2025 Garden: My New Seed Varieties
17. March 2025Soon I will start my seeds indoor. Then before you know it, my garden will be growing. Each year I tell myself to not plan so much. Just wing it for once, dang it! What’s the worse that can happen after all? It’s not like the only food I have access to is the food that I will grow. I’m not going to starve. I may just have less tomatoes. And while that would make me sad, it’s not the end of the world. BUT, I’m planning on canning ketchup this year, I NEED all the ‘maters I can get! So, here’s what I’m planting in my garden in ye ole 2025!
A mix of Juliet, Sungold, and Blush tomatoes.
Tomatoes
This year’s tomato varieties from Johnny’s Selected Seeds are Blue Beech, Juliet, Verona, Sunrise Sauce, Wisconsin 55, Pruden’s Purple, and Sungold Cherry. This is the first time I’ve planted these varieties, with the exception of Sungold Cherry and Juliet, which I’ve planted for years with great success. As usual, I will plant a mix of determinate and indeterminate varieties. My tomato planning often revolves around what I plan to can. I hope to put of plenty of sauce and ketchup this year.
Blue Beech is a variety that I’ve wanted to plant for many years. But as you know, sometimes if you wait too long to purchase seeds, things sell out with your favorite seed vendor! Womp womp. But THIS is the year I got my order in early. Blue Beech caught my eye because it’s a hefty heirloom paste tomato that is supposed to put out a high yield of 8-10 oz fruit. It’s great for canning sauce since it’s a paste variety. Also, the fruit produces during a concentrated period of time, so that is also excellent for canning purposes. And if I actually do can ketchup, which I’ve threatened my husband with for years, I’ll need many tomatoes all at once.
Some heirloom paste tomatoes are prone to blossom end rot, but Blue Beech supposedly resists diseases more than other similar paste tomatoes. This variety is an indeterminate. 5 out of the 7 tomatoes I’m planting this year are indeterminate varieties, so I expect to have a bit of a Chaos-Looking garden (but that’s typical for my gardens).
Juliet is a great variety to slice or leave whole and roast. Just add a touch of salt, olive oil, and optional Italian seasonings. It works fantastic for bruschetta too.
Juliet is a variety I have planted for several years now. It’s easily one of my favorite varieties. It is a highly sought after hybrid variety because it is so disease resistant. While I love to plant heirloom tomatoes, it’s always nice to have a few backup hybrids that can really churn out the fruit! This plant can get 12-18 tomatoes per cluster, wow! These Roma style tomatoes also have a long shelf life (several weeks & longer). Every season this plant is incredibly prolific in my garden. Sometimes I’m actually overrun by the tomatoes. How overrun? Well, don’t even think of harvesting them in your scooped up t-shirt. Forgetaboutit! Every time I harvested, I came in with a 2 gallon bucket filled up. And that was just from a few plants. Every few days. For the entire season. Even into the fall I still had a massive amount left on the plants. I picked a big tub of green tomatoes that eventually ripened weeks later. I experience NO cracking with this variety either.
Juliet and other paste and grape tomatoes work well in our Bruschetta in a Jar canning recipe. These varieties holds up well to canning. This Bruschetta recipe is easy to make with handfuls of leftover, end-of-season garden tomatoes too. If Bruschetta isn’t your thing, perhaps our lovely red wine vinegar tomato jam will tickle your taste buds?
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Juliet has the longest shelf life of any tomato variety I’ve grown to date. I’ve actually had end-of-season tomatoes last several months on the counter. In a way, that seems kind of freakish. Why haven’t they rotted?! What gives! Well, I guess that’s the cool thing about hybrids. Some can last longer than heirlooms on the counter. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Yeah, but what does a 2-month old tomato taste like?” And that is a legit question. The 2-month old tomato I ate tasted like tomato. It didn’t have an old taste either. It tasted fresh even though it was picked in November and eaten in January. Weird.
Juliet (left) and Blush (right). The Juliet tomatoes range a little in size and shape. Some can be a little blocky, but most are standard grape tomato shape.
Verona is described as a larger, more flavorful Juliet plum tomato variety. So since I LOVE Juliet, I figured I would give this one try. If all goes well, I will have wheelbarrows filled with plum tomatoes. So that should account for 3 pints of home canned ketchup, bwahaha. Fruits average 2.5 oz and grow on long clusters of medium vigorous vines. It’s an indeterminate and also has some resistance to Early Blight, Fusarium Wilt races 1, and Verticillium Wilt.
