What I’m growing in 2022

I always find it interesting to see what other gardeners are growing, it’s a great way to get first-hand knowledge of specific varieties and sometimes even includes knowledge of how they perform in your region. Let’s dive into what I’m growing in 2022.

Things I consider when picking seeds

• Days to Maturity – Living in Canada with a relatively short growing season, I always keep an eye out for varieties that have shorter days to maturity. This can either help to plant multiple successions or allows for fruit to be harvested for a longer period of time.
• Variety Characteristics – depending on the plant, I may be looking for a spectific characteristic. This could be a variety of onion or squash that has a long storage life or a specific flavour I’m looking to include in some canning.
• Region – there are some plants which you need to pick a specific variety for your region. Onions are an example of this and you need to pick them based on the length of days in your area. This means that I grow long day onions.
• Local source for started Plant – starting all of your own plants from seeds can be a large undertaking. I consider if there is a local nursery or store where I will be able to purchase the started plants in the varieties i’m looking for.

2022 Seed Selections

Tomatoes, peppers and squash get the most of my consideration when choosing varieties so we’ll focus on them. If you have questions about other plants, leave a comment below.

Tomatoes

There are three categories I pick tomatoes for paste/canning, slicer and cherry tomatoes. I like to preserve tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and salsa every summer which use paste tomatoes. I feel like you always need a good slicer tomato for the classic tomato sandwiches and then finally cherry tomatoes for fresh eating in salads or as a quick snack while in the garden.

• Paste – San Marzano – these are a classic paste tomato which I find performs well in my garden. They are low in moisture with lots of pulp, perfect for making sauce.
• Slicer – Mountain Majesty – these are seeds that I saved years ago and find this variety produces nice sice fruit for sandwiches with little cracking or issues.
• Cherry
  • Sungold – a classic variety that is an early producer and adds nice colour and great flavour to any dish.
  • Indigo Cherry – a larger cherry tomato that has a indigo or purple colour where the tomatoes are exposed to sunlight. I’ve grown this variety many years in my garden and I’m always happy with the results.
  • Jasper – NEW! – this is a new variety for me this year from Vesey’s Seeds which is late blight resistant. I’m excited to see how it will perform in my garden.

Peppers

With peppers, I select varieties for a few different things; fresh eating, as well as for canning salsa and pickled peppers. For both the salsa and pickled peppers, I like to include a variety of peppers.

• Sweet Peppers
  • King of the North Bell Pepper – A short days to maturity bell pepper which does great in our Southern Ontario summers, producing lots of peppers per plant.
  • Habanada – All of the flavour with none of the heat, these peppers have great sweetness. The seeds I grow are from Row 7.
  • Shishito – These prolfic plants produce peppers which are great for eating blistered on the grill as an appetizer all summer long.
• Hot Peppers
  • Jalapeno – I primarily grow these for salsa, but also great to have on hand for many different recipes.
  • Santa Fe Grande – A spicy pepper that matures to a bright red colour, it is a great addition for pickled peppers. These seeds I grow come from MIGardener.
  • Hungarian Yellow Wax – NEW! – a new variety from OSC Seeds, looking to expand the varieties inlcuded in my salsa and pickled peppers.

Squash

• Winter – winter squash is great for storage and eating long into the winter months.
  • Delicata – a bush variety of plant which takes up less space in the garden and produces a winter squash with not too tough of a skin.
  • Acorn – another bush variety which adds some diversity in the winter months.
  • Waltham Butternut – this winter squash is a hardy variety which produces large squash, great for soups. They are often more resistant to pests.
• Summer – it’s taken me many years, but I’ve finally learned to grow less zucchini. I now only grow two plants to keep from being overwhelmed. The other trick is to harvest them young before they get too large.
  • Italian Striped – a reliable variety which produces lots.
  • Golden Delight – a yellow summer squash or zucchini producing uniform fruit, it helps to add some colour to the plate.

I hope you enjoyed looking into some of the details of what I’m growing in 2022 and if you haven’t, check out my other gardening posts here. Comment below with what you are growing this year and what is on your must grow list.