Monday, November 21, 2011
Seeds for 2012
I have been incredibly precocious and have started ordering my seeds for 2012!
I ordered a first lot from www.vegetableseeds.co.uk, who are really kind and their seeds are great value for money. Much cheaper than seeds in France.
I ordered:
Squash Winter Waltham Butternut - these are meant to be a good butternut, and as I didn't do any this year, time to do some again.
Squash Winter Uchiki Kuri - the good old Potimarron, such great flavour
Courgette Nero Di Milano - I couldn't get any striata d'Italia but these looked a good second choice.
Pea Alderman - I loved this climbing pea this year and it saves on space so they are retained for next year's season.
Pea Early Onward - you can never have enough peas. I still have some Kelvedon Wonder left over too. Successive sowing is the way to go with peas.
Beetroot Boltardy - I have to find a way to stop the voles getting the beetroot. I am thinking of making a raised bed, with a solid bottom, so they can't eat them.
Sweet Pepper Long Red Marconi - I wanted those good Robertina peppers but can'[t get them. These look wonderful, long red variety and they say they are productive. Peppers seem to do better than aubergines so I willl stick to them from now on.
Climbing French Bean Cobra - My reliable favourite. I saved my own this year but you can never get enough.
Dwarf French Bean Safari - these performed quite well this year so I will go for them again.
Onion Bedfordshire Champion - I will have a go at onion from sed this year. I will sow indoors at around Christmas time and see if I have some small seedlings to plant out in February. If it works, it is much more economical than sets!
Leek Musselburgh - Leeks were a bit of a flop this year but next year I will try hard to make a proper seed bed outdoors and fleece them well and try and raise my own plants.
I ordered a first lot from www.vegetableseeds.co.uk, who are really kind and their seeds are great value for money. Much cheaper than seeds in France.
I ordered:
Squash Winter Waltham Butternut - these are meant to be a good butternut, and as I didn't do any this year, time to do some again.
Squash Winter Uchiki Kuri - the good old Potimarron, such great flavour
Courgette Nero Di Milano - I couldn't get any striata d'Italia but these looked a good second choice.
Pea Alderman - I loved this climbing pea this year and it saves on space so they are retained for next year's season.
Pea Early Onward - you can never have enough peas. I still have some Kelvedon Wonder left over too. Successive sowing is the way to go with peas.
Beetroot Boltardy - I have to find a way to stop the voles getting the beetroot. I am thinking of making a raised bed, with a solid bottom, so they can't eat them.
Sweet Pepper Long Red Marconi - I wanted those good Robertina peppers but can'[t get them. These look wonderful, long red variety and they say they are productive. Peppers seem to do better than aubergines so I willl stick to them from now on.
Climbing French Bean Cobra - My reliable favourite. I saved my own this year but you can never get enough.
Dwarf French Bean Safari - these performed quite well this year so I will go for them again.
Onion Bedfordshire Champion - I will have a go at onion from sed this year. I will sow indoors at around Christmas time and see if I have some small seedlings to plant out in February. If it works, it is much more economical than sets!
Leek Musselburgh - Leeks were a bit of a flop this year but next year I will try hard to make a proper seed bed outdoors and fleece them well and try and raise my own plants.
Warm November
This month has been unseasonably warm! So many things are still alive and kicking in the allotment. Nasturtiums are still rambling over the empty spaces, giving flowers for the insects, lettuces are under covers to blanch them (we ate a very nice frisee on the weekend), the sprouts and cabbages are getting quite big. The raspberries even still have a few fruit on them. But as they are no longer really tasty I will let the birds take advantage of them.
Garlic is in, and so are few echalotes, to see how they go being overwintered (I usually plant them in spring). The plot has been mostly tidied for the winter.
On Saturday a local farmer deleivered us some manure, about twice the amount we had bought! Unfortunately, the load was delivered clumsily and a huge pile is now sitting on top of my flower patch :-( I tried in vain to dig it out, but as a few of us moved an incredible amount of manure on the weekend, I was knackered and now I will try again next weekend to get it off. I hope that the artichokes survive! It also killed off what was left of my seedbox so I will pull that up and try and repair it in spring with some duct tape.
All is now ready for winter to take over.
Garlic is in, and so are few echalotes, to see how they go being overwintered (I usually plant them in spring). The plot has been mostly tidied for the winter.
On Saturday a local farmer deleivered us some manure, about twice the amount we had bought! Unfortunately, the load was delivered clumsily and a huge pile is now sitting on top of my flower patch :-( I tried in vain to dig it out, but as a few of us moved an incredible amount of manure on the weekend, I was knackered and now I will try again next weekend to get it off. I hope that the artichokes survive! It also killed off what was left of my seedbox so I will pull that up and try and repair it in spring with some duct tape.
All is now ready for winter to take over.
Labels: autumn, dying_off, echalote, garlic, manure
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