Keyhole vegetable garden

Which varieties to grow

Choose varieties of vegetables and flowers that are suited to your climate. For reference, here's what we chose (and the sizes they come in) for our test garden in Menlo Park, California.

Basil: 'Cinnamon', 'Dark Opal', and 'Sweet'; sixpacks

Chives: Common (blue flowers) and garlic (white flowers); sixpacks

Cosmos: White 'Sensation'; sixpacks

Garlic: 'California Giant White'; cloves

Oregano: 1-gallon cans

Parsley: Sixpacks

Peppers: 'Golden Bell', 'Long Italian', 'Red Bell', and 'Yellow Bell'; sixpacks

Pole bean: 'Blue Lake'; seed

Rosemary: 'Tuscan Blue'; 1-gallon can

Sage: 'Purple' for keyhole, plus 'Golden' and 'Tricolor' for French-intensive; 1-gallon cans

Sunflowers: 'Autumn Beauty', 'Double Sungold', and 'Lemon Gem'; 4-inch pots

Swiss chard: 'Rainbow' and 'Ruby'; sixpacks

Tarragon: 1-gallon cans

Thyme: English and lemon; 1-gallon cans

Tomatoes: 'Better Boy', 'Celebrity', 'Early Girl', and 'Sweet 100'; 4-inch pots

Zucchini: 'Eight Ball', 'Gold Rush', and 'Ronde de Nice'; 4-inch pots

More: Veggie 101: How to grow veggies