Sunrise Sauce is described as being a “low maintenance” roma tomato. I wonder what that means? My garden overall is mostly low maintenance (i.e., I’m a LAZY gardener). It’s a determinate variety, so I guess that means I won’t be constantly chasing after vines to tie up. Even though it’s a determinate plant, it’s supposed to produce a high yield of 4-6 oz fruit. The fruit comes on during a concentrated period, so that will work well for my summer canning. This is an orange paste tomato, which is a bit different for me. I tend to plant red and black tomatoes mostly.
Wisconsin 55 is a big old flavorful 6-8 oz slicer variety. The backstory from Johnny’s for this notes that this variety is a resurrection of the classic strain. While there are a few strains of Wisconsin 55 available, their quality has degraded over time. Johnny’s variety is supposed to be a healthier plant with more consistent size and fewer fruit defects than other Wisconsin 55 strains. This strain was acquired from a plant geneticist from the University of Wisconsin who had frozen seeds purchase in the 1960’s! Wow! It’s an indeterminate variety.
Pruden’s Purple is an early Brandywine type tomato. The fruits are supposed to be quite large, with some going over a pound. And that means that I will have a plant with 3 tomatoes on it. Seriously, I feel like every time I fall for one of these kind of plants, that is what happens! So why do I keep buying plants with the promise of HUGE fruits? Because here’s the thing about tomato plants that put of three or four huge tomatoes…. a groundhog is gonna get one. A squirrel is gonna get one. Then I get one. So that’s just ONE tomato for me. I would rather have a plant with a bunch of smaller tomatoes than just a few big ones. In my experience, the overall yield after wildlife interference is of course more with smaller plum and paste tomatoes. But at any rate, Pruden’s Purple resists cracking and has dark pink skin with crimson flesh. It’s also a potato-leaf variety which I’ve only planted a few times. It’s an indeterminate variety.
Sungold Cherry produces tasty little orangish fruit. While it yields a hefty amount of fruit like many cherry varieties, the TASTE is the sweetest I’ve ever had. It’s an indeterminate vining plant, so be prepared for it to take over your garden! Plan your trellis and supports carefully, ha! Otherwise you will end up with a Tomato Monster taking over your garden. I discovered this plant by accident years ago. I’m sure I would’ve gotten around to trying an orange cherry at some point. But this was an accidental purchase, the result of grabbing the “wrong” plant at the garden center. I don’t tend to buy plants locally now and instead grow my own from seeds. That way I can try more unique varieties. But Sungold Cherry should be easily found in many garden centers since it is such a star performer. This is a hybrid plant, so don’t expect to save seeds and produce the same thing in future gardens.
Top left to right: Blush, Carbon (a black tomato), German Striped
Middle left to right: Mushroom Basket, Black Krim (aka: best tomato ever), Black Krim with carfacing that looks like Ziggy!!!
Bottom: Brad’s Atomic Grape, Dark Galaxy, Goldman’s Italian American.
Be sure to read our other blog posts on tomatoes to increase your yield in the garden (and the kitchen).
Grow Prolific Tomatoes Using Japanese Rings Staking Method
Trench Planting Tomatoes for Epic Root Growth & Strong Plants
Banana Peel Fertilizers for the Garden (great for tomatoes)
Read all of our Tomato Blog Posts
Fortex Pole Beans grow long and straight!
Beans
Seychelles Pole Beans is a new variety for me this year. Normally I grow Fortex Pole Beans which grow up to 11” long. I thought I’d try a new variety this year. Seychelles has dark green stringless pods that are slow to develop white seeds, so this extends the harvest period. The average bean length is 5-6” long. They also grow in easy to harvest clusters. Since it’s a pole bean, it requires a trellis. If my garden was larger, I would grow more bush beans, but I’m always cramped for space. Growing vertical is the answer!
Our sweet pupper Tuna Fish Joe models in front of my new metal raised garden containers. Check out those sweet flippers he's sporting!
Cucumber
Quick Snack is a compact patio style cucumber that can be grown in a container with a trellis. I splurged this year and bought a few new metal garden beds and raised containers. One container will be used to grow cucumbers. This new Quick Snack variety will grow a ton of 2-4” cocktail cucumbers that aren’t bitter. I have not grown cucumbers for a number of years since my neighbor is a pro cuc grower who shares his bounty with me. I’ve made quite a few pickles and jars of dill relish over the years from cucumbers I didn’t have to grow myself. That’s kind of cool. But this plant caught my eye since it grows tiny cucumbers. I thought I’d try pickling them whole this year.
If you plan on pickling this year, try one of our pickle recipes.
