Have you decided what you’ll be growing in 2011? It’s time to start thinking about it right now! Browse the online catalogues, and keep an eye on our site here – bookmark us to make sure you come back and see what we’re doing!

A avourite shop for me is Suttons Seeds – well worth a look

Tons of great plant offers, seeds, seed potatoes and all the flowers and fruit plants you could ever imagine!
Plus they have their Garden Equipment Sale on right now

1. Compact Rootrainers

A clever growing system – SAVE £2.00!

Price £6.95

2. Solar Birdbath Fountain

Create a beautiful focal point – SAVE £50.00!

Price £69.95

3. Cordless Cylinder Lawn Mower

Provides a perfect finish – SAVE £35.00!

Price £99.95

4. Cordless Telescopic Hedge Trimmer

Lightweight, cordless and telescopic – SAVE £20.00!

Price £49.95

5. Floating Solar Lights

A rainbow of colour for your pond or pool – SAVE £10.00!

Price £9.95

6. Garden Rocker

Fancy sitting down on the job? – SAVE £5.00!

Price £19.95

7. Vitogrow Self-watering Mini Garden

Ingenious and protable – SAVE £15.00!

Price £49.95

Browse Thompson & Morgan‘s website for ideas including onions, potatoes, tomatoes and many types of seeds and plants.

Dobies just added these new seeds available to buy now. Treat yourself to some veg seeds and enjoy growing something from seed! Grow your own is more popular this year than ever before. You can grow things in a flower border, pots, tubs or hanging baskets – be inventive and get planting!
Growing flowers from seed is easy too!

Broad Beans Dreadnought Seeds (Vicia faba) Average Seeds 65 £1.50
The pods are of extraordinary size and length, packed with excellent quality white beans. Sowings for summer cropping should be made February-March. Sow in double rows 23cm (9″) apart, 5cm (2″) deep and 23cm (9″) apart allowing 90cm (3′) between each pair of rows. Pinch out the plant tops when in full flower to obtain better filled pods and to avoid infestation with black fly. Double row 6m (20′). Recommended for deep freezing and for exhibition. Harvest when seed shape is visible through the pod.HEALTH BENEFITS: Source of vitamins A (For growth, healthy hair, skin, bones, teeth and eyes as well as resistance to respiratory infections), C (Anti-ageing, wound healing, decreasing blood cholesterol and prevention of infections. Assists the body in absorbing iron), and E (Antioxidant important for anti-ageing [particularly for skin]). Source of protein and fibre.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is just a few thoughts on what I learnt last year from our first year on the allotment. The main thing I learned was slugs really will eat everything you put in. In fact let that be the main lesson of this article. The slugs and to a minor degree other pests, are the enemy of the gardener. The domain forced off having allotment is a constant battle between you and the slugs. You grow plants in pots to stop the slugs eating the seedlings as soon as they come up, and the slugs eat them as soon as she put in the ground. If you sow directly into the ground the slugs will just eat a lot. That’s not true actually I did have several rows of beetroot, or, and my rats tail radishes came up really well. The parsnips came up quite well to, the carrot is not so good. But I did notice that everyone our screw their carrots in containers up on a shelf somewhere or on top of a compost heap.

The peas and beans needed to be grown in pots. Slugs just love beans and even when they were planted out in pots and quite big plants the wind got them. Although they survived enough to give me quite a lot of beans in fact half a freezer full, I did feel that the should’ve been an easier way of stopping the slugs from getting them. I’m not quite sure what that is though.
I did use the slugs pellets, I tried a couple of brands.. But the slugs seemed to quite like both.

I do know however that seeds need a really fine seedbed if you planting them directly out into the ground. That means plenty of raking to make the soil very fine. I suppose for plants that don’t mind being disturbed, a pot is probably the best way to start them off. If you get those trays where you stand the pots in, then it is easy to move them about in the greenhouse or in a cold frame. Just try to manage a large number of pots moose would be a nightmare.

Someone on the allotment had started off a lot of seeds for me, which I found very useful book I haven’t given enough thought about what I wanted to to be growing. I ended up with some cabbages, when I really published of grown red cabbages. However we live and learn. I was also given a margarine tub filled with leek seedlings. These grew really well into leeks and I was very pleased with them.

I also like to have another go at growing butternut squash. I really like the taste of butternut squash, but apparently not as much as the slugs like the leaves. They were completely by the slugs. Although I did have one plant which flowered these never lasted and I never produced any squashes.

We really did enjoy growing tomatoes and will be doing this again for sure. The taste of freshly picked tomatoes is just something out. And although they take a lot of effort looking after and watering I think the taste is justified. I can barely stand to eat supermarket tomatoes.

