Mike, There are many reasons. The main reason is that different varieties are not just different named versions of the same thing---they have different flavors and other different qualities. I love green beans, but I don't want to eat the same green bean all summer long. I want different flavors and textures. Some varieties do not work well at all for freezing or canning, but others do. So I can or freeze the varieties that can and freeze well, but eat fresh the varieties that don't preserve well. Some of it is a hedge against the vagaries of weather. Different varieties perform differently in various types of weather. With a lot of different varieties, you increase the odds that you'll get great production from at least some of what you plant. I rarely have a year that is a true dud with very poor production. I believe that is partly because I hedge my bets by planting so many different varieties. Different colors of produce are, to me, the spice of life. Why eat only red-fleshed watermelons when they also are available with white, pale yellow, bright yellow, pink, orange and even swirled/mixed colors? If we're having a bowl of melon balls to eat as a light dessert after dinner, why can't it include red, yellow and orange melon balls? Maybe with a cantaloupe or honeydew thrown in? It isn't just about looks of having a wide variety of harvest times, flavors and texture either. As a cancer survivor of many years, the nutritional content of what I grow is very important to me. Remember that different colors of skin, flesh, leaves, etc., come from different phytonutrients, phenols and other compounds and for the best, most well-balanced diet, nutrient-wise, we should try to eat a wide variety of foods in many different natural colors. That is one reason breeders are working to develop blue tomatoes---to help us get more anthocyanins in our diets, for example. Scientists have found that different antioxidant compounds are associated with the phenols and other compounds that produce different colors in produce. So, if you eat a wide range of different colors of produce, you're getting a wider range of natural antioxidants in your diet. I also just really enjoy having a colorful garden. For some reason I cannot explain, it gives me great joy to bring more colors of produce into the house. I am perfectly content to carry a bucket of green podded snap beans to the house. However, when I carry a bucket of mixed green, yellow, purple, pink, red and bi-color beans to the house, I am almost giddy. I feel the same way when I have a bowl of tomatoes on the counter. Red ones are fine. However, a bowl of black, purple, pink, yellow, red, orange and bicolored tomatoes is not just a bowl of tomatoes---it is a celebration of the biodiversity that is found in tomatoes. Maybe for me, that's really what it all comes down to---celebrating the biodiversity that exists in Mother Nature. When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, I knew (or thought I knew) what vegetables looked like---tomatoes were red, eggplant was purple, corn was yellow or (if you grew your own, white), carrots and pumpkins were orange and celery was green. Why were they that way? It wasn't because only those colors of those vegetables existed in nature. It was because long ago the commercial growers, agricultural breeders. marketing folks and others involved in the production of and sale of produce decided that was how it was. After I began growing heirlooms and discovered that vegetables come in many colors never seen in the grocery store, I wanted to grow them all. I think that selectively choosing only certain colors of produce probably doesn't do us any good nutritionally. When I select different varieties, I always have my eye on their DTMs. For example, I don't want to choose bean varieties that all produce is 60 days. I want some that produce in 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 days, etc. Too many green beans at one time can be a problem. Spreading out the harvest over a longer period of time works better for me. As a bonus, when you have kids who might not be big fans of veggies, they can be tempted into trying yellow or red carrots, yellow or orange cherry tomatoes, purple broccoli, pink green beans, etc. It doesn't matter if the kids are your own children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, the children of friends or whatever....if you can get them to try new veggies or fruit they normally shun because they "don't like vegetables" then you've just done them a favor. With regards to buying seeds of different varieties, I try to carefully research varieties before I buy them. I want to know that people who have tried them before me found them worth growing for some reason--flavor, disease tolerance, heavy production, drought tolerance, etc. I look for varieties known to produce well in hot summer climates and known to tolerate pretty wide swings in temperatures and moisture levels. It is very hard to know what ones to buy. When I first started gardening here, I mostly grew the same varieties I'd grown in Texas 80 miles south of where I now live. That