Start 2013 by planning a garden adventure.

One way to do this: add at least one new flower or vegetable (or both) to your yard/ landscape/estate. Choose plants you’ve always wanted to try or go for brand-new varieties.

Until 1932, information about new plants was passed on in rather a random way, and sometimes that information wasn’t too reliable. Then, W. Ray Hastings, President of the Southern Seedsmen Association, encouraged growers to test new varieties of annual flowers and vegetables that would grow in home gardens throughout continental North America.

In 1933 (80 years ago) the first All-America Selections' winners were announced. The project was so successful that it’s still happening. Information about growing the new winners became more available. Now home gardeners could grow even better flowers and vegetables.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Albion has bred and produced several AAS winners, successful throughout North America. Baby Bear mini-pumpkin is one of them. Bright Lights chard is another; the seedless cucumber Diva is another classic.

This year, Johnny’s has won again, with cherry tomato Jasper. It bears uniform fruits (and plenty of them for a long harvest season), has great flavor and texture, isn’t fussy and is a vigorous grower.

Better yet, Jasper doesn’t need much fertilizer, if any. It also resists late blight and early blight. I would stake it for easier harvesting.

Jasper would go well in a lunch box or on a snack tray.

Melemon F1 is an early melon, yielding a delicious crop. Fruits look like smaller honeydews, but have a little tang in their flavor. Start seeds indoors, four weeks before you expect the last frost, in individual pots or bathroom cups. Set in 75 F warmth. In a week or two, expect sprouting.  Here’s a vine to stake. Melemon is ripe when the green rind turns chartreuse.

This is a two-melon year. Harvest Moon is a seedless watermelon, like Moon and Stars but smaller, growing on shorter vines and ripening earlier. Medium fruits are sweet and crisp with rosy-red flesh. Find these plants at a garden center, ready to transplant.

A Bedding Plant AAS winner with a long name is Pinto Premium White to Rose Geranium. Once this gets going (and you may want to buy a ready-started plant) it will bloom the first year, bearing dense balls of florets which start off white and age to pink and rose.

Great for both in-ground and container planting, this stands 10-24 inches tall, 12-18 inches wide. It flowers early on short stems and doesn’t need deadheading. Like all 2013 AAS winners, it needs full sun. Plan on consistent bottom-watering but don’t drown. Butterflies love it. If we should have unbearable summer heat, this geranium can take it. Fertilize every other week. Cuttings root well.

South Pacific Scarlet canna comes well from seed and carries 4-inch flowers all summer. In a 2-gallon container, it grows to 24 inches; in the ground, it’s 4-5 feet tall. There will be basal branching.

Cannas are tender perennials, bearing flowers above the giant leaves. Later, I’ll explain how to save the rhizomes for next year.

An echinacea variety, Cheyenne Spirit, is a mixture of purple, pink, red, orange-to-yellow cream and white coneflowers. In Maine, count this as an exotic; coneflowers are native to western prairies. That means they don’t need much water when grown.  They’ll be well-branched plants, great for bouquets and beloved of butterflies. The daisy flowers are about 3-3 1/2 inches across, on plants 26-32 inches tall and 25-30 inches wide. Plant 2 feet apart.

To sow these, get the seed right now and begin, for they’ll take 23-24 weeks to bloom. They’ll stand tall even in wind and rain, and should bloom from midsummer to fall; no need to deadhead.

Happy 80th birthday, All-America Selections!