What Vegetables To Plant?

I started to select what I will be planting this year. I will be starting the majority of these from seeds.

Tomatoes:

San MarzanoTomato – Great for making pasta sauce. Since last year I only got 4 quarts of sauce from my garden, I will be planting as many of these as I can to increase the yield.
Roma Tomato – Paste tomatoes, great for sauce.
Beefsteak Tomato – Great for sandwiches.
Early Girl Tomato – Early ripening tomatoes. I will plant a few of these so that we can begin enjoying tomatoes fresh from the garden as soon as possible.

Peppers:

Jalapeno – Great for Tomato Salsa, Tomatillo Salsa, in chili and for use in other home canned pickled items to add a little heat.
Yellow Banana Peppers – Great pickled and in salads.
Green Bell Peppers – Great for stuffed peppers, in salads.
??? Peppers – My son picked out a variety because they are extra spicy. I believe they are chili peppers and I will likely be drying them in my food dehydrator for later use.

Zucchini – Great for shredding and freezing for Zucchini Bread. Also great for Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles. Also great canned with tomatoes.
Green Beans – Awesome pickled with Dill or Basil. My kids and I could eat these all day.
Cabbage – I want to try canning my own Cole Slaw this year.
Eggplant – I want to try canning Caponata. I love it and it's so expensive at the grocery.
Tomatillos – I made some awesome Tomatillo Salsa last year and I would really like to try growing my own if I can find seeds locally.

My partner also wants to plant melons, not sure what kind.

That’s a pretty good start. Most of the items can be started by seed or sewn directly into the ground after the last frost. I may add some root vegetables like Kohlrabi, Turnips, Parsnips and salad greens depending on how large we expand the garden area. My priority is lots and lots of tomatoes so that I can put up as much pasta sauce and salsa as I can so that I don't have to buy as much canned tomatoes and paste at the grocery store.

Lola's Victory Garden
©2009