worked out pretty well, so Willhite Seed Company has been my go-to seed supplier because it only carries seeds that do well regionally. With a lot of seed suppliers, you have to know if they are a nationally-oriented retailer or regionally-oriented. With some of the regionally-oriented suppliers, I have found that if there region is very different from ours, their varieties might not do as well here. The more I got into growing heirloom and open-pollinated varieties, the more I have gravitated towards a handful of suppliers whose varieties have repeatedly grown well here: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, Bountiful Gardens, Victory Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. With Baker Creek, I have to be careful because some of their tomato varieties haven't done well for me. It is the same with Tomatofest. I avoid the big retailers who have seed racks in all the stores. Why? Because their seeds are chosen because they will grown well in the majority of the USA. Well, Oklahoma's weather is not necessarily like the weather in the majority of the country, so hybrids developed to do well in the USA at large may not do well here in our hot, dry, miserable little niche. I hope this answers your question, and we can discuss it further if you have more questions or comments. One last comment, and I sure this will not surprise you....when we collect eggs from our free-range chickens, we don't just bring white eggs into the house. Over the course of the year, we will bring in eggs that are white, light brown, dark brown, brown with darker brown speckles, olive green and pale blue. Biodiversity exists in the world of chickens almost as much as it exists in the garden. You'll never find a carton filled with only white eggs in my fridge! : ) Dawn

Hi flowersaremusic, Apparently there is quite a bit of variation in zone 5. They may be revising the zone maps to account for climate change. The map I see divides zone 5 into zone 5a (the upper cooler part) and zone 5b (the lower warmer part.) Here in east central Kansas we have been having Spring-like weather. We got no snow and very little rain for February. I will make successive plantings of zinnia seed in-ground starting in mid April (a bit risky) and my zinnias will be a bit slow to germinate because the soil is still cool in April. But I will have a good stand of zinnias by mid May. Our killing frost usually comes late in October. My zinnias start to bloom in about six weeks after they come up and continue blooming until Frost. So they are in bloom in part of June, July, August, September, and part of October. Your Zone 5 does seem much more arctic and short-growing-seasoned, for maximum enjoyment of zinnias. " If my soil heats up by June, I will direct sow. I do have an all day sunny spot, about 5'x12', that was dedicated to irises, but they have all been moved. " You might take a chance on planting some zinnia seeds in-ground in May. That is assuming you aren't expecting any killing freezes in May. " I'm a bit confused about amendments. I've read zinnias do not like rich soil..." Zinnias are fast growing heavy feeders, and they do like rich soil, provided that it is well drained. Their roots need a lot of oxygen as well as soluble nutrients. I add sand to our native silt soil to help the zinnia roots breathe. I also apply foliar feedings of Miracle-Gro Tomato Food (for extra Magnesium) to supply plenty of nutrients. I notice you have felled a lot of trees to improve your garden's sun exposure, and that is commendable. I did the same when we lived in Maine. And you mentioned wood mulch. Just be aware that wood mulch in contact with soil tends to deplete the soil nitrogen supply to feed the wood-eating soil microbes. I use a sand mulch to prevent pillbugs (sow bugs or roly polys), earwigs, slugs, and snails. All of which hate and avoid sand. Since you went to a significant effort felling trees to improve your outdoor garden, you might justify some effort to improve your indoor gardening. You could purchase a few inexpensive T8 fluorescent 4-foot shoplights for the lighting you need for an indoor growing space. I am a zinnia hobbyist, so I grow zinnias year round, both outdoors, and indoors when the weather outside isn't conducive to gardening. This picture was taken in January.My growing setup is in our basement in the utility room. I have some chrome wire shelving and fluorescent shoplights in there. I start my zinnias in 3.25-inch clear square "orchid pots".You can see the roots through the sides of the pots when they need to be re-potted to larger pots.I adjust the height of the fluorescent shop-light fixtures to accommodate the growing plants. You could get indoor seed-starting capability for a lot less effort and expense than felling trees for your outside garden. Obviously the light on the kitchen table won't do the trick. But T8 4-foot 2-tube fluorescent shoplights are reasonably priced, and they put out a lot of light. ZM

