It’s that time of year again! Seeds and dreams
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Gardening | 14 comments
Seed packets
“How many seed catalogues have you received this month? It must be at least eight!”
Danny gets a bit panicky when the catalogues arrive as he knows that I love buying seeds and can be tempted to splash out in a trice.
I do like the catalogues but actually tend to choose my seeds online. The Real Seed Company is always a first stop – the seeds are always good quality, postage is cheap and the site is fun to browse. This year we are going to try growing yacon. This is a plant from South America and it’s the tubers that you eat. Apparently they are a good substitute for water chestnuts and are also delicious in salads. They are also a perennial plant – if you save some tubers for planting the next year. As you know I’m very keen on perennial plants as, if all goes well, you need only shell out once for them.
We are keen to raise some new edibles and have ordered two types of Amaranth – one for leaves and one for grain. Apparently the latter are very easy to thresh and are a good source of protein. Judging by the photos the leafy amaranth should produce an enormous amount of leaves over a long period.
Last year I ordered ‘Lisse de Meaux’ Long Carrot seeds as ithis variety has good keeping qualities once harvested. I left them in the ground and despite the freezing weather and snow in December they have stood up well and are still crisp and delicious plucked straight from the ground. Needless to say they were top of my list for this year.
I don’t tend to be very lucky with growing peppers – sweet or hot. So I’ve ordered just one variety Nigel’s Outdoors Chilli – early maturing to give them the very best possible chance of producing lots of chilli peppers for apple chilli jelly. I’ll be growing these in the solar tunnel.
Do you remember that I wrote an article on the Gardening Which? Best tasting tomato tests? These were blind tasted by hundreds of members of the public and Sioux was voted the best. After a long search Plants of Distinction was the only UK company that I could find that were selling Sioux tomato seeds. If you live in America these seeds are widely available.
I’ve invested in globe artichoke seeds there (more perennial vegetables!) we have to wait a year for the first harvest but I’m going to put one plant in the solar tunnel to make sure that the first harvest is early.
We can never grow enough runner beans. I have ordered the wonderful old and tasty variety Scarlet Emperor – the kitchen mice ate my saved seed. I’ve also ordered a variety called Czar from The Real Seed Company. I hope to dry seeds from the latter in the autumn to put into casseroles and stews next winter. We are going to use the south facing fence that we uncovered in the front garden last summer as a vertical support for runner beans, sweet peas and borlotti beans. These will be watered using a slow drip water butt system which gets the most out of every drop of water.
I love this time of year on the garden dreaming front. Almost everything seems possible, in my minds eye I see us gliding about the garden with trugs bursting with bug and disease free giant vegetables. Our cottage is filled with of vases of flowers that we have grown ourselves and the larder is choc a bloc with bounty. Of course every year has it’s own successes and failures but that’s what makes gardening such a fascinating, rewarding and addictive pursuit. There is always next year to look forward to and that year has arrived.
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I ordered a load of seeds from T&M last week, after they sent me a £10 off voucher, which I couldn’t ignore really.
We’ve had reasonable luck with cayenne chillies but never succeeded with sweet peppers. I ordered some jalapeno seeds so I’ll see how they go.
I usually buy my seeds via the local gardening club, as they are offered 50% discount by Mr Fothergill, plus a few from Plants of Distinction. However, I didn’t have time to get to any of the autumn meetings, so didn’t join and now it’s too late for the order. So I’ll be browsing through all the catalogues this year too.
The most bemusing thing in the PoD catalogue is 6 peanuts (seeds, not plants) for £1.65. Just get a bag of monkey nuts in the shell from the greengrocer or pet shop and save a few?
I’ve never had trouble growing peppers, but they have to be started early and given enough warmth to get much of a crop. My daughter, who doesn’t have a greenhouse, gets a lovely crop of chilli peppers in her Norwich garden.
We should (fingers crossed) have moved into our barn by the beginning of Feb, and then the long awaited task of turning a sea of clay, mud and builders rubble into a productive and beautiful vegetable and flower garden can begin. I have no idea what will do well – there’s a big difference between a half plot allotment in London and 2.5 acres in Croatia, so it really will be a voyage of discovery. I did grow a few bits and bobs here in our rented house and funnily enough, for the first time ever I managed to grow chilli peppers that were actually fiery and hot. A neighbour gave me a few plants as seedings, so I’ve no idea what variety there were but I did remember to save some seed, and I’ll have another go this year. It’s an exciting time of year :o)
Sweet peppers, you know, I have done Real Seeds, and Edwin Tuckers and Thompson and Morgan – I’ve tried the mundane and the totally bonkers, and I’ve grown some – Real Seeds’ Sweet Chocolate was a good one – but never, you know, never really got LOADS.
Last year I managed to kill my sweet pepper plants with some help from frost and the cat, so I was forced to buy a couple of plants – Lidls cheapest at I think it was £1.99.
Never seen so many peppers in my life.
I do wonder sometimes if there is wisdom in knowing your limitations!
I just wish I had a garden capable of withstanding all the friuts, vegetables and flowers I want to grow! Currently, in my rented property, with my gravel garden it’s not possible. There’s not really any space for pots outside.
Suffice to say the inside is full of little pot plants! Might see if I can take over a corner of my mum’s massive vegetable garden!
Has anyone tried growing ‘Cavelo Nero’, a variety of Brassica, an Italian Black Cabbage looking leaves, originally grown in Tuscany?
Nigella I think reccomended it to try?
That’s also available at the real seed company, as I’m limited to space choice, it’s difficult this year to choose.
Thanks, Odelle.
I haven’t tackled mine yet, catalogs I mean. I’ve looked at them, but not with any discernment. I’ve decided I need to really sit down and decide what plants to scrap and which to concentrate on, in the hopes of better yields.
One thing I learned from reading The Resilient Gardener, by Carol Deppe, is that for managing in the increasingly wacky weather two things are key: diversity and early varieties.
I need to get serious about picking and choosing. Thanks for mentioning the grain amaranth- I’ll look into it and quinoa. I don’t think I’m going to bother with corn this year; my soil is just not good enough yet.
It’s funny, but chili peppers are the only thing apart from herbs I managed to grow on my, not Italian nor Spanish, but Swiss, balcony. On the other hand I took them out of the Hungarian dried chili peppers, so maybe they didn’t need such a high temperature and so much sun as, say, those from South America or Asia? Actually I planted them only in September and had beautiful red (hot!) chili peppers at the end of October! I’ll repeat the experiment this year, but will plant them earlier and more of them too. Pity my balcony is so small 🙁
You lucky thing, having all that choice, I still have to wait a while before I can even think about ordering as we only have a garden the size of a postage stamp at the moment! Will continue for the time being with my container veg and herbs. Enjoy your time making the decisions on what to get and good luck with it when it arrives.
Alison x
Lovely! I’ve been drooling over the Heritage Seed Library catalogue… only allowed to select 6 varieties each year so it’s a really hard choice! And I won’t know until they arrive whether I get my 1st choices.
Amaranth – that’s one thing I’d like to try. Thanks for the reminder. Then I can get into Caribbean cuisine – Callaloo soup anyone?
Celia