Plants and Seeds

Preparing a potager, or kitchen garden begins in the winter and early spring when I begin dreaming of what I would like to grow. Inside, in the warmth of my home with a hot cup of tea, I look through seed catalogs online or while strolling around my local gardening shops looking at all the seed packets. Colorful rainbow chard, sweet mangetout peas and beans, red, yellow, black or pink tomatoes, squash in a variety of sizes and colors, there is so much to choose from! I like to grow vegetables which are not only delightful to the palate but to the eye as well. Some plants I sow, others I buy at my local nursery when in season and I must say, there has never been such a diverse assortment of plants available! Of course one must keep in mind the climate and the soil in which our garden grows, and choose varieties that are suitable to the area. Also consider exposition. A happy plant is a healthy plant and I don't use pesticides or other chemicals. Organic gardening demands only a little understanding of how nature works, and if the eco-system is good, there is actually very little work involved. Some things are successful, and others fail. Gardening has been an ongoing process of learning, observing, and experience. Some of my garden favorites:

Beans: 

• Mistica à rames mangetout: 2kg/plant (2-3 plants)

Cucumber: 

• Byblos: 1kg200/plant (3 plants)

Eggplant:

• Barbentane: 500g/plant
  

Lettuce: 

• Laitue pommée Appia
• Feuille de chêne rouge
• Feuille de chêne verte
• Salad bowl
  

Marigolds:

• "Double Nain Varié": To plant among the tomato plants. 

Peas:

• Corne de belier: Vigourous pretty plants, not very heat-resistant.
• Normand: Demi-nain mangetout (1 row)
  

Peppers:

• Doux très long des Landes: Delicious grilled! (4 plants)

Pumpkin:

• Potimarron: Delicious small reddish "chestnut" pumpkins (1 plant)
• Courge musquée de Provence (1 plant)

Radish:

• Savour: Pretty pink and white bi-colored early radishes.

Spinach:

• Veneto: Resistant, productive and vigorous (1 row)

Squash:

• Zucchini "Lungo Bianco": White, less productive but very fast growing; delicious.
• Zucchini "Orelia": Yellow, extremely productive.
• Zucchini "Satelite": 20/pied. Round
• Zucchini "Verte non coureuse des maraîchers": Green

Swiss Chard: 

• Bright Lights: Rainbow colors, incredibly decorative; delicious baked.

Tomatoes:

• Ananas
• Black cherry: So pretty; for salads.
• Coeur de boeuf Corazon: 3kg300/pied. Large and meaty; for salads and sauces.
• Kakao: Intresting bronze color, healthy, productive; delicious in salads.
• Marmande: Flattish, bright red, medium-sized for baking or salads.
• Russe: Healthy and productive. Large and meaty; for baking.
• Supersweet 100: 1kg/plant. Always incredibly productive and tasty. Very long strands of sweet cherry tomatoes, freezes well. For apéritif, salads and tarts.