Potatoes

Last year, potatoes in my garden were an accident. I had some store bought Yukon Golds that went wrinkly and sprout. I was headed out to the compost pile when at the last minute I thought "What the heck?". Even though it was early June, they did fine and a got a couple of pounds of bonus potatoes.

This year, I decided to get serious about them. The smallest amounts I found were 2 pounds of seed potatoes which is what I ordered in 6 different varieties; Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac, Kennebac, Purple Viking, Adirondack Blue and All Red. I expect to plant about 8-12 nice hills of each and should get a nice harvest this Fall - at least that's the plan!

Peppers

I suppose one of the other long crops I'm growing are Peppers. I use a lot of Sweet Peppers in cooking and would like to have a good supply on hand over Winter. That means I need 6 or more plants and would like about 2 dozen peppers to freeze for overwinter.

I will be buying plants of California Wonder and will seed a Carnival Mixture for some other than the regular green bells.

Also this year I am going to grow some hot peppers mainly as ornamentals. I purchased several different colors and shapes to grow in pots as well as in beds. I have Numex (purple to red); Super Chili (green to red); Sangria (purple to red); Pretty in Purple (purple to red); Prairie Fire (Yellow to Red); and Riot (yellow to red).

Tomatoes

It seems that everyone lists the varieties of tomatoes they'll be growing first on their blog. I think that it may speak to the importance that we northern gardeners give to our tomato crops! For my part, I'm planning on both small cherry types as well as several standard types.

Sun Gold is a golden orange Cherry that I'll be trying this year - 65 days
Yellow Pear is an heirloom pear-shaped cherry I tried last year - 75 days
Juliet is a larger grape type that will be a first this year - 60 days
Sugar Snack is a cluster cherry that will also be a first this year - 65 days

Hopefully the above mix will provide a longer season of small tomatoes for snacking and storing. Some plants will be put into pots for the deck and the others will be in the garden proper.

Yellow Boy is a mild indeterminate standard from last year - 72 days
Big Boy is a larger indeterminate also from last year - 78 days
Beefsteak is an indeterminate old stand-by from last year - 80 days
Roma is a paste Italian type determinate that will be new - 76 days
Rutgers is an heirloom indeterminate that I've grown in the past - 74 days
Orange Blossom is an nice orange from last year - 68 days
Mr Stripie is an heirloom German type from last year - 78 days

Hopefully these standards will give me losts of Summer tomatoes as well as enough to put by frozen and in salsa, chili, and sauces to get through next Winter.