Market gardeners don't have the time to coddle finicky veggies. Disease-prone plants can put a big dent in income. Faster-maturing peppers help extend the sale season. These are some of the no-nonsense requirements of the small farmer, many of whom are devoted to growing organic, chemical-free produce. While these folks love what they do, their survival depends on making a profit, and that requires vigorous, disease-resistant, heavy-producing varieties of greens.
For anyone planning next summer's vegetable garden during the snowy days of winter, why not go where the market gardeners go? The Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog is without question my top pick, not only for its fine presentation but because it serves as the one-stop shop where you can get everything you need or want. Although they sell online at www.Johnnyseeds.com, the hard copy of the catalog is so worthwhile, you'll be reluctant to put it in the recycling bin years later. Order yours at (877) 564-6697.
This catalog is a whopper, covering 200 full-color pages of more than just seeds. Here you'll find roots, tubers, bulbs or slips of varieties designed to catch the eye of both the gourmet and the strictly organic shoppers. After all, if you're going to the trouble of growing your own vegetables, why not cultivate something you'll never find at the grocery store?
What makes this catalog unique is the comparative photography. One photo shows five different beet varieties sliced to reveal the variations in skin and flesh. These range from the standard maroon to yellow, white and striped pink. The same is shown in their specialty carrots, popular with creative chefs. This year, there's a spectacular new carrot, Purple Rain. Its nearly black outer flesh and orange insides are presented in a luscious, two-tone graphic.
There are also 24 pages of exotic salads and pot greens from Asian, European and American breeders. The many special seed blends offer mixtures guaranteed to assist in your daily harvesting of "confetti" salad clippings.
To make lettuce even easier to grow, Johnny's sells pelleted seeds, which help you more accurately distribute growth. Pellets are seed-bound in a tiny clay ball. "As the pellets absorb moisture, they split open allowing immediate access to oxygen for fast, uniform seedlings emergence." This helps you avoid the problem of overly dense or too sparse sowing that is all too common with greens.
Johnny's specialty, though, is squash in all its wonderful diversity. Its selection of winter squash is astonishing, featuring a wide range of sizes, shapes and vivid colors. Many of them resulted from Johnny's breeding program, and therefore cannot be obtained anywhere else. These are grown in summer, but they keep through the winter for vitamin-rich side dishes.
The guide is also one of the best resources for growing herbs, both culinary and medicinal. Here, you will find seed for all those herbal supplements you usually pay big bucks for in the store -- ginseng, lemongrass, goldenseal, pyrethrum and valerian. It's also one of the few sources of milk-thistle seed for those suffering from hepatitis C.
Another great feature of the Johnny's catalog is the detailed growing information designed to help market gardeners produce large crops. They tell you when to start each kind of plant, both outdoors and in. For example, they instruct you to plant lemon cucumber seeds in early April or eight weeks prior to planting outside after the last frost. There is also specific data on staking, disease, insect pests, days till maturity, and tips on proper harvesting.
This is just an introduction to Johnny's incredible world so if there's just one catalog you order, let it be Johnny's, when you simply can't afford to fail.
Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist. Her blog, the MoZone, offers ideas for cash-strapped families. Read the blog at www.MoPlants.com/blog.