This year's seeds have arrived! I love this time of year when everything is still in the planning stage, the allotment is half dug and I can sit inside with a cup of tea and dream of the bumper harvests. Sadly we all know that not everything will go smoothly but part of the fun is seeing just what will thrive this year.
I will be growing 'True and Tender' parsnips, 'Giant Red' red carrots and having another try with the 'Diamond' aubergines. After last year's success I am repeating the 'Wautoma' cucumbers but this time I'm going to follow the instructions and try and save some seed! In fact, all of my seeds are from 'Real Seeds' so in theory, since none are F1 varieties, I'll be able to save seed from all my vegetables. Watch this space...
Tomato wise I'm going to risk growing a few plants on the allotment so alongside 'Latah' and 'Gardener's Delight' I'll be growing 'Galina' and 'Solanum Spontaneum' which is an intriguing orange currant variety.
Also going into the new category are some blue 'Azur' khol rabi and a brocolli raab. All of these will join the usual brassicas, salads, beans, potatoes and leeks that I have seed left over from.
Now I just need to finalise a planting plan and quickly work out where the seed gaps are. How is your planning going?
Showing posts with label Seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seeds. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to you all! I spent a few days with my family in Dorset which was lovely, and also noticeably warmer than round here. After almost too much turkey and definitely far too much bad Christmas TV I am back home and weather watching. That's right I once again have some time off work so of course it is cold and wet to keep me away from the allotment.
I'm starting to feel guilty that I still haven't cleared the pumpkin plants, cut back the asparagus, or the raspberries and there is far too much digging needing to be done before the planting begins. Tomorrow looks bright so hopefully I can make some progress but in the meantime I have turned my attention to seed buying. Last year I made the mistake of just buying all my seeds in November and then struggling to remember when they were meant to be sowed and harvested so this year I am being super organised and have a spreadsheet to record all the important details, including number of seeds so I can order the right number of packets.
I'm going to be buying the majority of my seeds from Real Seeds, a company set up to supply seeds for Kitchen Gardeners, hopefully this will lead to some very reliable and tasty varieties, best of all they are all true seeds so you can save them for the next year. I have already been convinced by their impressive Kale selection and am going to risk some outdoor aubergines along with some new winter squash varieties and the usual carrots, parsnips and brassicas.
On the one hand it is very exciting to anticipate all the wonderful things which will grow this year but on the other spring is always a mad rush of sowing and planting, hopefully I'll manage to get a coldframe sorted out before the rush otherwise I think I will have a ridiculous number of pots in the kitchen. How are you getting on with your planning? Anyone trying any new varieties this year?
I'm starting to feel guilty that I still haven't cleared the pumpkin plants, cut back the asparagus, or the raspberries and there is far too much digging needing to be done before the planting begins. Tomorrow looks bright so hopefully I can make some progress but in the meantime I have turned my attention to seed buying. Last year I made the mistake of just buying all my seeds in November and then struggling to remember when they were meant to be sowed and harvested so this year I am being super organised and have a spreadsheet to record all the important details, including number of seeds so I can order the right number of packets.
I'm going to be buying the majority of my seeds from Real Seeds, a company set up to supply seeds for Kitchen Gardeners, hopefully this will lead to some very reliable and tasty varieties, best of all they are all true seeds so you can save them for the next year. I have already been convinced by their impressive Kale selection and am going to risk some outdoor aubergines along with some new winter squash varieties and the usual carrots, parsnips and brassicas.
On the one hand it is very exciting to anticipate all the wonderful things which will grow this year but on the other spring is always a mad rush of sowing and planting, hopefully I'll manage to get a coldframe sorted out before the rush otherwise I think I will have a ridiculous number of pots in the kitchen. How are you getting on with your planning? Anyone trying any new varieties this year?
Monday, 7 April 2008
Free seeds
The Guardian newspaper is giving away free seeds with today's newspaper, well you get the coupon to use to send off for the seeds in the paper. They are giving away cabbage seeds 'Guardian' which I think is a summer cabbage but as there doesn't seem to be much info on the web I will have the wait for the seeds to arrive before I know the full details. Still I have completely omitted to buy any cabbage seeds this year so I think that for the price of a newspaper this is a pretty nice offer.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Almost spring
Today was almost a spring day, if it just hadn't been raining and snowing then it would have been lovely. All week has been dry and yesterday, whilst I was at work of course, was a beautiful day so I had high hopes for today.
