You've Never Seen Tomatoes Like This: Amazing Things To Plant This Spring
(Chunks of these tomatoes, called Traveler’s Tomatoes, can be broken off to eat, piece by piece. Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
There’s a certain magic in burying a tiny seed in the dirt and seeing what comes up. Even more magical? Sowing seeds that will grow into truly strange, unusual, and conversation-starting plants, like a Traveler’s Tomato.
“One of the joys of gardening is that we’re always learning something new about the natural world,” says C.L. Fornari, a Cape Cod-based garden expert and author who hosts two call-in radio shows and runs a gardening consultation service. “We’re attracted to unusual things because we’re curious about them.”
Related on Yahoo Makers: How to Grow Your Own Secret Garden This Spring
Yahoo Makers asked Fornari and Shannon McCabe, horituculturist with Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, for their recommendations on the weirdest plants gardeners can add to their garden this growing season.
(These weird-shaped gourds are easy to grow on prolific vines. Credit: Johnny Seeds)
1. Grow-Your-Own Birdhouses: Lagenaria siceraria is a vine that is particularly successful for growing over an archway or a small trellis. It produces bottle-shaped gourds – around 5 to 10 per plant—that can used to make birdhouses, scoops, containers, or decorative elements. “You can plant them from seed right into the ground, and within a couple of months, they’ll be up to the top of a 7-foot trellis,” says Fornari.
(These beans can get as long as 2 feet. Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
2. Red noodles: Red Noodle Bean, or Vigna unguiculata subsp sesquipedalis (Also called Red Asparagus Bean or Yardlong Bean) is in the cowpea family and produces beanlike vegetables that can measure as long as two feet. They keep their brilliant red color when cooked, and can be stir-fried, added to soup, or put into pasta. “The fun part is, they grow super quickly,” says Fornari. “One day you’ll get out and they’ll be 2 inches tall, then two days later they’ll be 2 feet tall. You can almost see them growing.”
(Franklinia blooms in the fall. Credit: Tree Directory)
3. A Tree with History: Franklinia alatamaha, or Lost Camellia, has a sad and lovely story, says Fornari. Botanist John Bartram and his son William discovered a grove of these trees during an expedition to Georgia in the late 1700s, and were so struck by the tree’s beauty that William later went back to collect some seeds. It’s a good thing he did, because by 1803, the plant had completely and mysteriously disappeared from the wild. “So every single Franklinia that is sold today is a direct descendent of the plants that William propagated from the seeds he collected,” says Fornari. “And incidentally, the plant is named after their good friend, Ben Franklin.” What captivated the Bartrams – and will captivate you—is that this tree blossoms with fragrant, white, camellia-like flowers in the fall, at the same time that the leaves are turning brilliant red and orange.
(This pink corn has a surprisingly sweet flavor. Credit: Baker Creek)
4. Pink Corn: McCabe loves Tutelo Strawberry Corn not just for its brilliant pink color but for its amazing flavor; when ground, it is super sweet, like it already has sugar in it. Baker Creek acquired the corn from a Cornplanter Seneca Native American. Historically, it was a casualty of a forced migration of the Senecas who were displaced from their homeland along the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania.
(Native to Hawaii, these potatoes are high in antioxidants. Credit: Baker Creek)
5. Purple Potatoes: Okinawa Purple Sweet Potato not only has a gorgeous dark-purple hue, but it’s very nutritious, higher in antioxidants than the traditional orange varieties. These potatoes are native to Hawaii, and roadside stands even sell purple potato pies, but they’re rare here.
(These bitter tomatoes were prepared in cannibals’ feasts, according to lore. Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
6. Paired with a Nice Chianti: Native to Fiji and Tahiti, legend has it that the Cannibal Tomato (actually an eggplant) were used to make a sauce for cannibals’ feasts! They’re easy to grow, but apparently cannibals had a less sensitive palates than today’s humans… the fruit is nearly inedibly bitter.
7. A Funny-Looking Tomato: Look more closely at the photo, this isn’t a bunch of cherry tomatoes, but a single, lumpy tomato. The Reistomate Tomato, or Traveler Tomato, is so called because travelers would take it on journeys because they could tear off pieces without a knife, and the cut part wouldn’t go bad.
(Luffa Gourd: eat it or scrub your back with it, you decide! Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
8. A Substitute for Summer Squash: McCabe notes that many people have trouble growing zucchini and summer squash because of squash vine borers, a common pest. But the Luffa Gourd is generally resistant to these pests, and at the immature stage, the fruit looks and tastes very similar to zucchini. Grown to maturity and dried, the insiders of the squash can function as a scrubber for the bath or cleaning.
(Cockscomb is an ingredient in African stews. Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
9. Pretty and Tasty: Colorful Tall Cockscomb rewards gardeners with showy bursts of flowers in red, pink, and yellow. “But people don’t realize that it’s related to the grain amaranth, and it’s edible – people in Africa put them in soup,” says McCabe.
(The roots of this herb were once used to make a confection. Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
10. A Candy Herb: The roots of the herb Marsh Mallow is what was used to make the sweet that eventually evolved into what we know today as marshmallow. While the ancient confection, which was made by the Egyptians, is a far cry from today’s s’mores fixings, the leaves and roots can be sautéed and served as a savory dish, and many people believe that the plant has medicinal qualities. The flowers look like hollyhocks, which isn’t a surprise since the two species are related.
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