Add some adventure to your garden this year

After the Christmas rush comes a new shopping season just for gardeners.

In the gray days of winter come the seed and plant catalogs, packed with visual promises of spring planting and summer eating.

Creatures of habit stick to varieties they know from direct experience will grow well in their gardens.

Then there are the adventurers, eager to try something new. They don’t leave their shopping to last-minute serendipity. They pore over catalogs and websites, planning out their gardens and placing orders several months before they put anything in the ground.

Here’s a preview of new picks for those who plan ahead.

Natural Gardening Company

The oldest certified organic nursery in the country is still selling organic seed and seedlings in Petaluma. Founder David Baldwin is excited about several new offerings in this year’s catalog and website.

One is Aspobroc, a baby broccoli that has thinner, less fibrous stems that are far more edible than standard broccoli. “It’s similar to broccoli raab in appearance but doesn’t bolt as fast and is milder in taste,” Baldwin said. This is a great selection to get your garden off the ground. You can start the seeds in February, plant in March and harvest in April, just as you’re getting ready to plant your summer crops.

Organic Onions: The Natural Gardening Company features several onions, from a red globe onion called Cabernet to a yellow globe onion called Corland. They also have a yellow cipollini. Because onions take longer to grow from seed, they sell them as seedlings.

Patio Baby Eggplant: If you grow your veggies in containers, this is the new pick for you. An All-America Selection, it’s pretty and egg-shaped and a petite three inches long. (All-America Selections is a non-profit organization that conducts trials of newly developed cultivars in test gardens throughout the country, including Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and picks and promotes the best.) They take 6-8 weeks to grow. Start seeds in March for a May planting.

Parisian Gherkin Cucumber: As an All-America selection this year, it’s already a proven winner. It is an organic hybrid, developed for pickling. It’s about 5 inches long with a sweet, melon-like flavor. “Fermenting food is certainly a trend in the world of food and pickling is part of that,” said Baldwin. Gherkin refers to a pickling cucumber. Cucumbers by origin are tropical, so the seeds are sensitive to temperatures. If planted too early they won’t grow, so wait until the soil is warm in May before you put them in the ground.

Yellofin Zucchini: What can you say? It’s a shapely looker and people are responding. The organic hybrid seed can be sewn in early May.

Naturalgardening.com or call 766-9303.

Sustainable Seed Company

This North Coast grower based in Covelo, offers some 1,800 varieties of certified organic heirloom seeds on its website 877-620-SEED. New in their product line this year :

Red Beauty Popcorn: Yes, you can grow your own popcorn and like any other homegrown food, the taste is “amazingly different, like night and day from what is commercially available,” said Company President Theo Bill. It produces a nutty, almost sweet popped corn with red kernels that pop white. Grow them in blocks rather than rows for best pollination. Dry the corn on the stalk until the husks turn completely brown. Plant the seeds in early May. They take about 110 days. Each stalk will produce two to three cobs, which each give enough kernels for a bowl of popcorn.

Honeynut Squash: Developed by Cornell University, it has been newly discovered in food circles for its amazing flavor and storage. It packs a lot of flavor for a small squash. It takes about 100 days in the ground. Plant in early May.

Golden Honey Cream Watermelon: Bill says this is by far the best of the 20 varieties they feature. “It has the sweetest, richest old-time watermelon flavor,” he said. “This one is not only sweet but just the tiniest bit salty or savory.” Plant in mid to late May for an August harvest.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

This Missouri-based purveyor of organic, open-pollinated heirloom seeds has its West Coast headquarters at the Petaluma Seed Bank, where these new offerings are available, along with other favorites collected by botanical explorers who comb the world for old treasure.

Baker Creek offers more than 1,750 varieties in its colorful, mouth-watering catalog. 199 Petaluma Boulevard N. or online at rareseeds.com.

Barnside Sweet Runner Bean: Seed Bank Manager Paul Wallace praises this new addition to the Baker Creek family for its many virtues. It grows up to 25 feet and can cover an unsightly barn or wall with scarlet flowers. It’s resistant to aphids and produces both a tasty bean when tender or a good drying bean if allowed to grow old. They sourced this from Roger Smith of Norton Creek Farm in McKinleyville.

Koral Carrot: Although widely known in Europe, this English variety is rarely seen in the United States. But the beauty of this carrot, said Wallace, is its resistance to splitting, even when grown in the heavy clay soils of Sonoma County. It grows 8-9 inches and is good for juicing.

Alexandra Strawberry: This deep scarlet strawberry is packed with flavor and bears all season long, even in its first season. Plant in early March or April.

Tom Thumb Pea: Wallace says this is the best bean for small space and container gardens. It grows only 8-9 inches in height.

The peas are good for shelling but if harvested young, the pods are tender and tasty. This variety, originated in England and was brought to the U.S. in 1854.

Digging Dog Nursery

From their Albion nursery, Deborah Wigham and husband and landscape designer Gary Ratway have built a national following for their carefully vetted collection of ornamental plants.

Followers look forward to their catalog, written with literary style by Whigham and illustrated with line drawings. New this year are plants inspired by Piet Oudolf, an influential Dutch garden designer who launched the New Perennial Movement, a prairie style of planting that celebrates all seasons of a plant.

His plants are “tough as nails,” do well in Northern California and blend well with ornamental grasses, Whigham said. New this year to Digging Dog are:

Eryngium ‘Jos Eijking’: Whigham calls this plant, commonly called Sea Holly, “dynamic.” It has leathery lobed leaves and spiny decorative bracts. This new variety to the catalog boasts leaves that are “thick, toothed and tattooed with prominent ivory-colored veins.” The teasel-like flowers are bright blue and last until late in the season. Bees love them.

Veronicastrum ‘Red Arrows': A four-foot-tall plant that takes sun and part shade and produces striking spires that attract pollinators. A late bloomer, it produces clusters of arrow-like flowers.

Sanquisorba ‘Lilac Squirrel’: This vivacious plant is pink and fluffy and pendulous. The flowers are finely textured filament with blue-green leaves and it will last nearly three seasons.

Eriogonum ‘Little Rascal': This buckwheat has many virtues from a long bloom period -- easy care, cold hardiness and exceptional drought-tolerance. Its parasol-shaped blooms are appealing to bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.