This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Sunday 2 November 2014

New Seeds

I've started planning for 2015 and recently I purchased a few seeds from an organic gardening company based in Surrey.

I'm always excited to get new seeds (even though I have hundreds of seed packs)! However I now share seeds with my gardening group so it's not as bad if I have lots of them!

I bought 6 packs of seeds, one of which is still to come. Here's what I chose:


Asparagus Lettuce (organic) - apparently when it bolts the stems are edible and have a flavour like asparagus. This appeals to me as bolting plants seems common place in my garden.

Orache Green (organic) - this one can be eaten when it bolts too. It's related to spinach, eaten like lettuce, but the flavour doesn't go bitter when it bolts.

I also ordered Giant Red Mustard Greens (organic) as I thought it would be attractive and I love the taste of mustard; and Red Curled Kale as I was out of seed and enjoy the beauty of this plant amongst others in the garden.

In terms of flowers, the French Marigold Mr Majestic are deep red and yellow and I'm assuming easy to grow lik most marigolds, with a long flowering period (June to October). 

Of course, there is always a random purchase, and this time my random choice was Cobaea Scandens, a vigorous climber with large purple, bell shaped flowers and dark green foliage. What I will do with this, I haven't quite figured out! But its all part of the fun!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

3 comments:

  1. You have started early, Kelli! I usually try to resist buying seeds until after Christmas. That way I have something to look forward to for longer. I have ordered from the Organic Gardening Catalogue a few times in the past. They have a good selection, but (unless things have changed) I sometimes found the lack of illustrations frustrating. I'm not good at visualising a plant from only a written description.

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  2. It is a good thing you can share seeds with your garden group, for I think there will come many more seedpackets before next spring arrives. It is the fun of winter, choosing, buying and sowing.

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  3. Ditto Mark! But the early bird does get the better the selection. We haven't even put the garden to bed yet. Actually, early planning makes successful gardening. You will have lots of great salads.

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