2024 SEED PICKS FOR THE GARDEN

Over the holidays, I’ve been pouring over seed magazines, doing a seed inventory, and planning my vegetable garden for next year. 

I am sharing what I will be growing next year in 2024. I do edit this list as time goes on. And this list doesn’t include seeds used in kids’ gardens. I have never added that because they change their mind so much it wouldn’t be accurate.

This post contains affiliate links. Here is the full disclosure.

I have several main places I buy my seeds from. They are High Mowing Organic Seeds, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Row 7 Seeds, FedCo Seeds, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. 

NOTE!! For a limited time, High Mowing Organic Seeds is doing their beginning of the year sale. It ends on January 2nd. They only do 1-2 sales a year.

High Mowing trials the seeds well because I don’t think I’ve ever got a variety I’ve been disappointed with. Most of the seed is slightly more expensive but it’s been SO worth it to get the organic seed. Organic seeds have more defenses against disease. I have seen much higher yields so the extra couple dollars is well worth it!

As you look through the list below, you may note I am crossing off and removing some varieties I grew last year.

They are not necessarily bad varieties. For some, I am doing some simplifying of what varieties I grow. Instead of deleting the whole thing, the strike through helps you to know which ones I grew last year that I’m doing away with for now.

Anything that is not an absolute favorite is off the list this year. I am still trying some new varieties that caught my eye. Also, no beets on this list because we don’t eat them. I might grow Mangel Beets for livestock.

Last note: I have painstakingly linked each and every variety of seed. Please let me know if you run into any broken links and I will fix them! If they aren’t linked, it’s because my original source isn’t selling them anymore, or I’m not growing it anymore.

Broccoli

My Favorite

• Green Magic F1 (57 days) A hybrid but it came recommended by two gardening friends in Arkansas! I finally got a really good broccoli harvest from this variety. Update December 2023, I am harvesting another great crop of this broccoli. As of right now, I’m going to stick with this variety!

Still Testing

• Calabrese Green Sprouting (90 days) This one came recommended to me by Cam’s Mom. I intended to try it last year but didn’t get it going in time.
• Solstice (70 days)

Brussel Sprouts- NOT GROWING THIS YEAR

In an effort to simplify the garden we aren’t growing brussel sprouts for the second year in a row. It’s a tough one to grow and subject to many pests and diseases where we live. I decided it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Dried Beans and Cowpeas

My Favorites

• Ozark Razorback Cowpea (90 days) These are FINALLY back in stock. Baker’s Creek hasn’t carried this variety in years. If you want some now is your chance!
• Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean (65 days) pole bean – Such a good variety! Prolific!
• Jacob’s Cattle Dry Bean (90 days) This is a bush type

Cabbage

My Favorites

• Golden Acre (62 days) Best for spring and late fall
• Red Express (62 days) Best for spring and late fall
• Chinese Cabbage Hilton (70 days) We use this for kimchi
• Brunswick Cabbage (90 days)
• Violaceo Di Verona… Looks like Bakers Creek is not carrying it this year! I may try and save some seeds from the ones I’m currently growing because this is a really good variety I love.
• January King

Carrots

My Favorite

• St. Valery (70 days) Trying new varieties and simplifying. Still a great option.
• New Kuroda A new favorite of mine from last year! Delicious and easy to grow!
• Napoli (55 days) A hybrid, but I just love it. Great for spring and fall. See note about high mowing seed below.

Still Testing

• Bollin (75 days) When ordering carrots from High Mowing Organic Seeds, I highly recommend getting the 2M size (2000 seeds). The small packet comes with 250 seeds. It seems like a lot but it’s not if you are planting by hand and then thinning. The higher price is due to the fact that these are organically grown and there is more costs/ losses for things to grow without chemicals.

New this Year

• Lila Lu (95 days) Repeating this from above: When ordering carrots from High Mowing Organic Seeds, I highly recommend getting the 2M size (2000 seeds). The small packet comes with 250 seeds. It seems like a lot but it’s not enough if you are planting by hand and then thinning.