It is a lot of work with the allotment, I’m sure you could do quite a lot in a small garden if you tried. You just have to be imaginative space, and decide what you want to grow. I’d very much like damson tree at home, although I think it will take up quite a large bit of garden stop I’ve just started on a jar of jam that I made from damsons grown on my allotment and it is utterly delicious.

It’s now that time of year when gardeners all over the country start making plans towards deciding what they will be growing either in the garden or the allotment. In order to help you I’ve created this list of who sells what types of seeds and what delivery charges apply.

Seeds for next season are now available at Thompson and Morgan.
If you’re planning what you will be growing next year then it’s time to start looking.
There’s fantastic new collections of seeds designed to save you money!

2010 Collection Mixed Collection. New collection available for 2010

Thompson & Morgan’s selection of exciting new vegetable and flower varieties especially chosen for the NEW 2010 Collection.

Collection comprises one packet each of:
Runner Bean St George
Sweet Pea Heirloom Bicolour
Poppy Bridal White
Brussels Sprout Bitesize
Marigold Legion of Honour
Pea Maro

6 packets – 1 of each SAVE £3.65 £7.99

Bean : Broad Bean : Crimson Flowered – new

A heritage variety with stunning crimson flowers, followed by a good crop of short, upright pods and delicious beans. Broad Bean Crimson Flowered is ideal for growing in containers as well as in the garden, or as an ornamental edible in the flower border.
Description Price
1 packet (40 beans) £1.99

Other beans include: Climbing Bean : Pantheon, Dwarf Bean : Bellini, Dwarf Bean : Concador, Dwarf Runner Bean : Pickwick, Runner Bean : St George,

New brassicas include:
Brassica : Petit Posy Mix™

Interesting British breeding, a cross between the Kale and Brussels Sprouts species producing ‘rosettes’ of loose frilly edged buttons on a long stalk, in purples, greens and bicoloured leaves. The flavour of Brassica Petit Posy™ is akin to spring greens rather than Brussels sprouts. Stands in condition throughout the winter, very winter hardy.
Description Price
1 packet (30 seeds) £2.99

Plus Broccoli : Spiridon F1, Broccoli : Summer Purple, Brussels Sprout : Bitesize F1 Hybrid

Plenty of amazing vegetables to try next year plus loads of flowers too!

Picking the raspberries that are ripening now. Watch out for the damsons ripening up – they make good jam although it takes effort to stone them!

Green Manure : Fast Growing Soil Conditioner (Seeds) You could grow some of this and put it on bare soil where you’ve removed a crop recently. It grows quickly and covers the soil and is then dug in to provide organic material!

Sow Winter Jem lettuce now – Lettuce : Winter Gem (January-May) (Seeds)
Little Gem Cos for sowing from September to January and for growing in a unheated greenhouse or in a cold frame for overwinter production (not suitable for growing outdoors).
Try a new broccoli! Brassica : Petit Posy Mix™ (Seeds)nteresting British breeding, a cross between the Kale and Brussels Sprouts species producing ‘rosettes’ of loose frilly edged buttons on a long stalk, in purples, greens and bicoloured leaves. Quite pretty really!

New TY&M exclusive!
Onion : Supasweet™ (Dulcinea) F1 Hybrid (Seeds)
The large semi-globe, copper-skinned bulbs of Onion Supasweet™ are so sweet and juicy they can be eaten raw providing you with a full range of health benefits including vitamin C and the antioxidant, quercetin. Not one for long storage but good for eating and will be lovely in salads!

What you could be planting right now – buy these seeds at Suttons

It’s not to late to put seeds in so why not check out this great list of seeds from Suttons.

Beetroot Boltardy Seeds – For use in summer and autumn make successional sowings
of suitable varieties from late April to July

Resistant to bolting and recommended for early sowing.

Price £1.30

Sunflower Giant Yellow Seeds grows up to 9ft tall! Fun for kids to grow and
for the birds (or humans) to eat the seeds!

Grow the tallest Sunflower!

Price £1.55

Salad Onion White Lisbon Seeds – delicious spring onions. Easy to grow

Has a mild flavour and grows quickly

Price £1.30

Cosmea Sonata Dwarf Mix Seeds

For bedding or large pots.

Price £1.75

Courgette F1 Defender Seeds – for delicious summer veg

Compact and heavy cropping!

Price £2.45

Leucanthemum Snow Lady Plants  – Flowering: May-September

Masses of blooms like a carpet of snow!

Price £7.95

Geum Queen of Orange Plants – very bright

Popular cottage garden plants

Price £6.95

Primrose F1 Suttons Select Mix Plants

Masses of vibrant blooms.

Price £15.95