Note: Many varieties are planted by more than one member. Don't let one report of difficulties deter you from trying the same variety. If you see someone have success with a variety that you had trouble with, ask them about what they did differently.

Fruits and Vegetables

Beans
Bush beans
Topcrop(regular type)
Romano(Italian-type).
Both got pretty badly eaten by bean bugs, but Topcrop fared a little better.  Romano made a strong early showing, but crapped out earlier than Topcrop.  Squishing bean bugs is really gross, but it helps a lot.

purple beans (grew well)

Fava Beans-I wanted to grow these since I could plant them in February and couldn't stand waiting any longer to put something in the ground!  They attracted lots of black aphids.  Their flowers are very pretty.  I got a small harvest, just a few meals, then turned the rest under for a green
manure.

Soybeans- I don't know what kind they were-whatever I bought at the Co-op; they were not intended for seed.  I was interested in seeing their growth habit and how they would do.  I soaked the seed for 24 hours in water before planting. They did fine, and I learned.  I mostly let them dry on the plant so I could see what they were like to shell out.  They are prickly and not too pleasant to shell with bare hands.  If I grow them in the future, I will research varieties and get one most appropriate for soy milk and tofu making.
 
 

Berries
Red Raspberries- These were transplants from the old garden site, and have been growing like weeds ever since.  They bear a few berries in the early summer and plenty more in the fall.  I have had no bug problems.  This fall I cut them to the ground, since the patch was getting pretty unruly.  I hope to train them better when they sprout new canes.

raspberry (Rubus idaeus)

Strawberries-I ordered some everbearing plants through the mail.  Then I left  them in the trunk of my car for about a week, forgetting they were there.  Then I noticed them.  They didn't look too happy, but I figured I would plant them anyway.  Plants are truly amazing, because not only did I get a few little strawberries, but by fall they were putting out runners and acting like the strawberry plants that real gardeners grow.  I gave them some straw mulch this fall by way of apology and am looking forward to a better year in 1999.
 
 

Corn
We had only 4 rows of corn, so the ears were small.  Becaues of vacation scheduling, we missed the window on picking them.  By the time we got back home, the corn was overdone and worthless.
 

Eggplants
eggplant, various varieties, some white, some purple.  One white variety was "Ghostbuster" .  They all did rather well, despite dire predictions by some about flea beetles.  The key was to be vigilant about squishing as many flea beetles as possible as often as possible.  My eggplants did better last year because I was able to squish beetles a few times a week.  But this year I was only able to squish them once a week or so.

Leafy Vegetables
Spinach
Sorrel- I transplanted this from Jerry & Herb's plot with their permission and it did pretty well.  The sour leaves are a nice addition to a salad.  It grows like a weed, looks hard to kill, so it is an ideal plant for me.  It is perennial so I expect it to be back.  Toward the end of the season some person unknown harvested all my sorrel by cutting it cleanly a few inches from the ground, which was a disappointment.

Mesclun- This is the blend of 'cut and come again" salad greens that all the yuppies buy for $6.99/lb.  I ordered it in the spring and then lost it on my desk.  Around October I was feeling sorry for myself that I had not planted a fall garden, since everyone else's looked so good.  So I located the mesclun seed and figured I would give it a chance.  I planted it October 10.  By mid-November I was harvesting more mizuna than I could eat.  The other greens in the mix did not grow as fast, but they grew also.  I continued to enjoy this late garden planting until about the second week of December, when we got a pretty good frost.  I haven't been back to the garden since-for all I know it might be pushing up snow right now!  Try this if you like the stuff and save a bundle!
 

Melons
Cantaloupe, variety unknown.  Planted two groups of seedlings.  One group succumbed to the "phytophera" that plagued people's melons last year.  I was told by a farmer to build up the straw around the plants to keep them from staying wet after a rain, cause the phytophera likes wet.  I was pleased that this worked with the one group, at least. The melons were HUGE and beautiful, and we got 3 big ones and one small one.  One of the big ones (our first born) got stolen, and I hope the person choked on it.

Okra
 Annie Oakley (something like that).  Didn't do as well as last year, but bore well, just the same.  Died of some malady that made the leaves shrivel up and the fruits get curled up.

