Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center.

In my blog post last week I discussed combining color and texture in the vegetable garden. This week we will look at some new introductions and some old favorites that are worthy additions to a rainbow garden.

Gardeners who grow beets are familiar with the classic heirloom, Beta vulgaris ‘Chioggia’. It is incredibly sweet and mild when cooked, but once you slice through its red skin, its outstanding feature is revealed: alternating red and white rings. It retains its impressive bull’s eyes even when baked whole. This year growers such as Johnny’s Select Seeds and Parks Seeds are touting an improved version of this Italian classic called ‘Chioggia Guardsmark’.

When we think of butterhead lettuce we generally think of hydroponically grown, buttery-smooth green heads. I grew up on this Boston-type lettuce, and it is still a favorite choice in my family’s household. Some popular green varieties are ‘Buttercrunch’ and ‘Butterking’. The red-tinged heirloom varieties ‘Pirat’ and ‘Yugoslavian Red’ have long been a staple in my garden. This year a heat tolerant red variety called ‘Skyphos’ entered the market. It looks sensational. It is not too late to try both the beet and the lettuce as fast fall crops. read more »

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center.

Many cool or early season crops such as radishes, beets, lettuces, and peas are easy to sow from seed.

In mid-May I harvested the radishes I’m shown sowing in early April in the video. I recently completed a second sowing for harvest in 4-6 weeks.

Toby Adams is Manager of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden.

Vegetables and kids: two of my favorite things, growing together in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden! Each year we open the gates of our one-and-a-half-acre garden to thousands of children and invite them to help us in our annual effort to grow thousands of plants.

Sitting here now, among the tangles of tomato vines heavy with fruit and rows of sunflowers standing tall, it takes a leap of faith to believe this site was nearly bare when we began. Only a short time ago, I’m certain I was sitting in this same spot bundled in countless layers of thermal fabric with my eyes closed imagining the fragrances that envelope me now, straining to hear the drones of the pollinators patrolling the plots, and wondering at what point in the summer the garlic leaves would collapse under the weight of themselves.

A little over one hundred days later, my imaginations have been realized. The freshly harvested basil leaves stain fingers with their pungent perfume, the bees are busy buzzing in and out of the squash blossoms, and the garlic has already been harvested, braided, and hung in the garage to cure. read more »