The 2010 garden catalogs are in.

Drum roll, please! The 2010 garden catalogs are in, and there are more new vegetable varieties to choose from than worms in a good batch of compost. Plant breeders have been busy tinkering to come up with tastier tomatoes, bigger melons and more prolific cucumbers.

For instance, check the Hales Best Cantaloupe, offered by Farmer Seed and Nursery out of Faribault, MN. They say it’s “unsurpassed in flavor and size.” Gardeners in central and lower Michigan should give this 83-day variety a try and let me know how it works out.

Then there are cucumbers that purportedly produce cukes all summer long. How can this be? They do this by being parthenocarpic (huh?). It simply means it doesn’t need pollinating, which results in more fruit (at least I think that’s the theory). After combing the catalogs, I found two varieties offered, both from Jung’s Seeds and Plants: the Diamont Hybrid pickler and a gourmet mini cuke from Germany called “Inik.”

For gardeners in the “mitt” and over the Big Mac, where the season is a little shorter and cooler, there are a few new varieties that catch the eye. Jung’s Canesi hybrid winter squash claims to be the “earliest butternut squash to date.” I’ve never had much luck growing the butternuts in my Zone 4 garden, but this 80-85 day variety may be worth a try. Some season-extending ideas may be necessary to get this to ripen here in the E.U.P., where we only get about 65 good growing days.

“What’s old is new” is apparently the case among many purveyors of vegetable seeds. Heirloom seeds, which are generally those that originate prior to WWII, are popping up in the new catalogs like radishes on a warm spring day. Gardeners are apparently shopping with their palettes as they long for the tastier fare of yesteryear, something that has been sacrificed in some newer varieties that aim for size, color and ability to keep longer at the expense of taste.

Pine Tree Garden Seed owner Richard Meiner has added many heirloom varieties to his new catalog in response to the demand from gardeners nationwide.

“It’s in response to people being interested in the older varieties, especially taste,” says Meiner. These heirlooms were passed down through the generations much like a hope chest, he adds, some which originated from companies that went out of business during the Depression. An example is Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts, which date back to the 1890s, need about 85 days to mature, and cost just a little over $1 for 100 seeds.

The popular Burpee seed company is offering an interesting new tomato variety called Tye Dye. Recommended by a fellow gardener, it is actually a hybrid that boasts “heirloom flavor” and should also be a conversation piece when it turns from green to a bi-color gold-and-red. The 7-ounce fruits are nonacidic. Allow 78 days from seeding to a ripe, colorful, tasty tomato.

Have you ever been a little frustrated when your beans start like gangbusters and then just quit? The result is more beans than you can eat fresh. Burpee’s seems to have the answer with their new Bush Beans Beananza. This dwarf French bean will produce twice as long as your old bean fare if you keep them picked. Come on, give it a try!

I asked Susan Anderson, the Johnny’s Selected Seeds product manager in Maine, to help us northern gardeners with some new varieties for short-season zones. You know, those areas in the state where you just seem to run out of summer, leaving green tomatoes hanging on the vine. One new offering they are jumping up-and-down about is Sultan, a high-yielding, 7- to 8-inch seedless cucumber that requires only 56 days to mature.

“Home gardeners will just love this one,” Anderson says enthusiastically. She suggests waiting until the ground warms up to about 70 degrees before direct-seeding all cucumbers and other cucurbits.

Other new Johnny’s varieties include Cherokee, a tomato that ripens green. Anderson says it’s one of her favorites because of its “bold and acidic flavor.” It needs 72 days to mature and like all tomatoes, needs to start indoors about eight weeks before setting-out. She also gushes over Red Pearl, a 58-day grape tomato that’s a product of the company’s own breeding program. The few seeds it produces can be re-sown for next year’s crop.

One of my personal favorites is Stokes Seeds, an international company that caters to both commercial and home gardeners. I’ve grown their seed for years in a commercial greenhouse. Some of their notable new offerings include Hickock, a “longer lasting” dark green gourmet bean with good disease resistance, and Golden Beet, a novelty bright orange beet.

So, go ahead and try a few of these new veggie varieties—I promise you’ll be more excited than a leaf-hopper on a potato plant! Happy Gardening.

Visit Neil’s website at neilmoran.com.