Celery

My Favorite 

• Tango Celery (80 days) This is an awesome variety! They grow fantastic in cool weather. I am harvesting now, December 30 2023. I have also grown in summer but it does stress them more and they aren’t as tasty. We are in zone 6b for reference. The USDA likes to tell me I’m zone 7 now but I don’t believe that for a second. We are in a cold pocket of our area.

Corn

My Favorites

• Who Gets Kissed Sweet Corn (78-84 days) The best ever open pollination sweet corn, in my opinion.
• Nothstine Dent (100 days)
• Pennsylvania Butter Popcorn (102 days)

Cucumbers

My Favorite

• Homemade Pickles (55-60 days)
• Tendergreen Burpless (55 days)
• Cool Customer (55 days)
• Natsu Fushinari Really productive and disease resistant in my garden last year. 
• Beit Alpha
• H-19 Little Leaf A late add on from last year, but it did fantastic in our climate. I plan on growing this again for making pickles instead of my old favorite “Homemade Pickles”.

Cover Crops

To find out more about the best time to plant each of these, check out my blog post HERE.

• Winter Rye
• Hairy Vetch
• Oats
• Field Peas – I actually got mine HERE. But they are out of stock at the moment so I linked another option for you!
• Field Radish
• Crimson Clover

Flowers

You can’t really go wrong with any flowers! The only ones I stay away from are morning glory, they spread like a weed and can become invasive.

My Favorites

• Pink Senorita Zinnia
• Goldy Double Sunflower A new favorite from last year. See photo above!
• Meteor Zinnia
• Purple Prince Zinnia
• Cosmos Bright Lights
• Sweet Alyssum Tall White
• Echinacea Purpurea
• Marigold Brocade Mix
• Sunflower Lemon Queen
• Nasturtium Globe of Fire
• Calendula Strawberry Blonde
• Trailing Nasturtium
• Red Scarlet Zinnia
• Polar Bear Zinnia
• Envy Zinnia
• Peredovik Sunflower (great for bird feed)
• Double Dutch Rose Cosmos
• Copper Red Strawflower
• Mexican Sunflower Red Torch
• Afternoon White Cosmos

Green Beans

My Favorites

• Provider Bush Bean (50 days)
• Jade Bush Bean (53 days)
• Goldilocks Bush Bean (52 days)

Greens

My Favorites

• Astro Arugula (20-50 days)
• Bok Choy Purple Lady (45 days)
• Tatsoi (40- 50 days)
• Vates Collards (75 days)
• Champion Collards (70 days)
• Yellow Heart Winter Choy (45 days)

Herbs

My Favorites

• Genovese Basil
• Thyme
• Green De Belleville Sorrel
• Rosemary
• Dill Bouquet
• Slo Bolt Cilantro
• Holy Basil
• Blue Borage
• Delfino Cilantro
• Rosie Basil BEAUTIFUL!
• Amethyst Improved, Purple Basil Rosie is a better purple basil.
• Thai Sweet Basil

Still Testing

• Parsley Giant of Italy
• Moss Curled Parsley
• Bee Balm Lemon

Kale

My Favorites

• Blue Curled Scotch (50-60 days)
• Nero Di Toscana (55 days)
• Scarlet (55 days)
• Dwarf Siberian (50 days)
• Vates Kale (50- 60 days)

Lettuce

In the lettuce department, I am removing a few of my old favorites to make room for new varieties. An excellent lettuce grower informed me of some of the new varieties I’m trying.

My Favorites

• Little Gem (50 days)
• Winter Density (55 days full size)
• Mesclun Mix (28 days baby)
• Tropicana (52 days) Great for growing in heat
• Coastal Star (57 days) Great for growing in heat
• Merlot (35-50 days)

New this year

• New Red Fire (55 days)
• Panisse (45 days) Best for spring and fall
• Muir (50 days) Best for heat, extremely slow to bolt and sweet even when grown in hot conditions. The seeds are very expensive so I am trialing a small packet. We’ll see if this one is as good as it says!
• Teagan (65 days)

Melon

My Favorite

• Trifecta (83 days) Loved this one last year. A little on the firm side but nice and sweet. It did well in our southern climate.