As it is now spring (in my mind I mean) I was determined to get some seeds into the ground, everything which has been grown in pots inside is doing amazingly well, even the peppers have germinated, but it simply isn't the same as actually putting seed into the ground. So today I set off to the allotment to enjoy some surprisingly warm sunshine, as I forked over the bed, marked lines and hoed the drills all was good, as I started to sow the seeds the snow arrived. As I determinedly continued the rain arrived, and wouldn't stop.
Anyway Seeds are in and covered with some bubble wrap on account of all my fleece having been commandeered by OH for germinating grass seed, apparently grass is more important than carrots, heres hoping that the seeds germinate.
Luckily I am not too upset about the poor weather because I have received a rather great book: 'The Allotment Book: Seasonal Planner and Cookbook', for those of you who have read 'The Allotment Book' then this is the follow up, if you haven't read either then they are highly recommended. I am now salivating over all the tasty recipes that I will be able to cook using my own crops!
As it is now spring (in my mind I mean) I was determined to get some seeds into the ground, everything which has been grown in pots inside is doing amazingly well, even the peppers have germinated, but it simply isn't the same as actually putting seed into the ground. So today I set off to the allotment to enjoy some surprisingly warm sunshine, as I forked over the bed, marked lines and hoed the drills all was good, as I started to sow the seeds the snow arrived. As I determinedly continued the rain arrived, and wouldn't stop.
Anyway Seeds are in and covered with some bubble wrap on account of all my fleece having been commandeered by OH for germinating grass seed, apparently grass is more important than carrots, heres hoping that the seeds germinate.
Luckily I am not too upset about the poor weather because I have received a rather great book: 'The Allotment Book: Seasonal Planner and Cookbook', for those of you who have read 'The Allotment Book' then this is the follow up, if you haven't read either then they are highly recommended. I am now salivating over all the tasty recipes that I will be able to cook using my own crops!
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Seed planning
The other day I was reading Soilman's blog (well worth a read if you haven't been there before), and saw that he has already sowed, and germinated, his celeraic seeds. Having purchased celeraic seeds, along with many others, and they carefully stored them in the shed with no plan as to when, or where, things would be planted I was suddenly overcome with that missed sowing moment panic.After hot footing it to the shed and rummaging through the seed box I realised that thankfully I didn't seem to be running too late, most packets said to sow in March. Instead I had an entirely different problem; most of my seeds are purchased from Alan Romans who cuts the cost by not printing pretty pictures or instructions on the seed packets, instead all the information is on his website. So I realised I am actually the proud owner of 13 packets of seed which I have no idea when to sow, when to plant out, or even when to harvest! luckily it is still February - just, so really I am not running late, I have over a day until March...
Some time later I now have a planting plan of sorts, I basically just matched the months with seeds that need sowing, planting out and harvesting. Hopefully in time I will turn this into a lovely to do list on here but until then you will just have to make do with me telling you that in March I will be sowing Kale 'Starbur', Tomato 'Sungold', Tomato 'Gardener's delight', Celeriac 'Monach' and Pepper 'Canape' inside and Pea 'Ambassador', Spinach 'Tornado', Spinach 'Spinnaker', Carrots 'Early Nantes 2', Cos lettuce and Radish 'Cherry belle' outside. If I was really organised I would even know where these things were going to be planted but I think that might have to be another planning session...
Friday, 1 February 2008
More seeds
This week we finally got around to ordering the huge bags of soil to complete the flower beds in the garden. I arrived home yesterday to find them sitting outside the front of the house, which means no allotment activity this weekend as I need to shift all of the soil around to the back of the house...
To make up for this denial I spent this morning ordering the last of my seeds, over the past few weeks I have been reading all my seed catalogues and finally chose to grow 'Starbor' kale, 'Monach' celeriac, 'Ambassador' peas, 'baby bear' pumpkins and 'Detroit 2' beetroot, all of which were available from Fothergills.
