Dave's Allotment

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Seed order for 2007

I have now placed my seed orders for 2007. In the past I've always bought everything from Marshalls, but this year I've used 4 different catalogues to find everything I wanted to grow next year. Thompson & Morgan had some excellent deals where you got 2 free packets of seeds with the order, plus the catalogue came with a £5-off voucher. The Organic seed catalogue had a superb range of Squashes and Dobies had free p&p so I didn't mind buying just 1 packed of tomato seeds from them as they had the only yellow tomatoes that I liked the look of. Here is my complete list of seeds ordered:

Beetroot (Boltardy) [T]
Brocoli (Belstar) [T]
Cabbage (Mila Savoy [M], Red Rookie [M], Holland White [M], Surprise [T])
Carrot (Heracles [M], Autumn King [M])
Cauliflower (Gypsy [T])
Celery (Granada) [M]
Courgette (Zucchini [M], Gold Rush Yellow [M])
Cucumber (Burpless) [T]
French Bean (Maxi) [M]
Leek (Titan) [M]
Parsnip (Archer) [M]
Pea (Kelvedon Wonder [M], Hurst Green Shaft [M], Greensage [T])
Pumpkin (Spellbound) [M]
Rocket (Wild Olive Leaf) [M]
Runner Bean (Enorma) [M]
Spinach (Perpetual) [T]
Spring Onion (Red Furio [M], White Lisbon [T])
Squash (Festival [M], Butternut Sprinter [O], Futsu [O], Uchiki Kuri [O], Bon Bon [O])
Sweetcorn (Tender&Sweet) [T]
Tomato (Gardeners Delight [M], Golden Sunrise [D], Sungold [T])

Key:
[M] Marshalls
[T] Thompson & Morgan
[O] Organic Gardening Catalogue
[D] Dobies

There were a couple of new things I wanted to try. After having had such a successful crop of Squashes I wanted to try a few name varieties. I'm going to grow the same Butternuts (Sprinter) and also Festival squashes again because they were the best ones this year, but I'm also trying Futsu, Uchiki Kuri and Bon Bon (all from the Organic catalogue) for the first time. I've no idea what they'll be like, but they sounded and looked good from the description in the catalogue. I had wanted to try growing Turks Turban, but they were out of stock.

I'm going to try growing Cauliflower for the first time next year, and have another go at growing Celery. I tried Celery for a couple of years when I first got my allotment, but never had any success germinating it. So here's hoping it grows better this year.

I'll be growing 3 different types of Tomato: red (Gardeners Delight), yellow (Golden Sunrise) and orange (Sungold). I've also ordered a lot more Peas than normal to try and get a really huge crop that we can freeze and use through the winter, as I never seem to be able to grow enough of them. This years peas were Kelvedon Wonder and Hurst Green Shaft, which I'll be growing again next year, but I'm also trying Greensage which is supposed to be self-supporting and not need any fence/netting to grow up.

I still have plenty of left-over lettuce and radish seeds from this year, so I haven't bothered to order any more of those. Apart from that, there is a mixture of the usual varieties I grow, and a few different varieties to experiment with.

2 Comments:

  • What a wonderful time of year to be leafing through seed catalogues! I grew gardeners delight tomato last year for the first time (in my 8 variety tomato hedge!) they are wonderful. I am looking to grow a really sweet, firm squash next year, can you recommend one? what do you think of Queensland Blue?

    By Blogger Matron, at 8:45 PM  

  • Never heard of that one I'm afraid. My favourite so far has been Festival.

    By Blogger Dave, at 4:07 PM  

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