Still Testing

• Petit Gris de Rennes (85 days)
• Madhu Ras Honey Melon (95 days) Sweet flavor but soft and mealy. We didn’t like it.

Onions

(These are definitely grown based on region. For more information on what kind of onions to grow in your area click HERE)

My Favorites

• Rossa Di Milano (110 days) Consistently large and disease resistant! Open pollination red onion.
• Zebrune Shallot  A good variety but I’m simplifying this year
• Gladstone Onion (110 days)  White onion. Not great in storage.
• Australian Brown (100 days) Best yellow onion that is open pollination.
• Bulgarian Giant Leek (110 days)
• Update (Jan 25) could not find organic seed for this so I’ll grow a different variety. Patterson F1 (104 days) I don’t often grow hybrids because the goal is self-sufficiency but this one came highly recommended. Yellow onion.
• NY Early Growing this because Patterson isn’t available.

Peanuts- NOT GROWING THIS YEAR

Two years ago, I tested these types. All did well but were eaten by rodents. Until I have a better system down I won’t be growing these again. Listing what I tried because they were all great types in case anyone is looking! 

• Tennessee Red Valencia (110 days)
• Carwile’s Virginia (120 days)
• Georganic (130 days)

Peas

My Favorite

• Sugar Snap  (58 days) favorite snap type
• PLS595 (64 days) the best shelling type, I had fantastic yields with this variety.

New This Year

• Beauregarde Snow Pea (60-80 days) Holds its color when cooked! 

Pepper

My Favorites

• Poblano (80 days)
• Emerald Giant (72-80 days)
• Tam Jalapeno (85 days)
• Lemon Spice Jalapeno (65 days)
• Korean Pepper (75 days)
• HMS Red Picnic Pepper Cam’s favorite!

Potatoes

My Favorites

• Kennebec

Radish

My Favorites

• Chinese Red Meat
• Japanese Minowase Daikon
• Schwarzer Runder Radish
• Watermelon Radish 
• Pink Beauty Radish 

Spinach

My Favorite

• Bloomsdale Long Standing  (48 days)
• Equinox (29 days) Great winter type
• Giant Winter (50 days) Huge leaves!

Summer Squash

My Favorite

• Lemon Squash (50 days) Best and most bug resistant summer squash around.

Sweet Potatoes

My Favorite

• Beauregard

Pumpkin/ Winter Squash

My Favorite

• Waltham Butternut Squash (100 days) I still like this variety, my family isn’t huge fans of butternut squash so the smaller, more flavorful personal size butternuts like Honeypatch, listed below, are better for us.
• Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (105 days) 2024 our year to grow pumpkins again. We took the year off in 2023 because we usually get enough for a two year supply.
• Honeypatch (110 days) Thank you to a friend who notified me of this company last year! I was extremely happy with the flavor of this little baby butternut type squash.

Tomatoes

My Favorites

• Black Cherry (64 days)
• Cherokee Purple (80 days)
• Roma (70-80 days)
• Kelloggs Breakfast (80 days)
• Amish Paste (85 days)
• San Marzano II (78 days) 
• Sunrise Bumblebee (70 days) Cam loves these
• Peacevine Cherry (78 days) New favorite from last year! Perfectly red spheres with awesome flavor and great production. Open pollination!
• Eva Purple Ball (78 days)  – This was new as of last year but easily made it to the favorites list. Produces beautiful and delicious tomatoes even in our hot and humid weather.

New This Year

• Orange Banana Paste Tomato

Turnip

My Favorite

• Purple Top White Globe (40- 50 days)
• Hakurei (38 days)
• Tokyo Market Turnip (35 days) Very similar to hakurei, and this one is open pollination.

Watermelons

We planted a few watermelons last year in the kids’ gardens. They didn’t produce. The year before we had a huge harvest! Cam declared he would like a portion of the garden to grow watermelons. They are his favorite fruit and he wants to make sure we get some.

My Favorite

Ledmon Watermelon (no longer available from where I purchased it)

Still Testing

• AliBaba Watermelon (100 days)
• Nancy (90 days)
• Chou Cheh Red (75 days)
• Crimson Sweet (85 days)

Wheat

Testing

• Glenn