The Fabulous Fifteen for 2023

The Fabulous Fifteen
Here is my list of 15 beautiful and tasty vegetables, herbs and flowers to grow this season.
I picked these wonderful plants using these criteria.

• Grows well in our climate. Hardy, short season.
• Produces reliably and abundantly. Yield matches space, time, inputs.
• Tastes great, versatile in the kitchen and pantry.
• Heirloom, open pollinated. Available, easy to find.
• Easy to grow.
• Pest and disease resistant.
• Grows well in small spaces. Containers, vertically.
• Bonus points for perennial.

​Cool Season Vegetables

• Sow indoors to transplant in February and March.
• Transplant kale and lettuce to garden 4 to 6 weeks after sowing.
• Transplant onions mid-March through April
• These cool season vegetables can be sown again starting in late June to mid-July for a fall and winter harvest.
• To overwinter many of these varieties, sow early to mid September so plants are tiny as they go through the winter.

 
Lettuce
Flashy Trout’s Back -speckled romaine
Australian Yellow -leaf
Marshall -dark romaine
 
Kale
Dazzling Blue Kale
Sprouting Broccoli
 
Onions
Bunching Onions -- Evergreen, Heshiko, Evergreen White Nebuka, Ishikura Improved
Welsh Onion
 
Greens
Ruby Streaks Mustard
​Mache (Corn Salad)
 
Warm Season Vegetables

• Sow indoors to transplant from late February through late March.
• Transplant under cloche late May to early June.

 
Tomatoes
Chadwick’s Cherry (ind)
Gill’s All-purpose (sd) or Burbank (sd)
Glacier (d)
 
Tomatillo
Ground Cherries -- Aunt Molly’s, Pineapple
 
Cucumbers
Mouse Melon or Mexican Sour Gherkin
Double Yield, pickling
 
Summer Squash
Tromboncino
Beans
Malibu Pole, snap
Runner Beans
 
Herbs

• These perennial herbs are hardy, long-lasting and delicious.
• These are typically grown from starts purchased at a garden store or nursery.

 
Sweet Bay Laurel  Laurus nobilis --  Not English or Cherry Laurel Prunus laurocerasus
 
Mediterranean favorites
Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and Parsley
 
Salad Burnet  Sanguisorba minor
 
Edible Flowers

• Beautiful and delicious, these three are beloved by people and pollinators.
• Half-hardy fruit sages can overwinter during a mild year.
• Self-sowing annual flowers are dependable and easy to control.

 
Fruit Sage  Salvia elegans
          Tangerine, pineapple
Nigella or Love-in-a-Mist  Nigella damascene
 
Calendula  Calendula officinalis