Great Lakes Vegetable Garden Pack

Basil, Genovese
Very easy to grow and produces large, glossy leaves that are perfect for making pesto, adding to salads, or using as a garnish. The plants grow to a height of 18-24 inches and are highly productive, producing a steady supply of fresh basil throughout the growing season.

Blue Lake 274 Bush Green Garden Bean
Pick the pods while young as they are more tender and succulent and less likely to be stringy. This variety is a canner's favorite as it tends to mature its heavy crop all at once.

Detroit Dark Red Beet
Very tasty fresh out of the garden, it also maintains its taste and texture well after being canned or pickled. Globe shaped, excellent color, sweet, smooth and tender.

Di Ciccio Broccoli
An old European variety Introduced in 1890. Compact, 2 to 3 feet high plants, that produce a central 3 to 4 inch head with many side shoots. Freezes well.

Catskill Brussels Sprouts
The 20 to 24 inch tall plants produce heavily. The sprouts are large (up to 1¾ inches), dark-green and firm. Used for fall harvests, it is good fresh or frozen. Developed in 1941.

All Seasons Cabbage
Also known as 'Vandergaw', this variety is heat resistant, fine-flavored and produces good, hard heads that are ten inches in diameter, average about 12 pounds and are round but flattened on top. Released in 1886.

Henderson's Tendersweet Carrot
'Henderson's Tendersweet' carrot plants have a distinct, dark green foliage. When the roots reach full maturity, they are a deep orange color, average from eight to ten inches in length, and taper slightly from the shoulder to a blunt end.

Snowball Self-Blanching Cauliflower
A snowball-type with leaves that curl in the cool fall weather and cover the head to keep the white color. They do not require tying until the heads are six to eight inches across.

Perpetual Swiss Chard
Leaves are smooth, dark-green in color with fine midribs. It is very vigorous and provides an almost "perpetual" harvest. If you garden in an area with a hot climate, it is a great choice for a continuous supply of tasty summertime greens.

Vates Collards
Large, upright, twenty-four inches tall, dark green leaves with a mild, cabbage-like flavor. Used for boiling. It is bolt and frost resistant and the veins do not purple.

Golden Bantam Sweet Corn
The plants grow to about six feet and produce seven inch ears loaded with eight rows of sweet, plump, golden kernels. Bred by a farmer named William Chambers of Greenfield, Mass. Introduced by W. Atlee Burpee in 1902. Prior to this introduction, people thought that yellow corn was fit only for animal feed.

Muncher Cucumber
Strong, vigorous vines that prolifically produce smooth, tender fruit that reach nine inches in length. Good slicer that does not get bitter and is burpless. Cucumber mosaic virus resistant.

Cinderella Pumpkin
Fruits are flattened, deeply ribbed, and concave on top. They average 15 inches across and only 6 inches high weighing up to 25 pounds. The skin color is a brilliant reddish-orange and have an excellent flavor for pies or winter squash recipes.

Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
Light tan, seven to nine inches long with a thick neck and a small seed cavity. The flesh is a wonderful, bright orange. An "All-American Selection®" in 1970.

Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
Best harvested (our opinion) when the fruit is five to six inches long and still tender. Mature size is 12 to 14 inches.

Black Beauty Zucchini Summer Squash
The bush-type plants of 'Black Beauty' zucchini are early and very productive. Although you can use this summer squash at just about any size, we start picking fruit when they are about six to eight inches long by two inches in diameter and dark green in color. We prefer them at this young and tender stage when they are excellent lightly steamed, sautéed, or stir-fried. They reach a black-green to almost black at maturity.

Diamond Eggplant
70 days — Diamond Eggplant is a beautiful and versatile variety of eggplant that produces large (6-9 inch), deep purple fruits that are glossy and smooth. This eggplant variety is prized for its sweet and delicate flavor, making it a favorite among gardeners and chefs alike.

Frisée (Frisee) Endive
Also known as 'Curly Endive.' Produces loose heads of frilly, finely cut leaves. Used mostly as a salad green, the lacy leaves have a distinctive, slightly bitter taste.

Arugula
Also known as rocket or roquette and is popular in Italian cuisine. Adds an interesting tangy flavor to an otherwise bland salad. All plant parts are edible and harvest is enjoyed over a long period as it is a cut and come again plant. It prefers cool weather so start sowing successive plantings directly in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. Also try an early to mid-fall planting in a cold frame or greenhouse for harvest throughout the winter. Sow seed ¼ inch deep in a location that receives full sun to partial shade. Best soil temperatures for germination is 40 to 50ºF. Sow about one inch apart thinning plants to a spacing of about six inches. Harvest when the leaves are 2 to 3 inches long.

Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch Kale (Vates)
The leaves are finely curled, bluish green, low growing at twelve to fifteen inches tall with a spread of twenty four to thirty inches. It stands well and is hardy.

