fun benefit. I’m excited to see how this plant works for us, and whether or not it’ll go into the yearly garden.
“Sensitive Plant” Mimosa Pudica
The sensitive plant is a novelty plant for me, and I can’t wait to grow some of these little guys.
When you touch their leaves, they fold up and pull away from your touch. This is believed to be a survival tactic, as many grazers would likely be spooked by this behavior.
I’ve also read that this plant is medicinal in some ways, as well; I’ve not put much time into researching the benefits of this plant as a healing herb, but as I get closer to the growing season, I will find myself lost in a world of endless cyber tunnels, finding any and all resources for its medicinal use.
Lesya Sweet Pepper
This pepper is one of the new 2020 varieties listed by Baker Creek on their website.
This pepper is supposed to be a sweet snacking type, with thick walls. It’s a gorgeous deep red color, and I’m incredibly excited to add it to the roster of sweet peppers I’m growing. Hopefully, it’ll prove to be a great candidate for freezing and dehydrating for cooking, as well.
Freckles Viola Pansy (Similar to Wild Viola, AKA Johnny-Jump-Ups)
Alright, the Johnny-Jump-Up is one of my favorite flowers, especially since it grows wild, is quite prolific in our yard, and because it is one of the first things to bloom here. You can also eat it, and use it to make jelly. What’s not to love about this gorgeous, tiny flower?
When I found the Freckles Viola Pansy… I about screamed in excitement! It is drop-dead gorgeous… a beautiful white viola flecked with the prettiest purple freckles! I fully intend on this sharing the entirety of the lawn with the wild Johnny-Jump-Ups. Every year, more and more of the wild violas pop up in the yard, as mowing is strictly prohibited by me until the violas have went to seed. Last year, roughly 1/3 of the yard was in bloom. Hopefully, more than half of it will be this year!
Large Bushel Basket Gourd
Another one I’ve been excited for, for years! The Large Bushel Basket Gourd is a massive gourd; large enough to use as, well you guessed it, a basket. I’m excited to grow some natural storage boxes for our home. I would like to use these to organize stuff within our pantry, to hold laundry (such as clean/dirty kitchen towels), to organize smaller toys, and to decorate for candy bowls or gift baskets.
In addition, the vines would make a delicious snack for the goats, and an excellent source of shade for the little velociraptors (I mean, chickens.)
Alfalfa
I’ve had my alfalfa seeds for two years now, but have had yet to be able to get an alfalfa plot going. Alfalfa is very rich in protein, hence its popularity as a forage among livestock.
I would like to grow, harvest, and dry alfalfa, storing it away for the winter months for the chickens. The added protein should help our ladies to lay a little better in the winter months, when they’re in dire need of additional protein.
Golden Sunray Tomato
I’ve got roughly 100 varieties of tomatoes, with some very rare ones in tow. So why am I so excited for Golden Sunray, over some of the other cool varieties? Well… It’s right up my alley!
I love tomatoes in all forms, but yellow/orange sweet types are my favorites. Even better? Tomatoes that you don’t have to cut before eating; you just toss them in your mouth, straight from the garden! There’s nothing quite as delicious as that.
The yellow or orange varieties are always a little sweeter in my opinion, but the hot, merciless summer sun just increases their sweetness. When those little tomatoes broil all day, it’s the most delicious, warm, juicy, sweet nugget that gardeners’ dreams are made of.
My Apologies, If You Had Your Mind Off of Winter…
I apologize to everyone who shed a tear or two over the tomatoes because of this temperamental winter weather; I promise, spring is coming! Here in 7a, we have just 6 weeks until the worst of it is over. That’s 42 days. We can make it; we’re over halfway there!
Currently, we’re preparing to come out of (statistically) the worst two weeks of winter in our region. Granted, ENSO neutral conditions surprised us with an incredibly mild January… but our temperatures are taking a nosedive in 4 days.
All in all, 2020 has been a year of oddities and curious situations so far; I’m not sure how my 2020 garden is going to pan out due to some particular circumstances (which we will discuss later on!), but I will be moving full steam ahead in an effort to make the dream happen!
Happy planting, y’all! Let’s get
those seeds started!