Amy, Your list is officially the most insane list so far. How many big tubs are you going to use? I always try to not devote so much space to cool-season plants that no space remains for warm-season ones. That's always a huge challenge for me, so I have to really watch myself at cool-season planting time. nowyousedum, All my asparagus is in one bed---each variety has its own row. Planting times vary, but for most cool-season veggies, the OSU-recommended planting dates are from Feb 15 to Mar 10. I'll link the fact sheet with the dates. With some things, like asparagus, you can plant them as soon as you get your hands on the crowns. I'm pretty sure that in the year I planted mine, I bought the bags of crowns in early January and planted immediately, Since asparagus is perennial and can stay in place for decades, it is important to do great soil prep first because you cannot go back after the fact and dig up the roots and redo the soil. Any future soil improvement you do after the asparagus is planted mostly consists of adding layers of compost and mulch on top of the asparagus bed and letting it get worked into the soil naturally by rainfall and small burrowing/digging insects and earthworms. Here's the OSU planting guide with dates. Please note that there's a range of dates for each veggie. For Spring planting, the earliest dates are recommended for far southeastern OK, the latest dates for far northwestern OK, and the rest of us who live in between the two extremes choose an appropriate date, based on our location and weather, somewhere within that range of dates. Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide Jack, I like the purple asparagus a lot. It has a very fine flavor. I hope you enjoy yours as well. Dawn

If there is a question mark after them I haven't bought seeds yet. I wish my posts would retain the formatting. Beans, Bush Mascotte (for containers) Royalty Purple Pod Tanya's Pink Beans Woods Mountain Crazy Bean (Fall) Beans, Pole Blue Coco Grandma Nellies yellow mushroom beans Cherokee Trail of tears ? Frank Barnett Cut Short (Fall) Grandma Roberts Purple Pole (fall) Beets Babybeat Bulls Blood Crosby’s Egyptian Beet Golden Grex Lutz Green Leaf Rainbow Mix Beet Seeds red ace (fall only) Broccoli Batavia early heading Green Magic Happy Rich Packman Piracicaba Broccoli, Fall Arcadia (F1) Blue Wind purple sprouting Umpqua Brussels Sprouts (Fall only) Diablo F1 Falstaff Hestia Jade Cross F1 Cabbage, Spring Golden Acre Green Rocket, Chinese Pixie Cabbage, Fall All Seadons brunswick January King cabbage red acre Savoy Perfection Violaceo di Verona Cabbage Carrots (if I grow them all some will be in containers. Some I'll save for fall) Atomic Red Baby Little finger Caracas Coral carrot Coreless Amsterdam Cosmic purple Kuroda Muscade Carrot Napoli Nutri-red Parisian (round) Purple Haze Purple sun Rainbow Blend Carrot Mix Romance F1 Chinese Celery Kintsai, Light Green Chinese Celery Collards Alabama Blue Collards Georgia collards Top Bunch F1 Yellow cabbage collards Vates (Fall) Garlic Greens, Cool Season arugula, Astro Claytonia Cress, Garden "Cress, Upland ""Belle Isle""" Cress, Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Crispy Winter Greens Mix Flowering brassica, Kosaitai Mache, Dutch Vit Mache, Granon MACHE, MACHOLONG (CORNSALAD) Mache, Medalian misome (F1) Misome Choho, Hybrid Orach, Aurora Orach, Red Pac Choi, Purple Magic Pac Choi, Red Violet Hybrid salad burnet Salt wort spigarello lisca broccoli Tatsoi, Red tatsoi, Rosette Tyfon Yokatta-Na F1 Green Lance, Hybrid? Kale Arkansas Purple Kale Black Magic Dazzling Blue Kale Hanover Salad Lacinato Lacinato Nero cabbage Lacinato Rainbow Mix Prism F1 Starbor Kale F1 Tronchuda Lark's Tongue? Sea Kale? Kale, Fall Baltisk Rod Purpurkal Kale Breedy's Camden Dutch Darkibor Nash's Green Kale Olympic Red Pentland Brig Kale Premier Red Kale(saved seed) Scarlet Kale Siber Frill Kale Winterbor Lettuce Chadwick's Rodan Lettuce Freedom Lettuce Gene-Pool Lettuce Mix Gabriella Matina Sweet Merlox red oak leaf lettuce North Pole Butterhead Thai Oakleaf Looseleaf Les Oreilles du Diable (Devil’s Ears) Leaf Lettuce? Red Mountain Winter? Yedikule Lettuce? Red Tinged Winter Leaf Lettuce winter mix Winter Wonderland OG Romaine Lettuce Onions, Multiplier Peas (I may not grow peas, never have good luck and Ron doesn't like edible podded peas) golden sweet snow Perfection 326 Shell Pea (66 days) tall telephone Tom Thumb Potatoes (I'll get these at Atwoods if Ron fills bags, no in ground potatoes this year.) Red Pontiac Yukon Gold Radishes Chinese Shawo Fruit white icicle Garden Party Mix root parsley Salsify Scorzonera Spinach Abundant Bloomsdale America Spinach Baby Leaf Hybrid Bloomsdale Longstanding Gangbusters Okame Spinach Reflect F1 Regiment F1 VIROFLAY SPINACH Winter Bloomsdale OG Spinach (Fall) GIANT NOBLE SPINACH (fall) Giant Winter Spinach (fall) GIGANTE DI INVERNO SPINACH (fall) Swiss chard (I'm a sucker for pretty leaves) Argentata Chard Bali Red Rhubarb chard Barese Bionda Di Lyon Swiss Chard Erbette Chard Perpetual Spinach Prima Rosa Swiss Chard rainbow Swiss chard Verde De Taglio Swiss Chard Turnip red Turnip Tokyo Cross Hybrid Turnip(35 days) Tokyo Market Orange Jelly, Golden Ball Turnip (fall) Purple Top White Globe Turnip (fall) Gilfeather Rutabaga (fall)