Early White Vienna Kohlrabi
Standard home garden and market variety. The skin pale green and the flesh is creamy-white. These are best enjoyed when they are 2 to 2-½ inches in diameter, before they become woody.

Buttercrunch Bibb Lettuce
Long lasting, heat tolerant, dark green with reddish tints. The heads are rosette shaped with thick leaves. Introduced in 1963 and an "All-American Selection®" winner the same year.

All The Year Round Butterhead Lettuce
Medium-sized heads stay firm and solid even in hot weather. Can be sown in most locations from about March through August for a nearly "year-round" harvest periods. It does well in both hot and cooler locations.

Honey Rock Melon
The fruits are up to 6 inches in diameter with a tough, coarsely netted skin and sweet, flavorful salmon colored flesh. The plants are vigorous, produce 5 to 7 fruits per plant and are disease resistant. Introduced in about 1920.

Clemson Spineless 80 Okra
An "All-America Selection®" winner in 1939. Plants are 3 to 5 feet with deep-green, straight, spineless, ribbed, 6 to 9 inch pods.

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion
Extra large (up to six inch) globe shaped onion. The skin is a straw color and the flesh is white. It has a popular mild and sweet flavor. 'Yellow Sweet Spanish' is an indeterminate variety that reportedly does well in long day regions and stores well.

Italian Parsley
Plants have deeply cut, dark green leaves with a rich, strong flavor; generally stronger in flavor than the curled types. Excellent for flavoring. Parsley has been cultivated for centuries and is used as a garnish, palate cleanser, flavoring in soups, salads, as a seasoning in other recipes, and medicinally.

Sugar Snap Pea
Young pods are tasty and tender but develop strings at maturity. Vines can reach 6 feet and need trellised. Freezes well but will not stand up to canning temperatures. Released and an " All-American Selection®" winner in 1979.

Golden California Wonder Bell Pepper
The plants are upright, strong, and produce 4 or 5 fruits that are mostly four-lobed, blocky, and 4 by 4½ inches with thick flesh that is mild and sweet. The skin is a bright gold, changing to orange-red when mature.

Jalapeno Hot Pepper
The fruit are dark green, tapered, three inches by one inch, turning red when mature. Good for pickling or used fresh in salsas. They have thick walls so do not dry well. They can range from 2,500 to 10,000 Scoville units in heat.

French Breakfast Radish
These radishes are oblong with a blunt tip. The skin is scarlet with white tips and they have crisp, white flesh. They have a great, mildly pungent taste. Introduced prior to the 1880s.

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
Leaves are dark green and crumpled. Stands well in hot weather. Named after their farm in Bristol, PA, D. Landreth & Co. released ‘Bloomsdale’ in the 19th century. 'Long Standing Bloomsdale' was developed and introduced in 1925 by Zwaan and Van der Molen, Voorburg, Netherlands.

Sunflower, Giant Greystripe
Planting Instructions: Sunflowers are very easy to grow and because of their size, quite spectacular for a child’s garden. Sow directly outdoors, ¾ inches deep. Thin the plants at first to 8 inches and then to two feet to avoid crowding. (We have had good luck transplanting) Water regularly and weed between the plants to eliminate competition. Harvest the seeds by cutting the flowering heads when the backs have turned yellow. Complete the drying by hanging them upside down in a warm, dry place. Scan the QR code below for more information.

Toma Verde Tomatillo (Green Tomatillo)
Sow seeds indoors (do not direct sow into the garden), using sterile seed starting mix, 6 to 8 weeks prior to your last expected frost date. Plant ¼ inch deep, water lightly, but keep moist until emergence. Optimal soil temps for germination is between 75 to 90°F. After emergence water as needed. Full light and cooler temps (60 to 70°F) will help to prevent the seedlings from becoming too leggy. If plants become root bound before you can safely set them into the ground, transplant into larger pots. Harden off plants before planting outside. Young plants are very susceptible to frost and sunburn damage. Avoid too much nitrogen. Water evenly but not in excess.

Beefsteak Tomato
90 days, indeterminate — The fruits are large meaty, ribbed and deep scarlet in color. Weights average of about twelve ounces. Fairly soft skinned for easy slicing.

Dwarf Eagle Smiley Tomato
60 days, dwarf — Extremely productive, rugose, regular leaf plants reach 5-feet tall. Bright to golden-yellow, 1oz, globe-shaped fruit that are borne in clusters of 8 to 10 tomatoes.

Purple Top White Globe Turnip
Round roots that are bright purple on the upper part and white below. The globes grow four to five inches in diameter but are best when harvested a little smaller.

Sugar Baby Watermelon
The best and most popular small or icebox melon around. One of the sweetest and earliest melons with very small seeds. Fairly tough, thin rind which keeps for a long time.