Thanks everyone for your responses. Fordhook Giant was one that I was considering growing, I am so happy to hear that you believe the leaf minors do not bother it as much. My guess is that the fact that Foodhook Giant grows fast probably helps against the leaf minors. Last year I had big problems with leaf minors. Wiped out all my beets and swiss chard. I have never had a problem with leaf minors destroying my beets before, always got almost perfect leaves. Last year was the first time I tried growing swiss chard (Bright Lights), and they did not even have a chance because of the leaf minors. I am hoping to get a hoop house up in the spring that I can grow my greens in to protect them from leaf minors and flea beetles (which I have always had problems with). I think I may have been planing on ordering the Perpetual Spinach / Leaf Beet, not sure though. I know I did read about that somewhere. I am going to have to do some research on all the other varieties everyone mentioned, they all sound very interesting. Thanks again everyone, now I am off to look up all the different types mentioned.

Apologies for not getting back much sooner and thanking you all for your friendly and encouraging comments. Pseudacris, thanks for the link and suggestion that we can make delicious ricotta ourselves. Never thought of it. Peggy, thanks for your great ideas for culinary uses of chard. And Jill, thanks so much for posting the Ricotta recipe. I just have to try it out. Sorry about the problems that some of you have had with caterpillars, and other critters, eating your chard. Has any of you tried floating row covers? I was thinking of using them next year on other greens, which were chewed pretty well by caterpillars but don't know how complicated they are to set up and maintain. Two plants of the chard varieties that I grew this year, "Lucullus" and "Large Ribbed" (Sandhill), produced fantastic chard: Large white ribs with huge, thick savoyed leaves with a taste that is much superior to the other chard plants. Unfortunately, I've lost track of which variety turned out to be the superior one. Anyway, it'll be easy enough to grow out two chard varieties next year and find out. One lesson learned. Chard needs space, at least one foot between plants, maybe two. Chard tolerates part (dappled) shade very well (in my climate). In fact their leaves go limp during direct afternoon sun. Chard is very ornamental. My two great-looking chards can be seen from the kitchen window (@ the sink), and looking at them, while working, is a pleasure. I put down used coffee grounds on the soil around the chards (for the extra nitrogen) plus fertilized lightly once with organic Espoma.

I live in Edgewater, we benefit from some moderating effects from the river and an almost total lack of wind but lose out on the sun going down behind the palisade earlier than if we were further inland. I have limited vegetable space because of trees. Hot peppers have only done well in the sunniest spot and last year, with all the rain, they didn't do well at all. I've never had success with sweet peppers. Tomatoes, always. I start turning over the soil where they're going to be in April to let it warm up (dunno if it makes a difference but it gives me something to do) and then buy them in May as soon as they show up in the garden centers. I get the largest ones I can find and bury them deep so much of the stem is underground. Maybe I've been lucky but I've never lost one and the early varieties give me tomatoes before my neighbors. Cut & Come Again salad greens are a favorite, I use a mesclun mix of seeds and cast them densely over an area, it forms a carpet of small greens that I use scissors to cut bowls of salad from. Have to keep up with them, don't let any grow faster than their neighbors, and they get unhappy if it gets too hot. Lots of success with lacinato kale and collard greens. They both thrive all summer and respond well to having leaves cut off. If you've haven't tried this kind of kale it's really good, more tasty than other varieties. Last year I put in collards from seedlings and I didn't get the leaves get too big and they were tender and tasty. I also grew napa cabbage but with limited space I like things that I can take from all summer. I made cole slaw a few times with the napa and collards that was delicious. I've had success with the larger bush beans but unfortunately not with the only green beans I really like, the small french haricot vertes.

Paula, FYI, a lot of those ornamental peppers reseed for me. That's one thing about them that I really like. Dody, That should be my slogan "So many choices, so little room", and I should cross stitch it onto a sampler to hang in my potting shed. Charlie, You're welcome. Ask and ye shall receive. Going through the list and researching all those varieties might take you a little while, but it is something to do in the "off season". Chandra, Oh, no, that's not the list of what I'm growing in 2011. It is just the list of my personal favorites. They've become favorites because they tolerate our weather and produce well. After I posted the list of OSU-recommended varieties, Charlie wanted to know what it is that people "really" plant though, so I posted the list so he'd know what I, for one, like to plant. I mean no disrespect towards the OSU-recommended varieties, or the varieties recomended by any other university, like Texas A&M, for example. Even when I lived in Texas, I looked at their list and then made my own choices. While the varieties recommended by the various universities for their areas have been researched, often the research is done more on hybrids than OPs, and often productivity or shelf life gets as much attention as flavor, for example. Remember that university research sometimes is geared more towards commercial farmers than home gardeners. So, I try to choose varieties for our specific home garden that tolerate our weather, produce a worthwhile yield and also, those whose flavor we prefer. Where to find them? Almost everything I listed should be available from one or two or more of the following online sources, or at least they have been in the past. In a couple of cases, there's only one or two sources, and I've listed it below. The websites are my best guess and if I'm off by a letter or two, you can find them by googling. Victory Seeds (victoryseed.com) Willhite Seed (willhiteseed.com) Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (southernexposure.com) Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.net) Baker Creek Rare Seeds (rareseeds.com) Totally Tomatoes (totallytomatoes.com) Tomato Growers Supply Company (tomatogrowers.com) Ramapo tomato is available directly from Rutgers/NJAES. Moreton is also available there. I believe Little Lucy okra is available from a couple of places, and one of them is Park Seed. Baby Bubba is available from Burpee. Moreton and Supersonic tomato seed are available from Harris Seed. I get seed potatoes locally, from organic grocery stores in the DFW metroplex and from Ronningers, which has a new website you can find by googling. I'm not sure the new website is completely functional yet. I get my onion plants from Dixondale Farms and recommend them highly. If you are in the OKC-Norman metro area or in the Tulsa metro area, you may find all those same varieties locally, but I can't find all of them here in southern OK. Almost all the tomato and pepper varieties I listed are available from either Tomato Growers Supply or Totally Tomatoes if you don't find them on the websites of the other seed companies. Biker Billy Jalapeno, though, is from Burpee so only available from Burpee and its sister companies. Dawn