The bigger challenge was choosing my potatoes, I have never grown potatoes before but have come to understand that there are many considerations, variety which is dependent on what you plan to use it for, how long you want to wait for the potato to grow and finally how disease resistant it needs to be. I have no idea what pests and diseases my potatoes will need to withstand so decided not to worry about this too much (maybe next year I will be more concerned!) but am very clear that I want Charlotte potatoes because they taste fantastic, and something else which will be good for baking and mashing.
Sadly all the seed websites I visited had grouped their potatoes only into type which didn't help but I did manage to find a fantastic website which listed varieties based on their uses. Eventually I settled on 'Arran Victory', a late maincrop, which has a purple skin, white flesh and is meant to be good at weed suppressing; with all those nettles it had better be very good!
To make up for this denial I spent this morning ordering the last of my seeds, over the past few weeks I have been reading all my seed catalogues and finally chose to grow 'Starbor' kale, 'Monach' celeriac, 'Ambassador' peas, 'baby bear' pumpkins and 'Detroit 2' beetroot, all of which were available from Fothergills.
The bigger challenge was choosing my potatoes, I have never grown potatoes before but have come to understand that there are many considerations, variety which is dependent on what you plan to use it for, how long you want to wait for the potato to grow and finally how disease resistant it needs to be. I have no idea what pests and diseases my potatoes will need to withstand so decided not to worry about this too much (maybe next year I will be more concerned!) but am very clear that I want Charlotte potatoes because they taste fantastic, and something else which will be good for baking and mashing.
Sadly all the seed websites I visited had grouped their potatoes only into type which didn't help but I did manage to find a fantastic website which listed varieties based on their uses. Eventually I settled on 'Arran Victory', a late maincrop, which has a purple skin, white flesh and is meant to be good at weed suppressing; with all those nettles it had better be very good!
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Seeds of hope
With the end of January in sight I was finally motivated to start purchasing my vegetable seeds. After last year's success of the vegetable beds in the garden my first stop was Alan Romans, where almost all the seeds cost just 50p, easy choices were the 'Gladiator' parsnips and 'Early Nantes 2', and 'Flyaway' F1 carrots all of which performed spectacularly well last year despite the poor weather.
Alan Romans only supplies limited varieties of most seeds so I picked 'Florence' fennel and 'Mussellburgh Improved' Leeks based on nothing more than they were available, having grown neither before there didn't seem to be much to compare them too! Finally I followed popular opinion for the tomatoes and chose 'Gardeners Delight' and 'Sungold' both of which will be worth trying outside.
So there is just the potatoes, beans, peas, brassicas, salad leaves, beetroot and spinach left to choose before the growing season begins...
Alan Romans only supplies limited varieties of most seeds so I picked 'Florence' fennel and 'Mussellburgh Improved' Leeks based on nothing more than they were available, having grown neither before there didn't seem to be much to compare them too! Finally I followed popular opinion for the tomatoes and chose 'Gardeners Delight' and 'Sungold' both of which will be worth trying outside.
So there is just the potatoes, beans, peas, brassicas, salad leaves, beetroot and spinach left to choose before the growing season begins...
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Perfect digging conditions...
After all the rain last week and Saturday being a beautiful crisp autumn day yesterday was a perfect digging day, made good progress preparing the soon to be plum tree area and cleared a good few nettles in the progress. Hopefully the number of jumbo worms I stumbled across is also a good omen for the future.
Suttons seed catalogue has arrived so I have been drawing up wish lists of everything I want to grow next year. Squash and pumpkins are featuring heavily (hopefully next year won't bring quite so much rain) but I am also hoping to try asparagus alongside the more staple cabbage, potatoes and lots of carrots. Now I just need to choose the varieties and then I can create a planting plan. Hopefully with a few more of these sunny days I can actually clear some ground to plant the seeds.
Suttons seed catalogue has arrived so I have been drawing up wish lists of everything I want to grow next year. Squash and pumpkins are featuring heavily (hopefully next year won't bring quite so much rain) but I am also hoping to try asparagus alongside the more staple cabbage, potatoes and lots of carrots. Now I just need to choose the varieties and then I can create a planting plan. Hopefully with a few more of these sunny days I can actually clear some ground to plant the seeds.
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