Now that we are making up for the bone-dry summer with quite a few days of rain here in Northwest Oregon--heavy rain at times--it's the perfect time to think about vegetable gardening. 

Now, I don't mean going out and spreading seed in December, unless you have a greenhouse or some other winter-defeating apparatus.  (There's an amazing garden of covered raised beds in Scappoose, Oregon, between the library and Steinfeld's Sauerkraut Factory that I drool over--he's got seedlings growing right now--in December!).

I'm talking about planning.  Veteran veggie gardeners know that you gotta have a game plan before you poke down that first seed.  There are things like crop rotation and shading to consider, as well as secondary crops and proper spacing.

But the number one consideration, for the best tasting, most vigorous, and ultimately satisfying harvest of your vegetable garden is to pick out the right seed varieties. 

The right seed for your garden will depend on many factors, including days to maturity, cold, heat or disease tolerance, mature plant size, freezing quality, fruit size, shape, or color, and especially taste of the crop. 

I used to go to the variety store and pick out seed packets with the best looking photos on them and plant those seeds in my garden.  I was disappointed many times.  Now, I get myself a seed catalog (actually, they cram my mailbox) that has more paragraphs than pictures and read up on what is available.  Territorial Seed Co. has an informative catalog, and the seed is specially suited to my Maritime Northwest climate.  Seed sources on the Internet are also great resources.

After circling lots of potential candidates I go back and choose the seed that has the qualities I'm looking for and try it out in my garden,  If I like what I grew, I'll plant it again.

I had a few successes this year, and I plan to plan the same seed next spring because I was so pleased:

Carrot:  Bolero Hybrid--A nantes-type carrot.  I picked these in early October, and figured because I'd let them grow so large--some two inches in diameter--that they would be woody and pungent.