If this sounds like a full-contact sport featured on cable TV, you're partially right. Gardening in extreme climates (where temperatures can swing 30°+/-F) can be an extreme challenge, no matter if it is hot with a long growing season, or cold with a short one. Many gardeners in extreme climates do consider growing to be a full contact sport, as the climate requires more planning, energy and forethought than gentler climates do.
We have hand selected these varieties that will do well in hot or cold climates. All are open pollinated, so you can save your seeds, and most are heirlooms that have been selected over several generations for the best flavor and performance in a wide range of climates.
You will see several selections in both the "Hot" and "Cold" sides. This is no mistake, as some of these varieties have travelled and been cultivated through such temperature swings that they have adapted to a very wide range of climates that they do well in. Simply click on the Hot or Cold side to get started!
Click on the photo or name for more details and to order.
Kala Chana Garbanzo or Chickpea is excellent for home gardens, especially in dry, short-season areas. The fresh or dried seed is cooked in soups, stews and is a main ingredient in hummus. A good source of carbohydrates and protein. Often used by vegetarians and vegans as it has one of the highest protein levels of all plants.
65-100 days. (Shelly or Dry Bean)
Approx 50 seeds per pack
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The Rattlesnake Pole Bean is drought tolerant. Good harvest of fast-growing, productive, distinctive, dark-green, round 7"-8" pods mottled with purple, and marked like a rattlesnake. Stringless when young, excellent flavor green or dry, these are also excellent for freezing.
Superb base for Southwestern chili, excellent refried, purees and a good baking bean.
70 days to snap stage. (Snap, Shelly and Dry Bean)
Approx 50 seeds per pack
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Leaf Celery/Par-Cel is an 18th Century heirloom, this Dutch variety is a 3' Celery in leaf form instead of stalks. A curly, cutting celery that looks like triple curled parsley and tastes like celery. Withstands heat and drought, and is remarkably cold tolerant, lasting well into late fall. Very vigorous once established.
The sharp, refreshing flavor of these leaves, fresh or dried, perks up soups, stews, stuffings, stir-fries, casseroles, salads, dressings, pickles, etc. Can also be used as a garnish.
72 days
Approx 100 seeds per pack
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Black Aztec Corn is a sweet variety. Introduced to the seed trade in the 1860s, yet also grown 2,000 years ago by the ancient Aztec. This truly revered and beautiful corn is drought-tolerant, delicious and well worth growing.
The 7"-8" ears have a first-class, old-fashioned corn taste, fresh or roasted in the “white” or “milk” stage. The mature jet-black kernels are excellent for storing and grinding into cornmeal. Black Aztec is a link with the distant past when it was the mainstay of a whole civilization.
70-100 days
Approx 125 seeds per pack
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Cherokee Long Ear Popcorn. Plants have 2 - 4 ears, at shoulder height or higher. Ears can be used decoratively and to make great popcorn. Old-fashioned types of popcorn have a better flavor than modern hybrids.
Seed has good vigor, plants have considerable tolerance to heat and drought. A blend of Cherokee popcorns brought over the Trail of Tears.
100-110 days
Approx 125 seeds per pack
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Armenian Pale Green Cucumber, or Armenian Burpless Cucumber, Yard Long, Guta, Snake or Serpent Cucumber. Tender skin never needs peeling, never bitter and are burpless. Very good for a humid climate. Introduced from Armenia to Italy in the1400s. Hard to find, but are one of the best-regarded slicing cucumbers. They can be sliced thin and used to stir-fry or Asian soups for an tasty change.
Very productive of light-green, distinctive heavily ribbed fruit that will grow 24-36 in. x 3-4 inch diameter, best flavor at 12-18 inches. Mild flavor, easily digested-skin and all, fluted slices, prolific, twists and turns on ground, hangs fairly straight from trellis.
50-75 days
Approx 35 seeds per pack
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Black Beauty Eggplant is the classic eggplant that is the standard by which large eggplant are measured. Very productive and early, uniform ripening made this the eggplant of choice by market growers and home gardeners. Introduced in 1902 by W. Atlee Burpee. Best used fresh, just after harvesting.
