5 New Heirloom Seeds To Try In Your Garden This Year

While the weather in Wisconsin this time of year is always unpredictable, gardening season is just around the corner — and with the gardening boom still so high, you’ll want to get your seeds as soon as possible.

It’s been a busy year for seed providers. Demand for seeds has been overwhelming since March 2020, when the pandemic began and gardening saw an explosion in popularity, said Jere Gettle, founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. In December, they saw up to five times the typical volume in seed sales.

Every gardener has their tried and true favorite varieties, but the opportunities for something new are vast. Baker Creek Horticulturist Shannie McCabe shared five new heirloom varieties to give a try this year that perform well in northern gardens.

Casper Kale

McCabe described this variety of the leafy vegetable as a gorgeous green and snow-white frilled kale — but it’s much more than ornamental. The flavor is sublimely sweet, she said, and the plants are impressively cold tolerant.

Leelanau Sweetglo Watermelon

Maturing in just 80 days, this deep tangerine-orange fleshed fruit is sugar sweet, McCabe said. From Leelanau County, Michigan, she said it may be the most perfectly flavored watermelon they’ve tried, and it’s excellent for northern growing.

Orchard Baby Sweet Corn

Clocking in at about 65 days to maturity, this variety is a supremely early maturing sweet corn with delicious flavor, McCabe said. Bred in Canada and offered by the North Dakota seed company Oscar H. Will and Company in the 1940s, McCabe called it a perfect choice for limited garden space or growing in containers, as the stalks stand just 3 to 5 feet tall and bear two ears each. The kernels are sweet and yellow with classic sweet corn flavor.

Sweetheart Cherry Tomato

Averaging 65 to 70 days to maturity, this cherry tomato is packed with sweetness and a rich, berry-like flavor, McCabe said. It’s crisp and the fruit can keep long on the vine, making it extra high in sugar. The small, strawberry-shaped jewels were a staff favorite last season, she said.

Linnaeus Burning Embers Marigold

McCabe described this variety of marigold as smoldering and memorable with gracefully wavy stems, and smoky orange and red blooms that resemble embers in a crackling fire. The variety has long been tended at the Linnaeus Botanical Gardens in Uppsala, Sweden, she said.