Crunchy Dill Pickles
Mexican Lime Refrigerator Pickles
Mediterranean Refrigerator Pickles
Broccoli
Last year I planted broccoli from seed! I had only planted broccoli once in the past with plants from a greenhouse. My impression of homegrown broccoli was that it was so much smaller than heads that I got from the store. And that seemed to be the case with my broccoli last year (which somehow I managed to NOT get any photos of)! BUT, the taste was pretty incredible, so I’m planting the same 2 varieties again this year. Imperial is a heat tolerant variety. Happy Rich is a MINI Broccoli variety which produces jumbo-sized florets that look like small heads of broccoli. There will be many side shoots to harvest regularly for a continued production. I grew both of these in a raised bed during the summer for a fall harvest. I protected the plants with a shade cloth during the growing season.
Shelling Peas
I’m not a huge fan of peas, but my husband is. So I’ve grown a small batch of peas the past few seasons. The yield is enough to replace a few bags of frozen store bought peas. It turns out garden fresh peas taste really amazing!!! They are so much better than frozen peas (which are oodles better than faded and smooshy tin can peas).
Maxigolt Shelling Peas
Three seasons ago I planted a shelling variety called Maxigolt. Pea pods are around 3-4 inches with 6-8 peas per pod. I got my garden in late that year, yet I still had a great harvest of peas. And I only planted a small pea patch too! The patch was about 2’ x 3’, so that certainly looked small. Yet I got three harvests of peas that totaled a few cups each time.
The past two years I planted a new variety called PLS 595. Wow, what a non-sexy name! This is an organic variety that has Afila-type vines. These type of vines produce many tendrils with fewer leaves. The plants do NOT need a trellis, they will trellis themselves as they grow. The lack of leaves is supposed to make them easier to harvest since the peas are easier to locate. This variety gets to be 4 - 4 1/2” with 10 to 11 peas in each pod. It’s resistant to Fusarium wilt races 1 and 2 and powdery mildew. It has intermediate resistance to downy mildew too. While Maxigolt did really well for me, it did get some mildew on it. While it was a trellis variety with many leaves, although it wasn’t too difficult to harvest at all.
Vining Peas Versus Afila-type Peas
Above is a photo showing a vining pea on the left (Maxigolt) versus an Afilia-Type variety on the right (PLS 595). The vining peas require a trellis for support (there are some short-vining varieties that do fine without a trellis though). The leaves hide the peas a little, so it’s always possible to miss a few pods when you harvest.
The afilia-type peas grow with far fewer leaves. There are a massive amount of tendrils that cling together. So while it’s easier to see the peas, I didn’t think they were easier to harvest. I had to really dig into massive clumps of clingy, matted tendrils to pick the peas. No big deal really. And while the peas didn’t need a trellis, they eventually did lean over in my garden. So they don’t grow completely straight upright.
Peas are cool weather crops, so you can sow in early spring and fall. Even though I’m traditionally an impatient gardener who likes to get everything in all at once, I succession planted my peas last year. I planted a patch once a week for a month. The theory here was that I would extend my pea harvest. But I was honestly a bit surprised to see that many of my peas still came on at the same time!! Perhaps doing 2 plantings spaced 2 weeks apart would’ve been better?
Rainbow Carrot Mix. This is all the same carrot variety that produces different color variations.
Carrots
Rainbow is my favorite pelleted seed carrot variety that I plant yearly. This is actually a single carrot variety that has color variations of orange and yellow. So it will mature uniformly unlike colored carrot mixes created using several different varieties. Most of the mixes I’ve tried in the past have resulted in 95% orange carrots. Bummer. So when I found this mix, I got excited. When grown in containers, carrots can grow long and straight.
The photo above shows pelleted seed versus regular carrot seeds. Pelleted seeds have a coating around them which make tiny seeds easier to see and handle.
If you want to plant carrots faster and easier, look into Pelleted Carrot Seeds. This photo above shows pelleted seed versus regular carrot seeds. Pelleted seeds have a white coating around them which makes tiny seeds easier to see and handle. Yeah, I’m looking at you, carrot seeds! When I plant pelleted carrot seed, I place the seeds evenly spaced 1.5" apart on the soil surface. Then I push the seed down into the soil with my finger about 1/4" deep. Pelleted seeds also work well in mechanical planters because they are less likely to jam. With regular carrot seed, you would sprinkle seed onto the soil and barely cover or not cover at all. If spaced properly, you do not usually need to thin seedlings from pelleted seed. SO again, this is a big time saver in the long run.
