Zone 8 - What to Plant in January

Zone 8 - What to Plant in January

January is the time to start your garden in zone 8. To be ready for the last frost you should start all transplants inside in January so you're ready to go. January is your first window to start your indoor sowings and order your seeds for the spring season. The next two months are the most important for starting your vegetables on time. Start your tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables to be ready for spring transplant!

Pineapple Crush alpine strawberries are a unique and delightful variety known for their vibrant yellow to orange-hued berries and exceptional sweetness. These compact plants produce fruit that not only boasts a striking color but also offers a tropical flavor reminiscent of pineapples, making them a favorite for fresh eating and culinary creations. Thriving in various growing conditions, Pineapple Crush strawberries are hardy and require minimal care, making them ideal for home gardens and containers. Their attractive foliage and charming white flowers enhance any garden setting, while their continuous harvest throughout the growing season ensures that gardeners can enjoy a delicious bounty of unique berries.

The Sub Arctic Plenty is the world's fastest growing heirloom tomato, in just 42 days from transplant you will have fresh vine ripe tomatoes! This variety is a great tomato to grow in Northern areas where the season is short. However, this is also great for Southern locations where you can harvest the crop before insects and disease start to take over. The Sub Arctic Plenty is a bush variety that needs no staking, as it is great for hanging in baskets.

Ancho peppers are dried poblano peppers, commonly used in Mexican cuisine. These peppers are deep red-brown in color and have a mild to medium heat level, making them versatile in a variety of dishes. They have a rich, smoky flavor with subtle hints of sweetness, and their earthy taste is often described as slightly raisin-like. Anchos are typically rehydrated in water before being blended into sauces, salsas, or marinades. They are a key ingredient in mole sauces, contributing to their complex depth of flavor. Ancho peppers are also packed with antioxidants and vitamins, making them both a flavorful and nutritious addition to many recipes.

All The Year Round Lettuce is a medium-sized green headed lettuce that is just like its name, good for all the year round! This slow bolt variety is solid even in hot weather, and good for far northern areas as it is very hardy. Sow All The Year Round in spring or late summer!

Red Malabar spinach (Basella rubra) is a heat-loving, vining green that thrives through the hottest days of summer when traditional greens fade. This vigorous Asian vine features glossy, thick, slightly savoyed dark green leaves set against striking deep red to purple stems, making it as ornamental as it is edible. The mild, chard-like flavor works well when young leaves and tender stems are used fresh in salads, blended into smoothies, or lightly cooked in stir-fries. Exceptionally tolerant of heat and humidity, it produces an abundance of nutritious greens well into fall, along with deep purple berries rich in anthocyanins that can be used as a natural dye. Not a true spinach, this beautiful plant is typically grown as an annual in cooler regions and as a perennial in subtropical climates, but it is not frost hardy.

Red Wonder, aka Fraises des Bois, is a tasty Alpine Strawberry that is easy to grow from seed. Red Wonder is one of our favorites because it's considerably sweeter than most strawberries. An everbearing strawberry plant that produces all summer long.

Daikon Radish has a crisp firm flesh is pure white. This Daikon radish, produces long tapered white radishes that are mostly used as winter radishes. The Minowase has a great, mild taste that is excellent in many Oriental dishes. This radish variety is great for spring or late summer planting.

Waltham 29 broccoli seeds produce a classic, open-pollinated variety that was developed in the early 20th century by the University of Massachusetts at Waltham and has remained a trusted garden standard ever since. This variety forms large, deep blue-green central heads measuring 6–8" across on sturdy, cold-tolerant plants that typically reach 20–24" tall. Known for its reliability and adaptability, Waltham 29 performs especially well in cooler temperatures and is valued for its uniform growth and strong side-shoot production after the main head is harvested, resulting in generous yields over an extended period. It matures in about 74–85 days from transplant, making it well suited for spring and fall planting. The tightly packed florets have a tender texture and mild, slightly sweet flavor, excellent for fresh eating, steaming, freezing, and a wide range of culinary uses.

The White Russian Kale is a delicious dark green oak leaf cut kale with white stems that is amazing when cooked or eaten raw. This variety has a crisp sweet flavor that only intensifies when it is cooked. This popular kale is also disease resistant.

Green Zebra tomatoes are a unique and visually striking heirloom variety cherished for their distinctive appearance and vibrant flavor. These medium-sized tomatoes are easily recognizable by their green skin striped with darker green bands, giving them a zebra-like pattern. When fully ripe, they turn a rich, golden-green color. Known for their tangy, slightly sweet taste with a hint of citrus, Green Zebra tomatoes add a zesty flair to salads, salsas, and gourmet dishes. They typically reach maturity in about 75 to 80 days, and the plants exhibit a sprawling growth habit, producing an abundant harvest of fruit throughout the growing season. Their robust and resilient nature, coupled with their eye-catching appearance and exceptional flavor, makes Green Zebra tomatoes a favorite among both gardeners and culinary enthusiasts.

The 7 Pot Douglah is one of the hottest and rarest of the 7 pod strains available! This pepper variety is characterized by a dark brown flesh that has wrinkles all over the surface. 7 Pot Douglah starts out green and matures to the dark brown. When you slice a fresh Douglah open, you will immediately see pools of liquid capsaicin oils that give this chili so much heat and has an excellent flavor fresh or as a powder! Use with caution, extremely hot!

The Deer Tongue Lettuce really does look like a deer tongue! These triangular leaves are excellent for baby salad greens. Deer Tongue lettuce has medium-green leaves that form loose upright heads that are slow to bolt. This is a popular variety with many heirloom growers, as Deer Tongue has been an Amish favorite for decades!

The Jay's Ghost Scorpion pepper has an immediate burn that slowly lingers to the sinuses. This pepper ranked 900,000 Scoville heat units! This peachy colored pepper is lined with bumps and twists and can have a scorpion-like tail. The Jay's Ghost Scorpion's taste has a slightly sweet floral taste, with a punch!

The Taxi Tomato is an attractive, sweet flavored, vibrant lemony-yellow tomato that grows to be the size of a baseball! This popular variety produces smooth, blemish-free globes with a rich, meaty flesh that are perfect for market and home growers alike. The easy to grow tomatoes thrive anywhere throughout the United States. Taxi is a low acid tomato.

The Heinz 2274 Tomato is a customer favorite for being the perfect variety for making delicious, juicy, homemade ketchup! This 6 ounce tomato is smooth and slightly flattened with a juicy and tangy flesh. The Heinz 2274 is a great tomato for making purees, sauces and of course, ketchup!

The Yellow Brandywine Tomato is a customer favorite heirloom tomato with an attractive bright yellow-orange skin and flesh. This Brandywine is a large, beefsteak-shaped tomato that grows upright on large leaved plants. This favorite tomato has a delicious sweet taste and meaty flesh with only a few seeds! This indeterminate tomato will ripen later than most, but will produces 10-20 ounce tomatoes until the first frost of fall.

The Orange Banana Tomato is one of our favorite paste tomato varieties for home and market growers to dry, can and make pastes. This tomato variety is an orange colored, banana-shaped paste tomatoes that have a wonderful fruity sweetness. The Orange Banana Tomato is delicious and fresh, making it great for specialty markets.

The Petite Mix Bell is a blend of our favorite mini bell peppers that are a sweet flavor explosion! These tiny peppers ripens to a rich yellow, red and purple colors when mature. The Petite Mix Bell blend is high yielding and produces 2-3 ounce peppers that make the perfect snack sized pepper. This mix is excellent for market selling or home growing for adding into salads!