Credit: Provided

Now is the perfect time to curl up with seed catalogs and pick vegetable varieties for summer gardens. To see how various varieties have worked out for thousands of other gardeners, check out Cornell's Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners Web site.

"It's like an Amazon.com for vegetable varieties, only we don't sell the seeds," says Lori Bushway, the senior extension associate in Cornell's Department of Horticulture who coordinates the Web site.

The site not only allows gardeners to read about thousands of vegetable varieties but also to rate and review varieties themselves. It includes:

• More than 5,600 vegetable variety descriptions with seed sources;
• More than 3,400 reviews/ratings from some 2,300 registered users;
• Online tools to help select the best varieties for different geographical locations.
• Links to other Cornell gardening resources, including online growing guides for more than 60 vegetable crops, and Vegetable Varieties Investigation, an intergenerational citizen science project that helps youth connect with gardeners in their community, learn survey skills and explore biodiversity through the whimsical world of vegetable varieties.

To view the free Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners Web site, go to http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu.