My 2023 Vegetable Grow List

Are you going through your seed catalogues or on-line seed shops and finding your list getting longer and longer still? Finding so many things you want to try, that catch your eye but getting a bit over-whelmed and not sure how/where to pare it down?

It is so exciting to see all the varieties and possibilities but is easy to get carried away so that you are ordering way more than you can grow.

How does one decide what to actually purchase and what to leave behind? Here are a few things you should do beforehand to help you make those decisions.

You need to make a list of what you want to grow this year so that you have that list with you when you go to Seedy days, to the garden centres, or when you are poking about on line. When you have your list, decide what you want to grow from seed and what to purchase as plants.

How do you decide what to put on that grow list?

1. Make a list of the what veggies the family eats.

2. Consider what you want to do with the things that you grow.

3. Keep in mind how much garden space you have.

1. Look at your weekly grocery lists over the past year and make a list of all the veggies you regularly buy. These are all items that will instantly save you money weekly if you grow your own. Once packet of seeds to grow 50 heads of lettuce is $4 or $5, one head of lettuce is $5.

If only one person in the family eats a certain veggie, it might be a better idea to buy that one item from the farmer's market rather than taking up garden space for it. I love parsnips, but no one else really does. They are all adults so they will (probably) try a little bit to be polite if it is offered at the Thanksgiving table, but growing more than a handful of parsnips is a waste of my garden space and time. Now, I just buy a handful at the market for Thanksgiving and use that space for something else.

Only grow what your family eats. I cannot stress this enough. Don't grow it because it is something you think they should eat or you want them to eat. If little Johnny hates broccoli, sadly he will still hate it even though you grew it with much love. If it just ends up in the compost bin, it is a waste of space, money, and time.

That is not to say that you cannot trial something new, something interesting, you definitely should if something peaks your interest! That is what makes gardening exciting. Try to keep your garden at 80% tried and true, 20% new and exciting.

2. Think about what else you can grow that will save you money. Think self-sustainability as well as fresh eating. Do you want to fill your pantry with canned goods and storage items? Grow all the things for a pantry full of 100% organic foods.

Do your teenagers go through a jar of salsa at one sitting? Write down all the ingredients in the salsa and grow your own. One jar of salsa is about $5 at the shops. The money you will save by growing tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic. Homemade is so so much healthier, too, all organic and a whole lot less sugar. We did this when our two kids were teens as they could go through several jars in one week. Make it as mild or spicy as you like.

You can also make fresh salsas when tomatoes are in season, so good. Make a peach or mango salsa with Ananas Noir or your favourite sweet tomato for your fish tacos! Bruschetta made from homegrown tomatoes is amazing.

Do you buy a lot of pasta sauce? Grow the ingredients needed to make your own. We make many jars of sauce, putting some into the smaller jars canning jars as I am often alone so the 500ml (pint) jar is just perfect. We sometimes add veggies (spinach, mushrooms, basil, garlic) to make a spaghetti sauce and other times make just a simple passata (tomato puree) that can be made into anything later. If you are health conscious and hate all the sugar in store bought ketchups, is super simple to make your own.

Use a lot of canned tomatoes in soups, stews, chili? Diced, whole, sliced? Grow some determinate paste tomatoes and can them up. Each plant will give you at least 8 pounds of tomatoes, usually more. Don't know how, or have time, to can them? Remove the core of the tomato, toss them into a bag and into the freezer they go. Toss tomatoes into the pot of soups, stews, chilis, make spaghetti sauce, etc.

Like pickled beets? Pickles? Pickled asparagus? Sauerkraut? Kimchi? You get the picture. Anything veggie related that you purchase often from the grocers is something that you can grow and save money on. If you only eat one jar of kimchi a year, probably not worth your while to grow the ingredients.

Grow your own herbs and spices as they take up very little room. It is super easy to dehydrate herbs, garlic, onions, peppers, etc... and grind them to make your own homegrown spices. We make our own cayenne powder, paprika powder, chili powder, garlic powder, dill weed. You can make your own herbal salts, too.

For storage, grow veggies that you can put in the pantry or store room as is, to eat throughout the winter. Things like potatoes, onions, squash, cabbage, carrots, beets.

If in a warmer zone, you can leave some of these items in your garden to harvest as needed.

Look at your list and decide if you want to grow everything on that list, or if it is more worthwhile to buy some items at the market and use that garden space to grow more of something else. So, if you only use a few peppers to add to your salsas but do not use it for anything else, grow more tomatoes and buy those peppers at the market. Support a farmer and get organic, locally grown. Everyone wins.

3. Keep your garden space in mind. It is super easy to get carried away and order all the seeds... but keep in mind that you only have so much garden space. Yes, most seeds will keep well for 3 to 5 years, but you're not saving money if you over-buy annually.

Also, you may want to just buy seeds for things that can be sown directly into the garden and buy the plants for anything that needs to be pre-started. Do what is most practical for you!

Here is my Veggie Grow List for 2023

Beans	Kentucky Wonder Pole	Renee's/direct sow	60 days/summer/fresh eating
Beets	Deep Dylinder	T&T Seeds/direct sow	55 days/let spring/pickling
Beets	Lutz Green Leaf	Heritage Harvest/direct sow	55 days/late spring/storage
Broccolini	Artwork	T&T Seeds/starter plants	57 days/spring/late summer/eat+freeze
Brussels Sprouts	Long Island Improved	OSC/starter plants	95 days/long/fresh eating
Cabbage	Storage #4	T&T Seeds/starter plants	90 days/long/fresh and storage
Carrot	Red Atomic	T&T Seeds/direct sow	65 days/late spring/fresh+store
Carrot	Red Cored Chantenay	OSC/direct sow	72 days/late spring/fresh+store
Carrot	Triton	OSC/direct sow	72 days/late spring/fresh+store
Cauliflower	Purple Crush	Renee's/starter plants	75 days/spring/late summer/fresh eating
Celery	Tall Utah	OSC/starter plants	100 days/long/canning & cooking
Cucumber	Chelsea Prize	Renee's/direct sow	60 days/summer/fresh eating
Cucumber	French Gherkin	Renee's/direct sow	53 days/summer/ canning
Cucumber	Green Fingers	Renee's/direct sow	60 days/summer/fresh
Cucumber	Parisian Gherkin	T&T Seeds/direct sow	60 days/summer/ canning
Eggplant	Morden Midget	Heritage Harvest/starter plants	60 days/summer/eat
Lettuce	Sweet Greens & Reds	Renee's/direct sow	35 days/spring/eating
Onions	Red Wethersfield	Heritage Harvest/starter plants	100 days/long/storage
Onions	Yellow of Parma	Heritage Harvest/starter plants	100 days/long/storage
Peas	Tall Telephone	OSC/direct sow	64 days/spring/fresh+ freezing
Pepper	Calwonder	OSC/starter plants	75 days/summer/ fresh
Pepper	Feher Ozon Paprika	Heritage Harvest/starter plants	70 days/summer/fresh+ dehydrate
Pepper	Golden Calwonder	OSC/starter plants	75 days/summer/fresh
Pepper	Hot Sunset	T&T Seeds/starter plants	85 days/summer/pickle
Pepper	Sriracha	T&T Seeds/starter plants	80days/summer/sauce

Pumpkin	Howden	OSC/direct sow	95 days/Warm
Pumpkin	Mini Mix	T&T Seeds/direct sow	95 days/Warm
Pumpkin	Musquee de Provence	OSC/direct sow	80-120 days/Warm
Potatoes	Norland Red?	direct plant	70-90 days/Warm
Potatoes	Russet?	Direct plant	100-120 days/Warm
Radish	French Breakfast	T&T Seeds/direct sow	25 days/Cool
Rutabaga	Improved Helenor	Renee's/starter plants	85 days/Long
Scallions	Delicious Duo	Renee's/direct sow	65 days/Cool
Spinach	Countryside	OSC/direct and starter	45 days/Cool
Watermelon	Mini Love	Renee's/starter plants	70 days/Warm
Zucchini	Incredible Escalator	Renee's/direct sow	58 days/Warm

So, this is my list and here is why I chose these guys.... the tomato list was done separately the other day, you can find that HERE! The flower list will be coming shortly, as well as the planning post.

I focus mostly on things that I can pop into the pantry/store room for the winter than what we'll eat in summer. Pretty much anything you grow for storage, can also be harvested throughout the summer for salads and fresh eating.

The onions were chosen as they are good storage onions. When buying your onions, keep in mind that not all of them are good keepers, so if you want a stocked pantry, you need to check. Sweet yellow onions will only last about 4 months max so maybe grow less of them and extras of the storage onions. I grow onions from seed as I know what I am getting and have a much bigger selection than I would from sets. Onion seeds do not keep so you may as well plant them all, some for cooking in summer, canning in fall, and some for winter storage.

The cabbage should keep well in my store room just as is, plus the rutabagas (Swedes), potatoes, and pumpkins, too. I bought some burping jars to try my hand at making some sauerkraut for hubby.

This will be my first year in forever that I cannot store carrots in the garden to harvest at will, so I will try some in a box in the pantry (it has to be able to breathe or they will go moldy), and some in the extra fridge. Parsnips would be the same. My store room is quite cool, by the way.

We do a lot of canning so the tomatoes are grown mostly for sauces, salsas, passata, ketchup, chow chow, and freezing. The onions, celery, peppers, and herbs will be used in making these canned goods.

I bought the cylindrical beets to slice for pickling. We may pickle some of the Lutz as whole beets but they were chosen mainly for storage and fresh eating.

I will likely be buying more pepper seeds yet, once I find out what the mister needs for his hot sauce, or maybe the starter plants. The sweets are for salads and fresh eating, mostly for me, I love them and can eat them like an apple.

The hot sunsets are going to be made into pickled peppers, a family favourite with everyone except myself. I am a heat wimp. The other hots for making into sauce.

Feher Ozon is a lovely, tapered, long Hungarian paprika pepper that is sweet and tasty for fresh eating as well as grinding into paprika powder. Our peppers are grown in pots so they take up no garden space.

We don't eat a lot of beans but really like them! Beans need a pressure cooker in order to can them properly for storage so we do not can them. Pressure cookers scare me, hah! Frozen beans are not the yummiest, so I grow a bit for fresh eating only.

The Tall Telephone peas on my list are shelling peas for fresh eating and freezing. In my zone 7 garden, I would sow the peas in February on a nice day, March if I forgot. The snow would come, the rains would come, and then when the sun started shining, the peas would start to grow. Sow a few more in April for a succession crop. I will try them in March here in my zone 3 garden, if I get a day when the snow is off the beds, or April if not, with a later sowing for a succession crop.

I also like the dwarf Little Crunch peas from Renee's (in the pic above) but forgot to order them this year. They stay short, are early, just cascade over the side of my raised beds.

The eggplants are also grown in a pot, they grow better that way, so take up no garden space. I don't need many plants as is just myself and my daughter who like them so I just chose one variety this year. My favourite way to eat them is marinated in balsamic vinegar for grilled eggplant veggie sandwiches. I fell in love with these sandwiches when we had a little bistro in town called "Carrot On The Run', they made the most amazing lunch foods.You can make these sandwiches with meats, as well.

Cucumbers - well, I have ordered a lot of seeds. Will be growing the two types of gherkins for pickling while the others are for fresh eating. I start the Long English types from seed in May and start a few more in early July.

Cool weather veggies (radishes, greens, lettuces, radishes, cauliflower, broccolini, scallions, spinach) are grown in spring and again in late summer.

The brussels are because we love them and must have them. They are long season crops, so planted in early spring and harvested for Thanksgiving dinner. They are fine even if you get an early snowfall. Anything listed as long season crops on the list are sown or planted in spring but not harvested till late summer, or fall.

This list will have us in food from spring till fall. Our only hold back will be how soon we can get our beds finished in spring as we ran out of time in fall to get them filled up.

I hope this post helps you decide what you want to grow yourself and what to buy at the shops. Some choose not to grow the brassicas as they are known for being buggy, but if you companion plant with flowers, bugs are not usually much of an issue. The flowers I am growing will be my next post, so stay tuned.

Whew, that is a lot of information! I need to start some Zoom workshops, or something, as this is all so much easier to explain in person ; )

Have questions? Post them below or on my Facebook page. I love questions! I can talk gardening all day long.

Happy ordering and dreaming ~ Tanja