Today we’re recapping our favorite crop varieties of 2017, along with our lessons learned and best garden tips. This is our last episode before we take a short winter break. During the break, we'll be working on getting our late-winter and early spring episodes lined up and ready for you, so don't worry, there will be lots of great content coming your way in the new year!

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SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, we discuss:

• Our favorite crop varieties of 2017

• Lessons learned and best garden tips

Important Take-aways:

• Our favorite flower varieties of 2017 include:

  • Quartet stock: a branching variety that will continue producing throughout the season.

  • Zinderella Peach zinnias: where every blossom is unique with double blossoms, semi-double blossoms, and a wide range of colors.

  • Benary’s Giant zinnias: they flowers are tall and prolific and make great cut flowers.

  • Our favorite crop varieties of 2017 include:

  • Shishito peppers: they don't pack a lot of heat but each plant produces a tons of fruit. They are a perfect appetizer pan fried with sea salt.

  • Nelson carrots: these carrots are a consistent size and full of flavor. Interestingly, Nelson seeds are declining in popularity in Europe, where the seeds are bred, so there may be limited availability going forward.

  • Small Wonder spaghetti squash: this variety of winter squash is not only tasty, but it’s easy to grow because there is plenty of time for it to mature on the vine.

  • Little Finger eggplant: we were harvesting full tote bags from some gardens during the peak season this year.

• Our lessons learned and best garden tips from this year include:

  • Growing more Mexican sour gherkins - kids especially can’t get enough of this great variety!

  • The keys to successfully growing beets is overseeding and feeding with an organic fertilizer

  • Use a calendar to remind yourself to succession sow every 2-3 weeks during your garden season - life moves fast and this way you won’t forget.

  • Speaking of life moving fast, it’s okay to simplify in the garden too. You might consider consolidating your crop list and planting even more storage crops like carrots, onions, potatoes and garlic.

Nelson carrots and Shisito peppers:

Zinderella Peach and Benary's Giant Zinnias (far right):

Sour Gherkins on cucumber cage and on a trellis:

Katz and Quartet stock:

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A huge thanks to our friends at Elevate Chiropractic and Rehab for helping to sponsor this episode! To receive a complimentary PDF of exercises you can do in the gardening off-season to help make sure your body is ready to go when spring rolls around, email getwell@elevatechiropracticrehab.com or submit a request through their website www.elevatechiropracticrehab.com