As always, the garden has been a refuge during difficult times for many of us. And the fresh snow that just came through does not have to hinder that practice. We can retreat into planning mode, escape into the creative process and find solace in what is to come. The garden is a place for hope and renewal.

Chad Donovan, Red Wagon horticulturist and all around great human, showed me some pictures he took earlier this winter after he stomped around in the snow to map our 2022 display gardens. He is reworking the layout so that it is well suited to classes, tours and work parties. I just loved his process and had never seen that before and am eager to share it with you. What a creative way to map out the garden in real space, and to see just how it fits into the landscape. And it is a fun thing to do with kids or grandkids. Speaking of those, have yours been on school vacation this week? Maybe you would you like to plan your veggie garden with them in mind. Some of our favorite ways to do that can be found here, in a blog post Sophie wrote about some of our favorite vegetable varieties to grow for little helpers who want to snack while they “work”.

Every garden should be built with use and practicality in mind, with beauty not far behind. The month of March is a great time to work on garden plans and designs. We are here to help, and have lots of resources to offer you in that vein.

Ellen Ecker Ogden, who designed the beautiful garden in the middle image above (illustration by Ramsay Gourd, from Ellen’s book The Complete Kitchen Garden), will be teaching an online course for us on The Art of Kitchen Garden Design. She will highlight some of her favorite ways to approach the vegetable garden with an artistic eye so that you can create a space that is welcoming and special. You can register for her class and see our 2022 curriculum by clicking the button below.

Our Classes

If you are just starting out with vegetable gardening, our owner, Julie Rubaud, will be teaching an in-person class geared towards first time gardeners on March 19th. You can find out more here.

We also have our complete 2022 plant list up on the website. You can find that here. Making a plant list is a great place to start with garden planning, and Sarah M. has been very diligent in updating our website so that it reflects all of the 1200+ varieties we are growing. Please take a look and tell us about your favorites! We love feedback on varieties, so also tell us which ones are duds in your experience.

2022 PLANT LIST

If you’re planning to do a lot of gardening with young ones this year, consider some of our most popular “kid’s sized” vegetables. These varieties are easy to grow and crank out prolific, tasty produce that take well to consistent harvesting by eager garden helpers. With this list, you’ll have something snackable in the garden every month of the growing season.

If your family loves cucumbers, both Picolino cucumbers and Mexican sour gherkins should find a spot in your garden this year. Picolino are a prolific and crisp cocktail cucumber, harvested at just 4-5” long for maximum sweetness and crunch. Mexican sour gherkins are also known as “mouse melons” and their inch-long fruits resemble something out of a fairy tale. They have a tart, lemony flavor and firm bite that kids love. Both varieties produce long vines and tendrils, so offer plenty of support with a trellis and watch them climb up, up, and away. They could even grow on a little teepee. Remember that they also benefit from consistent harvesting, which make them perfect for a daily scavenger hunt to find the ripe fruits.

Lunchbox peppers are so named for their snackable size, maturing at just 2-3” long and coming in shades of yellow, orange and red. These peppers are super sweet, and their small size also encourages more prolific fruiting per sturdy plant. While perfect for fresh eating, lunchbox peppers do equally well sauteéd and stuffed.

There’s no better seed to sow with kids than radishes. Sown directly in the garden early in the spring and carefully thinned to 1-2”, radishes offer a relatively quick payoff of bright pink roots with a sweet, pleasantly peppery flavor. Watered adequately and harvested early, radishes can be seeded in the veggie garden all season long. Try a mix of French breakfast and cherry red varieties for a range of harvest times and colors.

Alongside your radish patch, set in some sprouting broccoli (also known as broccolini). It’s well known that broccoli is a favorite green with kiddos, and these sprouting types offer a “cut and come again” approach that is much more consistent and satisfying than waiting half the season for one full-sized crown. Broccolini are also more heat tolerant, although they’ll want plenty of water and decent soil. The sweet stems and florets are easily incorporated into mixed grills, crudité platters, and mixed into classic mac n’ cheese. These broccoli shoots are so sweet, they are also perfect to eat out of hand in the garden.

Baby Bear pumpkins mature to about half the size of a typical pie pumpkin, late in the season. They have very sturdy handles that make them appealing to children because they are easy to hold and don’t risk losing their stems. While they make excellent decorative pumpkins, Baby Bear has a sweet flesh that is perfect for pie making, and semi-hulless seeds that make a tasty roasted snack.

Of course, no children’s garden would be complete without cherry tomatoes, and Sungolds continue to win out with their bright orange color and candy-sweet flavor that kids can’t get enough of. Be sure to provide trellising and harvest consistently to prevent fruits from cracking. One plant will provide enough for snacks, but plant more for drying, freezing, canning, roasting or adding to salsa and sauces.

This blog post was written by Sophie Cassel, Red Wagon’s wholesale coordinator and community outreach team member. Sophie is an herbalist and educator. You can find her workshops here.

Turning Towards the Garden

Veggie Gardening with Kids