Okra

African Red okra, an heirloom variety obtained via the SeedSavers Exchange, in the "Food for the Homeless" plot.  My intention was to donate it to the Food Pantry in Edison as arranged by Carol Wilson, and we did make several such deliveries.  I just wanted enough seed to continue the variety and offer the seed to other Seed Savers members.  Sadly, when I decided it was time to let the pods grow large and mature their seed, all the large pods were stolen, with considerable damage to the plants.  It is especially unfortunate since the pods were in no way edible at that size.  When smaller, they were excellent, and I nibbled several of them raw, very surprised that they were tender enough to allow this.  The plants are also highly ornamental, with burgundy stems, pods, and leaf veins, and beautiful yellow flowers, growing to about six feet tall.  I think they needed more fertilizer for a better harvest, but they didn't get it.  Maybe next year, but I don't know if the seed salvaged from the less mature pods will be viable.
 

Peppers
variety of bell peppers (did well)
Chili peppers were as hot as h---, just like they should be, but the Bell Peppers were small and bland.
lilac peppers
purple peppers
banana peppers
 
 

Potatoes
Red Potatoes-Potatoes didn't even sprout, except for 2 "chunks."  Very disappointing, but at least we didn't feed the Colorado beetles this year.

 Purple Viking/Viking Purple-volunteers from the 1997 growing season did
surprisingly well given my total neglect.  They are a crisp, white fleshed, purple skinned, stripey variety, I think from Ronningers in 1997.
 

Squash
zucchini-horrible.
yellow squash- horrible.
 Something killed these off early-- tried several organic pesticides and nothing worked.
cucumbers

Hubbard squash, variety unknown.  They grew well at first, then crapped out until we had only one or two plants left (started with 6 or so).  They frequently started out growing fruits, but then the fruits died off.  We ended up with two squashes, but they are so huge, that we didn't need anymore.

"Waltham Butternut".  I didn't plant these on purpose; they volunteered from last year and took over part of the garden. They did great on their own with no coaxing from me.

Tomatoes
early girl-Did fairly well
big boy- Did fairly well
Big Beef(round table type)The BBs did pretty well, but the taste wasn't wonderful.
Roma (plum) The Romas were like weeds: I mean, they did really well. And, some volunteered from last year where I had the beans this year.
Sweet 100(cherry).  TheS100s were really plentiful and sweet.  Later in the summer they got less sweet, but they were a delight.

Cherry tomatoes did the best, as usual.  Bought these at Ag Field Day, so perhaps someone knows the name of them.  They were very, very large, although my husband thought they were not as tasty as smaller types.

Beefsteaks-did NOT do well at all

Rutgers- This variety was developed right here at the Ag. Experiment station in 1928 for the canning industry.  It has a fine flavor and bore a heavy crop on sturdy, determinate plants.   I gave away tons of them and everybody loved them.  The skin is rather tough, which is good for canning because it is easy to remove.  It didn't bother anyone for fresh eating, but several people commented on it.  This fine, open pollinated variety is a monument to publicly funded research, and I will grow it again in 1999 from seed saved from 1998.

Brandywine- tastes quite good.  It is a beefsteak type, indeterminate habit, and needs to be caged somehow.  It tended to crack at the top if allowed to ripen fully on the vine, so I got into the habit of harvesting a little early and allowing them to sit.  The skins are very thin-I suppose that's why they crack.  I usually cut big beautiful slices from the attractive bottom half, and then nibble the good parts off of the upper half, since they aren't as pretty for the table.

Planned for 1999
Green Zebra (a tasty, green when ripe, yellow-striped variety)
Amish Paste (a large, meaty heirloom forsauce)
Tigerella, a cute, small stripey one with an interesting shape
Babywine-Brandywine variety selected by Rob Sala for smaller size and no cracks.
 
 

Herbs- grown mainly for their distinct flavors or medicinal properties
italian parsley (excellent)
lemon basil, and regular basil (very well)
dill (not so well, grew well for a couple weeks and died off even before heat hit)
Garlic-I plant whatever looks too crappy to eat in the fall.  It always grows, and is quite gratifying because it comes up so early.  Someday I may actually try a known variety, but I like every garlic I have ever eaten, so maybe I won't.
mint
lemon balm (melissa oficinale)
sage (salvia officinale)
rosemary (Rosmarius officinalis)
burdock (arctium lappa)
yellow dock (rumex crispus)
horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
catnip (nepeta cataria)
mugwort (artemisia vulgaris)
valerian (valeriania officinale)
comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Boneset  (Eupatorium perfoliatum L.)- This is a native medicinal plant described to me by my grandfather.  I have never seen it growing in this area, so I got some seed and started it.  After about six months it was almost big enough to see.  Perennials from seed will drive me crazy.  I knew it likes wet conditions so I planted it in a depression in the plot, about 10 inches below grade.  This year it grew into a big clump and seems just fine.  It looks weird because there appear to be two types, a flowering type and a non flowering type which is a somewhat different color.  I can find no explanation in the literature, so I will continue to observe it.  Hopefully I will never have to use it for "breakbone fever."

