So far mother nature hasn't been cooperating so I haven't planted anything out in the garden yet.  For those that are new to gardening some of the early planting includes onions, peas and potatoes.  Below is one of several types of peas.  I usually plant both the kind you shell for the peas only and the ones that you can eat pod and all.

I like heirlooms as I can save seed from my plants from year to year.  It is also easy to find organic heirloom seed if you choose to purchase rather than save your own   An unfortunate negative with heirloom seed is poor disease resistance.   

Hybrid seed is also available. Hybrids are naturally selected plants that have been chosen for specific characteristics such as taste, resistance to disease, strength of stems to resist breaking in winds etc.  Plants with the desired characteristics are cross bred until a strain is produced that meets the desired results.  Unfortunately seeds from these plants are often sterile and viable seed will not usually produce the same result as that of the hybrid seed.  

Produce from either type of seed is equally nutritious.  The nutrition of  produce is often due to soil composition but I'll leave that for later.

There are numerous varieties in of each of the vegetables.  Looking through seed catalogs, perusing the seed racks in stores and talking to gardeners is a great way to gather the information needed to pick the seed you are looking for.  Seed packets will provide information about when and how to plant, length of time to harvest and sometimes taste, texture and other tasty tidbits.

My favorite onion is a hybrid called Copra.  They are sweet and really long keepers.  I still have a few left from last summers crop.  I also like to plant one of the red varieties that usually are a little stronger and are also good keepers.

Potatoes are red, white, blue and yellow now.  Check out their variable characteristics such as taste, keeping capabilities, and length of growing time.

Until next time and a look at beans.  

Char