According to seed distributors, pelleted seed has a shortened seed shelf life. So it’s recommended to use the pelleted seeds in the first growing year. However, I once had leftover pelleted seed, so I planted them the following year as a test. I planted them a little closer together in case the germination was low. I was surprised to see that I had at least an 85% germination rate though. WOOT!
You can buy pelleted seeds for lettuce, carrots, flowers, and more. I've found that Johnny's Selected Seeds has the largest selection of pelleted carrot seeds.
Want to grow perfect carrots? Read our blog post:
Planting Carrots in Containers with Homemade Potting Soil Recipe
Read our blog post on How to Harvest & Eat Carrot Greens
Lettuce
I usually have multiple packs of lettuce seed leftover every season. It’s great to plant a mixed variety perfect for salads. I’m thinking I will just randomly scatter a bunch of random mix seeds around and see what happens. I like mixes that include red varieties and also some romaine and leaf lettuce. I’m not a fan of anything overly frilly because those seem to be harder to clean.
Swiss Chard
I’ve grown Barese Swiss Chard several seasons now. It’s a compact dwarf variety that is supposed to mature a little earlier than others. BUT, in my experience, that has NEVER happened. Swiss Chard is slow to grow, but worth it. The stems of Barese are more flattened compared to most chard varieties (which are shaped more like celery). So this makes the stems easier and quicker to clean dirt off. The leaves are more smooth than most varieties too. So that makes them easier to wash off as well.
Fordhook Giant is another swiss chard variety that is really popular. The leaves are larger and savoyed (crinkled), so that makes them a little harder to wash off compared to smooth leaves, IMO. But, it’s a reliable plant that almost always comes up again the second year in my garden. It’s a giant monster plant the second year and produces a ton of seed for me to harvest.
Microgreens
I grew micogreens years ago inside with success. But that fad came and went. That is until this year when our gardening friend Amy wrote this amazing guide on growing microgreens inside during the winter. After reading her post, I got all jazzed up and excited to grow them again using her tips on a bountiful harvest. And naturally, I spent way too much money buying a slew of varieties online! HA! I have seeds for a basic salad mix, several radish varieties, kohlrabi, broccoli, and kale. All of these seeds came from True Leaf Market along with some basic growing supplies.
Flowers
In the past I have been pretty terrible at growing flowers in my garden. But I’ve tried to do better the past few years to grow pollinator gardens. Squirrels are particularly vicious in our backyard, so I’m lucky if flowers come up at all. Last year they dug up all my flower beds and potted herbs. At any rate, I’m going to try growing White Dill this year for a decorative, pollinator-friendly plant. The lacy flower heads grow up to 6” wide and can be dried in various colors. This plant is also known as false Queen Anne's lace, lace flower, false bishop's weed, large bullwort, and bishop's weed. It will look lovely tucked into cut flower bouquets and be a wonderful host for beneficial insects. It attracts lacewings, lady beetles, minute pirate bugs, syrphid flies, and parasitic wasps. The height is 36”-50”, so it will look nice with my zinnias and tucked into nooks and crannies in my garden.
Queen Zinnias, which have been renamed to Queeny Zinnias, is a wonderfully fun variety. You can expect a mix of petal colors and shapes.
Zinnias are my go-to flowers every year. As long as the squirrels leave some alone, they tend to be fairly easy to grow and are wonderful for the bees and butterflies. The past few years I’ve planted the Queen Series in Lime and Red. This year I’m going BIG and different! I’m planting Aurora Zinnia which produces 4-6” wide dahlia-shaped double blooms. The colors are a vintage palette with hues of orange, coral, buttery yellow, and pink. The flowers are two-tone with contrasting centers. The height is 30-40”, so I thought it would look nice in front of the White Dill. The bouquets of these two flower varieties should look beautiful as well.
White Clover Cover Crop
In addition to White Dill and Zinnias, I’m going to grow white clover cover crop this year. And to be honest, I’ve not fully researched this just yet. True Leaf Market has a great cover crop growing guide that I need to review. Many gardeners and farmers grow cover crops at specific times, like after a harvest and before the next growing season. The cover crops add nutrients back into the soil. But you can also grow in your garden along side your vegetables. Clover is a “nitrogen fixer” so it should work well planted alongside leaf plants that are nitrogen hungry. It’s a living mulch and also has edible flowers. That’s a WIN WIN in my book! So I plan to tuck some white clover next to my lettuce and swiss chard. Clover could also be planted in place of a legume if you do proper crop rotation and don’t plant peas or beans.
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Have you planned your garden or started your seeds yet? If so, what are you planting? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