Elecampane (Inula helenium L.)- This is a perennial medicinal herb long used for asthma and chest colds.  I saw some seeds offered and grabbed them.  In its first season, the plants which survived grew to about the size of my thumbnail.  Since the plant is supposed to be 6 feet tall, I began to wonder if I had the wrong seed!  1998 was its second year, and it still did not flower, but it did grow some very big, two foot long leaves in a basal rosette, in appearance much like the prickly lettuce weeds which appear when we don't weed for about 2 months.  Supposedly it will get a central flower spike and produce some lovely yellow flowers on a six foot flower spike, maybe in 1999.
 

Flowers-plants grown mainly for their flowers, although some are edible

Calif poppy.  Gangbusters, seeded all over.
Four-o'clock.  Grew well.
Nasturtium.  Pitiful.  Died soon after planting.
Dianthus (annual). Very well; good cut flowers.
Zinnias. Popular with butterflies.  Saw some swallowtails on them.
Portulaca.  Did well, but didn't compete well with weeds.
Marigolds- Grew well early, but got ratty-looking later
mamouth sunflowers (grew like weeds)
snap dragons-did very well
marigolds-did very well
miniature zineas -did very well
lavendar (lavendula officinale)
violet (viola odorata or tricolour)
Cosmos, Snapdragons, Obedient Plant, Portulaca, and Borage:
All planted for and much appreciated by foraging bees all season long.  We had lots of honey bees in 1998 relative to recent years, so hopefully the bee epidemic of tracheal and varroa mites is coming under control.  Anything we can do to help out our little pollinating buddies is probably good.  I hear that borage flowers, leaves, and seed are also edible, so maybe I'll try them in 1999.  It self seeds like mad, and starts growing in about February, so it shouldn't be long now!

Daffodils and crocus: I planted these bulbs several years ago, and they get better every
spring!  The yellow crocus open first, then the purple, then the
daffodils go absolutely crazy with flowering.  Nice to see when you are
jumping up and down waiting for your peas or potatoes to hurry up and
come up already in the early spring.  Or maybe I'm the only impatient
one in the club?

 Cultivated  Weeds-

dandelion (taraxacum officinale)
chickweed (stellaria media)
sweet annie (artemisia annua)
rue (Ruta graveolens)

Milkweed
In the hope of attracting butterflies and other nice bugs, I planted three types of milkweed.  They are very different in form, but have some features which indicate their common genus, most notably that all three were practically blanketed by orange aphids which I didn't see on any other plant.  I assume they were protecting my vegetables by being so much more attractive to aphids that they didn't bother anything else.

Asclepias tuberosa is known as Butterfly Weed.  It has brilliant orange flowers and did indeed attract butterflies.  It is perennial and grew about 18 inches tall.  I purchased it from some commercial source as a dormant root.

Asclepias syriaca is the common milkweed.  It is often considered an agricultural pest plant, so don't tell anyone I planted it on purpose. I transplanted this one from a friend's pasture.  It was dreadfully hard to dig up!  It had a long horizontal root about 10 inches down into baked clay soil which I followed until I ran into an anthill and got covered with ants.   It hated being transplanted, wilted, and then all the leaves fell off and it was dead.  A few weeks later it magically came back to life, sprouting buds lower on the stem and putting out new leaves. It did not flower in 1998.  I am pretty sure it will be back this year, and if I grows like crazy, I'll eat it.  It has many edible, rather tasty parts.

Asclepias ???   I am pretty sure this last one is also Asclepias, and suspect that it is the plant known as "swamp milkweed."  It has dark green waxy leaves and a vining habit.  I found it while visiting my cousin in Dayton, Ohio in the late fall.  It was growing up a fence, or had grown there during the growing season.  What got my attention was the very distinctive pod, identical to that of the common milkweed.  It looked totally out of place, so I took it home and planted the seed.  It did not flower in 1998, but it was gaily decorated with bright orange aphids, making me quite sure it was indeed Asclepias despite its odd appearance.  I hope it comes back for another season in 1999 so I can observe it and try to get a positive ID on it.