If you have never tried spaghetti squash, you will be in for a treat when you harvest it from your garden! When cooked, the butter-colored flesh separates into long spaghetti-like strands that you can serve just like pasta. This is the squash that your whole family will love! You can serve it with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese or pesto sauce. Spaghetti squash grow on vigorous 8’-12’ vines and produce 5-7 fruits that are 8”-12” long and 5”-6” in diameter. The mature harvested fruit will store up to 6 months. This packet plants: 5 hills or 15 plants after thinning.

When to plant outside: Spring, 2-4 weeks after the average last frost date and when soil temperatures have risen above 60 degrees.
 

Called Cocozella di Napoli in the 19th century, Cocozelle is much more ornamental than your average zucchini! An old Italian heirloom, it has very long dark green fruit with light green vertical stripes. This striped Italian beauty is the racecar of the vegetable garden - it is fast growing with a compact bush habit and is very prolific. The baby zucchinis are a delicacy in Italy, harvested when they are only 1" in length. Easy to grow just about anywhere, the plants can be grown in any sunny spot in the garden or in a large container. A dozen ideas for preparing are listed inside the packet.

When to start inside: Not recommended. In very short season climates, 3-4 weeks before average last frost. Sow in individual peat pots for direct planting.

 Swiss Chard

Certified Organic-Heirloom

Swiss Chard Fordhook Giant may just be the perfect vegetable! It has a very long harvest period; it's nutritious; it's attractive; it can be eaten in dozens of ways, and it tolerates partial shade. Introduced in 1934, Fordhook Giant is a vigorous grower that handles heat and light frost. You can eat the young leaves in salads, then save the larger leaves for steaming, stir-frying, or chopping and saut�ing with olive oil and garlic or onion. It can be used in any dish that calls for spinach, making it great in omelets and lasagna. With sufficient moisture, it can be grown for many months without bolting. It is very easy to grow and does well in containers.

When to start inside: Not recommended.

 Turnips-Certified Organic

Heirloom

Tthese turnip seeds produce sweet, colorful, mild-tasting roots that add flavor to a variety of dishes. High in Vitamin C, fiber, and other nutrients, they can be cooked like mashed potatoes, added to soups, shredded or sliced fresh for salads, and can even be eaten raw like apples. The leafy green tops of turnips are even more nutritious than the roots and are considered to be one of the best-flavored greens you can eat. With so many uses, the turnip is unjustifiably a forgotten vegetable that should be in more gardens! For the most tender texture and best flavor, harvest the greens when they are young and tender and the roots when they are no more than 2" in diameter. Leave 4" of foliage remaining to allow the roots to continue to grow. This variety of turnip stores particularly well, adding even more length to your cool-season vegetable repertoire.

When to start inside: Not recommended.

Container Tips: Turnips can be grown in 5 gallon containers. Limit plants to 3-4 per container for best results.
 

 Tomato Cherry

Certified Organic -Heirloom

This organic, perfect, cherry tomato has classic sweet flavor. You may eat so many right in the garden, that it will be hard to get them into the house for salads! Large numbers of 3/4" to 1" fruit are produced in grape-like clusters on 2 foot tall plants. Even though the plants are indeterminate, the plants may be grown in containers on a sunny patio, deck, or balcony. As the plants continue to grow until fall frost, they will likely require a stake, small cage, or some sort of support. This packet plants: 10 plants (after thinning).
When to plant outside: Generally started indoors, tomatoes can also be directly seeded outside! Sow in spring, after the average last spring frost and when soil temperatures reach 60 degrees. In warm winter/hot summer areas of the south, southwest, and parts of California, they can also be planted in early fall for winter harvest.
When to start inside: 6-8 weeks before the average last spring frost.
Special Sowing & Germination Instructions: when planting seedlings outside, bury the roots and stem up to the first set of leaves horizontally. Curve the stem above the ground to a vertical position. The stem will sprout roots and develop a strong root system.
Container Tips: Sugar Sweetie can be grown in a two to three-gallon (or larger) container with a cage or stakes to support the compact 2' vines. It can also be grown in a large hanging basket. One plant per container.
 

Moon & Stars Watermelon is an Amish heirloom with an “out of this world” flavor that was re-discovered by rural farmer, Merle Van Doren, in Missouri. You will be amazed by its decorative appearance even more than its sweet taste. The dark green rind is covered with yellow dots that look like stars scattered among the larger yellow “moons”. Even the foliage has the pretty yellow speckling. The unique coloration is from a genetic “defect” that has no effect on the very sweet, red, absolutely delicious flesh. Though this variety was once available in a 1920’s seed catalog and lost for some time, it was made available again in 1982 by the Seed Savers Exchange.

 

  Watermelon Crimson Sweet

Certified Organic-Heirloom

This incredibly sweet watermelon with an astounding 12% sugar content will fulfill all of your summer fruit fantasies! The 21-25 pound watermelons have brilliant bright red flesh and a sweet, crisp taste, making a wonderful low-calorie snack or dessert. This variety is not available commercially, so you won't find it in grocery stores. (Grocery store fruit usually comes from hybrids that have been bred for shipping endurance and shelf life, not the intense sweetness that can be had from home grown fruit.) Crimson Sweet Watermelon vines need room to grow. They spread 6'-10' long and are resistant to fusarium wilt and anthracnose. With just a little care (starting early indoors and using black plastic to warm the soil), they can be easily grown in northern climates. This packet plants: One 15-foot row (after thinning, 7 vining plants).

When to plant outside: Spring, 1-2 weeks after the average last frost date and when soil temperatures are warm.

When to start inside: 4-6 weeks before the average last frost. Recommended for northern climates.

Special Germination Instructions: Watermelon seedlings don't transplant well. When starting indoors, use individual pots such as peat or pulp pots that can be planted directly into the ground. Cover soil with black plastic before seeding outside and seed into a cross cut in the plastic.

Harvesting: Several methods are recommended to determine when a watermelon is ripe. First, check the "ground spot", the part of the watermelon that is lying on the ground. For most of the season, it is white; when the fruit is ripe, it turns to a creamy or golden color. Second, the curly tendrils on the vine, closest to the watermelon become dried out and turn brown. Check tendrils daily; if brown too long, watermelon may become over ripe. Third, the skin should be resistant to puncturing with a thumbnail. Forth, you could cut a small plug to check the flesh (although, if it is not ripe, this will ruin the melon). Some gardeners believe in the 'thump test'. Though, when rapped with a knuckle, the hoped for dull thud may indicate over ripeness instead of perfect ripeness.

Container Tips: Not recommended for containers.