I love this time of year. The frosty mornings, the stunning sunsets/rises, the garden planning, the ground cleared ready for planting, the leaves hopefully swept up, few weeds as yet and the veggie seeds arriving in the post.
This year I’ve reduced the size of the annual planting area in the kitchen garden by introducing a strawberry bed and a new asparagus bed, with the plants I grew from seed. There’s only two of us here so whilst I have normally grown the usual potatoes, carrots, cabbages, onions etc – this year I’ve decided to concentrate on the things we love most and that are expensive to buy. Asparagus and strawberries being two such examples.
There are many great seed companies out there and I’ve used most of them at one time or another but this year I’ve chosen to buy from Simply Seeds (www.simplyseeds.co.uk). Their product works for me with its simple packaging, good value packet sizes and prices and decent varieties of veg. No guarantees of course, and everyone has their favourites and, no I haven’t received any inducement to write this piece! But time will tell.
I’ll be planting up broad beans next month, and then later, some runners and butternut squash from last year’s saved seed. I’ve bought beetroot (I love it) some beef tomatoes, sweetcorn (at least the badgers won’t go hungry), dwarf french beans, some burpless cucumber, chilli peppers called Orange Spice, a packet of lettuce called Marvel of Four Seasons (loved the name) a few other bits and pieces and a good selection of herbs. That should give me enough to feed us through the summer and a decent selection of items for the Rye Flower and Veg Show 2023.
Rye Flower and Veg Show 2023
We haven’t put together the schedule quite yet but will be sitting down to plan the show in a few weeks and this year’s classes will one of the first things that go online. It will certainly include all the old favourites but with a few more unusual additions.
Don’t forget the show is a little earlier this year, being on Saturday 19th August. This may well be an advantage if we get another hot summer.
So whichever seed supplier you favour and whatever you decide to plant good luck and get digging.