Bushy spreading 24-30 in. plant with 4-6 in. purplish black smooth oval 6.5 x 5 in. diameter fruit, blunt & broad at blossom end, retains color well, 1-3 lbs., holds well, high quality, fine flavor, yields well in the North if the season is long.
72-85 days
Approx 25 seeds per pack
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Vates Blue Curled Kale is a Scotch type that is slow bolting with finely curled crunchy sweet blue-green leaves. Low growing variety with short stems, 12-16 in tall with 24 in heads.
Very hardy in heat and cold. Sow early spring or mid summer, long production times give continual harvests of delicious, tasty leaves.
50-80 days
Approx 200 seeds per pack
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Black-Seeded Simpson, Best of All, or Simpson lettuce has large loose frilly light-green lightly crumpled leaves on crisp textured loose heads with a delicate flavor.
A great cut and come again lettuce for the home gardener. Introduced around 1850.
40-65 Days
Approx 200 seeds per pack
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Cimmarron Lettuce is an heirloom from the 18th century. Also called Little Leprechaun. Beautiful deep red romaine, 10”-12" tall with a crisp, creamy yellow-bronze center with a tender texture and great flavor.
Large, sturdy plants virtually impervious to bolting. Both cold and heat hardy. Excellent for home gardeners. For the longest shelf life, harvest greens late in the day.
60 days
Approx 300 seeds per pack
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Oak Leaf Lettuce was first introduced in 1771 by Vilmorin. Firm rosettes of tender, sweet, light-green, deeply lobed leaves. As outer leaves are picked, plants produce more inner leaves.
Keeps quality late into summer, resists heat and bolting. An old standby with good reason. Ornamental, too.
For the longest shelf life, harvest greens late in the day.
38-60 days
Approx 300 seeds per pack
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The Green Machine Musk Melon is a truly succulent melon that stands out in today's market of crisp, unsweet, bland melons. Reliably sweet, this green-fleshed, stabilized cross of Kansas and Jenny Lind weighs 3 - 4 lbs. and does well in cool as well as warm areas.
Much easier to grow than a honeydew, the plants are very compact, making it an excellent choice for all, even small, gardens.
80-85 days
Approx 25 seeds per pack
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The Vine Peach or Mango Melon is a drought-tolerant, native-American annual whose fruits are peach-sized and colored, and mango-like in flavor and texture.
While tasty raw, they excel canned or cooked into pies, preserves, conserves and pickles (for pickles, pick while still green). Easy to grow, very productive, vigorous, pest-resistant vines.
80-90 days
Approx 25 seeds per pack
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Mizuna Mustard is a cool-season crop, this Japanese heirloom green should be started in early spring or late summer. Slow to bolt, tolerates both heat and cold, extending the season nicely for both short- and long-growing climates.
Plants are hardy annuals that bear 8-15" high slender white stalks topped with rosettes of thick, deeply-cut green leaves. A wonderful "cut-and-come-again" variety.
40 days
Approx 100 seeds per pack
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Aztec Red Spinach or Huauzontle has few equals as a summer spinach crop as heat only produces a larger crop of leaves. Lower leaves turn bright red as they mature and hold their color in cooking.
60 Days
Certified Organic.
Approx 100 seeds per pack
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Swiss Chard or Spinach - Beet Greens have large soft, green leaves on bushy, 2.5 ft. plants. Pick outer leaves to get a constant supply of tasty greens from May - fall. Good raw in salads, cooked like spinach - or stir-fried with stems. This warm weather spinach substitute withstands heat, producing well until heavy frost.
60 Days
Approx 100 seeds per pack
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Indeterminate. Asimina Tomato is a regular leaf, excellent yield of very good tasting sweet 4" globes. Withstands heat and drought well, originally from Greece. Certified Organic.
80 DAYS.
Approx 45 seeds per pack
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Our Red Mortgage Lifter Tomato is an improved version of the famous classic that has more disease resistance and higher yields of 10-14 oz. luscious, meaty, dusky pink tomatoes with few seeds and are the perfect sandwich tomato all summer long.
A great, high producing, drought tolerant tomato.
Approx 45 seeds per pack
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