Seeds

Ahh, where to begin. My seed addiction has returned with the light, and I'm buying stuff that I really don't need. At the end of last year, I did a quick seed inventory and decided that I didn't actually need anything, bar some fresh carrot seed (not even parsnip as I grew all my own).

So now I'm going to own up and list everything I've bought since last year. I advise you to make a cup of tea and get comfy. :)

Latest acquisitions came from Netto, when I popped in for some milk on the way home with the girls. There by the front door was a great big stand of 'Country Value' seeds, at a mere 19p a packet! I got:

Coriander
Annuals (mixed) - picture on the packet has poppies, marigolds, nicotiana, cornflower, stocks and a few others
Rocket
Courgette All Green Bush (I'm doing a plant stall at the preschool fundraiser this year - honest) 20 seeds for 19p!!
Beetroot Boltardy
Beetroot Perect 3
Spinach beet/perpetual spinach
Sunflower giant single
Dwarf Bean Tendergreen

I got a £5 voucher from T&M the other week. Add to that the fact that you could also choose two free packets of seed and I just had to do it. So I got:

Climbing French Bean Cobra
Salsify
Scorzonera
Strawberry Sarian
Mange tout Oregon Sugar Pod - all for the grand total of £2.36, which includes p&p

eBay has a lot to answer for. As do the lovely people on the Grapevine, Grow Your Own mag's very own forum. But more about those folks later. eBay is a veritable treasure trove of seeds, and I was sent a link to a very nice chap in the US and I bought the following from him, all at very reasonable prices. :)

Winter squash Cushaw
Climbing Bean Soldier
Climbing Bean Yard Long
Carrot Snow White
Beetroot Egyptian

My absolute favourite seed purveyor has to be the Real Seed catalogue, or Vida Verde as they used to be known. They're fabulous - they have amazing varieties, grow a large chunk of the seeds themselves (and the ones they don't they tell you about and have personally sourced) and they tell you how to save your own seed for planting the following year. Not exactly sound business sense, but they're rediscovering new old varieties all the time, and don't let the seed out until they've throroughly tried them for themselves. Anyhow, I digress... but I've placed two orders so far this season. :)

Double Standard Sweetcorn
White Beetroot
Sutherland Kale
Leaf Beet
Australian Yellowleaf lettuce
Trieste White Courgette

and then

D'Eysines Carrot
Mixed Summer Squash
Telephone tall pea
Waltham Butternut Squash
Sutherland Kale
Double Standard Sweetcorn
Collective Farm Woman melon

Yes, I did duplicate the sweetcorn, but the first order was placed in October, the second in January... and I was pregnant. Ben also threw in a packet of Blue banana squash for me to try, as I noticed their mixed winter squash selection was missing. Lovely company.

I also get seeds from the Heritage Seed Library, through Garden Organic (HDRA). This year I've got:

Beetroot Devoy
Squash Lady Godiva (the seeds are naked/hulless!)
Runner bean Coal
Pea Epicure
Melon Green Nutmeg
French Bran Mr Fearn's Purple Flowered
Tomato Peremoga

I ordered a few from Kings as well:

Green manures - Buckwheat, grazing rye and winter tares
Sweet Pea Kings mixed
Mixed Lettuce
Pak Choi Canton Dwarf
Spinach Giant Winter

will go hunt through the stack of interestig jiffy envelopes and see what else I've bought and forgotten about!!

Sad, neglected blog

Kind of like my garden really. What with being pregnant for the best part of the last year, I feel like I've sadly neglected all things horticultural. The only things that are growing well are the orchids and the aloe vera. And I'm not even that keen on orchids. I have no idea why they grow so well for me.

But anyway - I was sick from May to August, then I got a month of pottering around in before my pelvis started coming apart at the seams, and therefore, absolutely nothing has been done. I managed to harvest a reasonable amount of stuff, but no major weeding/tidying/autumn planting got done.

So here we are in January, and my greenhouse is full of dead tomato plants (glad they didn't get blight last year), the allotment is growing a good crop of couch grass and sprouting red onions that were swamped by the nettles and the home garden is like a ghost garden with frost withered corn stalks and the empty shells of mummified marrows strewn liberally around.

Bugger, just realised it's actually February... Need to list the seeds I've bought for this year. After swearing that I didn't need anything bar some fresh carrot seeds, it seems I've gone slightly loopy again. *sigh*

My new little man is slowly settling into something loosely aproaching a routine, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to fit at least half an hour a day of gardening into our little schedule. Watch this space...