It’s that time of year when we’re making plans for next years veg plot. A time to try new varieties or return to old favourites. I have loads of seeds already that I can sow again next year and some I have collected from this years plants. But I still can’t resist a few new purchases. Here’s my list for 2011:
Aubergine Bonica F1 (30 seeds / £1.90) – I grew my first aubergine plant this year which made a great moussaka, so more of the same next year.
Dwarf French Bean Borlotto Firetongue (100 seeds / £1.80) – great colour, a fiery red, not grown before.
Dwarf French Bean Purple Teepee (150 seeds / £1.75) – ditto, deep purple.
Runner / French Bean cross Moonlight (35 seeds / £2.95) – white flowered self pollinating which should mean a better crop in our unreliable summers.
Beetroot Burpee’s Golden (225 seeds / £1.95) – I love beetroot and want to try a golden variety.
Brussel Sprout Bedford (450 seeds / £1.10)
Celery Loretta (350 seeds / £1.95) – grew celery for the first time this year, this is a self blanching variety so no need to dig any trenches.
Cucumber Carmen F1 (5 seeds / £3.95) – expensive but I only grow 2 plants each year. All-female variety which I’ve grown before, heavy cropper, and the girls can eat skin on which is the main reason I’ve decided to grow it again.
Parsnip Exhibition (600 seeds / £1.10) – grew well this year.
Pea Oregon Sugar Pod (260 seeds / £2.15) – mangetout, first time I’ve tried to grow any pea/mangetout.
Sweetcorn Earlybird F1 (35 seeds / £1.75) – I grew sweetcorn for the first time this year and loved the taste of freshly picked cobs.
Rocket Runway (450 seeds / £1.60)
Swede Invitation (1300 seeds / £1.50)
Tomato Golden Peardrop (20 seeds / £1.50) – I’ve not grown a yellow variety before.
Tomato Faworyt (40 seeds / £1.45) – beefsteak variety
Potatoes – Lady Christl, Kestrel, Desiree, Maris Piper and Charlotte (1kg each).
There’s £30 of seeds there and the spuds will set me back £14.95. But by ordering through my local Horticultural Society, who use Dobies, I should get 50% of the seeds and 10% off the spuds which is a fantastic deal!
But you know what they say about the best laid plans……….I just need to find the room to plant them all!!
Are you planning to grow anything new next year?
17 comments
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November 16, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Mal
Oregon Sugar Pod won’t let you down, and golden beetroot won’t disappoint either.
I’m going to try celeriac this year. I’m told it needs a long growing season, so it could be a challenge
November 17, 2010 at 9:25 am
Damo
Thanks Mal, good luck with the celeriac, I’ll be interested to see how you go and maybe one for 2012 for me.
November 17, 2010 at 7:48 am
Soilman
Good luck with the Burpee’s Golden beetroot, Damo. I’ve tried to grow this at least three times, and failed utterly. Can’t get the damn seed to germinate properly; always get pathetic straggly rows where about 1 in 50 seeds has actually produced a seedling.
Love to see if you can succeed with it. Best of British.
November 17, 2010 at 9:26 am
Damo
Thanks Soilman, I like a challenge but also like to hedge my bets so I’ll be sowing some standard beetroot as well. Thanks for your comment as I wouldn’t have bothered and could have ended up with nothing.
November 17, 2010 at 9:13 am
hillwards
Hi Damo, A great list. We had two sowings of mangetout this year, along with one of peas, and thoroughly enjoyed them.
We’re going to try aubergines next year, and named varieties of peppers this time(!). Other new crops are celeriac and florence fennel … and a few new squashes along with the lovely Crown Prince and pumpkins that we’ll grow again too – Marina di Chioggia, Turks Turban and Bush Delicata Cornells. I can’t wait!
Sara.
November 17, 2010 at 9:29 am
Damo
Always exciting to plan for next year. Celeriac is one I’ve been tempted with and fennel looks great but we don’t eat it so would have to build into our repertoire. Squashes and pumpkins are brilliant, my only trouble is space so I tend to plant them at the edges of the beds and have them trailing up pathways or into unused corners of the garden which can be a bit messy but worth it as they store so well.
November 17, 2010 at 9:59 am
Jo
You’ve got a good list going there. It’s exciting making plans for next year. I’ve decided that I’m going to grow more pepper plants next year, I really enjoyed the peppers I grew this year. I’m going to try marrow for the first time. I used some of my overgrown courgettes as marrows this year and enjoyed them so I’m giving marrows a go.
November 17, 2010 at 10:59 am
Damo
Hi Jo, peppers is something I’m definitely growing more of as well. I’d like to have enough plants to take green peppers from earlier in the season but still have enough to leave to ripen into Sept/Oct. I need to get more out of my greenhouse space, I feel a few winter DIY projects are ahead!
November 17, 2010 at 11:05 am
Sue
We need to sit down and seriously consider our seed list – we too manage to get 50% discount but from Kings seeds – a group of us on our site have formed a gardening group to qualify for discount – I understand marshalls do a similar thing for allotment groups.
November 17, 2010 at 11:22 am
Damo
Our society uses Dobies Sue which are really good value. I think the main challenge is not over ordering, it’s always tempting to squeeze in a new variety or crop. I’ve got my list of seeds I already have on a spreadsheet, there’s currently 54 varieties of veg in the plastic containers in the garage yet I still want more!
November 17, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Flighty
Well I have to say what a downright seedy post this is!
All in all an comprehensive list which will give you lots to grow, eat and blog about. I’ll be posting my own, somewhat more modest, list sometime soon.
Belonging to, and ordering from, the local horticutural society is something all gardeners and allotmenteers should do.
I’m also going to grow Charlotte, Kestel and Desiree potatoes so it will interesting to see how we get on next year.
I shall be growing parsnips and swedes for the first time.
November 17, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Damo
Thanks Flighty, I may have overdone it. Good luck next year, we can compare on some of our results.
November 17, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Matron
I always try to try something new each year, but to try to find the space for old favourites too. The problem is, that if you find that one of your new ones is great… you have to add it to the list of your favourites and I always run out of space. This year I LOVED my trombone squash, trombocini -or tromba d’albegna. Fun to grow, prolific and tasty.
November 17, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Damo
Hi Matron that’s always the problem with me, the curiousity for new varieties versus the space to grow them. Ah well will see what happens next year!
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