The Cottage Smallholder

Sungold tomato trusses

I felt a bit of a pig last spring. Danny adores Sungold tomatoes but I suddenly couldn’t find my wallet when I saw the price on the pack – £2.99 for just ten F1 seeds.

Feeling a bit guilty I bought one plant in a sale in late June. Perhaps this plant hadn’t had the coddling that one would usually give a tomato plant of this calibre, as it didn’t produce a great harvest. Just three trusses that were largely green by the end of September.

We grew Sungold tomatoes years ago with great results so I decided that this year I’d invest the cash and buy some seed. Generally we save our tomato seed these days using this easy method. Although Sungold seeds are an F1 variety (and probably will not come true if saved) the cost of seeds is small compared to a few punnets of Sungold toms from the supermarket, as I found to my cost last summer.

Imagine my delight when I spotted that Thompson and Morgan has an excellent seed sale on now. The star of this show are Sungold seeds reduced from £2.99 to just 20p! I nipped onto the site and ordered some along with Carrot ‘Flyaway’ F1 Hybrid (99p), Salad Leaves ‘Speedy Mix’ (49p), Runner Bean ‘White Lady’ (99p), Sunflower ‘Russian Giant’ (49p), Sweet Pea ‘King Size Navy Blue’ (99p), Poppy ‘Summer Fruits’ (49p), Beetroot ‘Boltardy’ (Globe) (49p) and just for fun Geranium ‘Horizon Pink Ice’ F1 Hybrid (99p). The regular price for these seeds totalled, £21.81 and I got them for £6.12 + £1.95 postage and packing. A bargain.

Although the list in Thompson and Morgan’s sale is small there may be something on the list that tickles your fancy. Our carrots on the allotment were attacked by carrot fly this autumn – so ‘Flyaway’ seemed an obvious choice for this year. The salad leaves ‘Speedy Mix’ are an old favourite with us and we sow and grow these throughout the year. The runner bean White Lady will set in almost any weather, we’ve had good results with this seed in the past – the flavour is quite delicate and they are stringless. Bolthardy is the beetroot that I prefer to sow as it’s slow to bolt and has a good rounded flavour – roll on summer salads with baby beetroot tossed in lime juice and chilli oil!

One thing that I really loved about our allotment site last summer was the proliferation of giant sunflowers on the plots. So Russian Giant – which can grow up to 10’ high – was a must have. I can never grow enough sweet peas and the ‘King Sized Navy Blue’ are a new variety to me and look promising. Shaggy headed poppies are here in the garden but ‘Summer Fruits’ included colours that we don’t yet have.

Last but not least, I thought that it would be fun to try growing pelargonium (annual geranium) from seed. They need to be started early as they take a very long time to grow.

So my seeds are ordered and it’s time to dust of our cheap electric propagator and start sowing the first seeds of 2012.

N.B. The discounts only show up when you go to checkout! Click here for the Thompson and Morgan January 2012 seed sale.