One potato, two potato...

We have ordered our seed potatoes from Capital Gardens and this is our choice for 2010 :

Cara

A high yielding, trouble free, all rounder maincrop.

Golden Wonder

The ones that are made into crisps also make excellent roasters !

Nadine

A second early variety we are trying for the first time.

Maris Piper

A maincrop variety that we will be lifting as small salad potatoes.

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Big Onions

Our first sowing of the year :

I am going to try to produce some big onions that can be exhibited... but can also be used in the kitchen !

The seeds have been supplied by Johnsons and are being kept in the warm until the seedlings are big enough to transplant.

Winter Update

The patch is looking a bit sad following the recent Arctic weather.

Leeks, swede, celeriac and black radish have all survived and we continue to harvest these for the table... the cheese & leek quiche being a notable success !

Our Autumn planted/sown onions, garlic, shallots, peas and beans appear to have been unaffected and should produce some good early growth when the weather warms up.

There has been some damage to our purple-sprouting broccoli. First we had attack by pigeons and we decided to protect them with netting and then the netting became weighed down with snow, causing the plants to bend and some of the tops to break off. We remain hopeful for a good crop come Springtime.

We have been busy studying seed catalogues during the dark nights and have started to order our seed stock for the coming season. Although the idea of growing 'heirloom' vegetables is appealing, there are often good reasons why many of these varieties have become ignored... they have poor yields and can be prone to diseases.

Therefore, we will mainly be growing F1 hybrid varieties to ensure that all of our efforts are rewarded with plentiful crops of good tasting vegetables. We will grow some 'heirloom' varieties that we know from past experience will give good results.

Here's what we will be growing :

• Beans Borlotti
• Beans Cherokee Trail of Tears (Heirloom)
• Beetroot Solo F1 & Moneta F1 ('monogerm' varieties)
• Brussel Sprouts Trafalgar F1
• Cabbage (Red) Rodima F1
• Cabbage (Savoy) Tarvoy F1
• Calabrese Aquilese F1 & Marathon F1
• Carrot Flyaway F1
• Carrot Autumn King (as a 'sacrifice' crop)
• Cauliflower All Year Round
• Cauliflower Candid Charm
• Celeriac Prinz
• Cucumber Wautoma (Heirloom)
• Kale Tosca di Nero
• Leek Oarsman F1
• Leek Blue de Solaise (Heirloom)
• Onion White Sweet Spanish
• Onion Kelsae
• Parsnip Avon Resistor
• Shallot Banana
• Spinach Galaxy F1
• Spinach Fiorana
• Squash Avalon F1
• Squash Marina de Chioggia (Heirloom)
• Squash Ushiki Kuri

In addition, Heather will be growing a variety of salad leaves and lettuces as catch crops.