As gardening year winds down, thoughts turn to new ’08 varieties

It’s all over but the shouting, this garden year. I freely admit to my share of mistakes and miscalculations, to sowing seeds too late and planting melons in too much shade. And there were disappointments, chief among them the loss of tomatoes to Reilly and Dixie. They took note as I admired a fruit with the faintest blush of red, returning later to pluck it from the vine, chew on it for a while, then leave the perforated carcasses on the garden path in plain view. They are without shame.

There were triumphs as well, and I have shared many of them with you in this narrow space. There were the splendid sunflowers that, like many baseball fans, only this week gave up their longing for an endless summer.

Of course the chores of autumn remain, ending in late November with the laying of evergreen boughs over dormant perennials, but at least half of my present garden thoughts are about next year. Such thinking was encouraged this week by a mailing from the National Garden Bureau, New Varieties for 2008.

A not-for-profit organization, the bureau has worked since 1920 to educate the gardening public about growing flowers and vegetables from seed. The bureau came of age during World War II when the government encouraged homeowners to grow victory gardens, and expanded its educational efforts in the postwar years. Today the bureau maintains a Web site (www.ngb.org) filled with gardening tips and beautiful photographs of new flower and vegetable varieties.

Visit their Web site to see a picture of ‘Tanya’, a new “green bean” with pods that mature to a glowing, phosphorescent pink. The flat beans are ready for picking in 60 days. They turn green when steamed.

We always plant at least one bed to snow peas. Next year I will try ‘Snow Sweet’, a variety with 3- to 31/2-inch pods on vines that grow only 24 inches tall and do not require support – just the right picking height for Reilly, who shares my enthusiasm for the tender pods.

Gardeners who enjoy growing bell peppers will be interested in ‘Flavorburst’, a new variety with fruits that start lime green and ripen to deep gold. The 4-inch-long, thick-walled pepper is sweet when green, even sweeter gold.

‘Rockafellow’ is a small pie pumpkin with a smooth outer shell perfect for painting. Or, if you are more interested in competing for the biggest pumpkin, try ‘Wyatt’s Wonder’, a rich-orange giant developed especially for its impressive size (70-150 pounds).

New summer squash varieties for 2008 include ‘Portofino’, a firm zucchini with nutty flavor. Cut crosswise, the pieces are star-shaped. The 2- to 3-inch pie-shaped fruits of ‘Moonbeam’ are pale green to white with scalloped edges and pale-green finely textured flesh.

Of the new tomato varieties, ‘Country Taste’ caught my eye because it is being introduced by Park Seed Co., the company that gave me my first job in horticulture about 30 years ago. A hybrid with all the flavor of an heirloom variety, it bears large, ribbed, dark-red fruit perfect for slicing.

These are just some of the new offerings featured on the NGB Web site. Look for these new vegetables online at e-commerce Web sites, in mail order seed catalogs, as seed packets in retail stores and as transplants at garden centers.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605 or to rmanley

@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.