New season veg experiments...

[Herbsandveg]

Seeing as I effectively missed an entire season's gardening for one reason or another this year, I'm determined to have a good, full year of experimenting, growing and, hopefully, eating all kinds of lovely veg this next time around.

To get myself off to what should be a very interesting season, I've already bought my seeds from the most interesting company I know ie The Real Seeds Company from Newport in Pembrokeshire, and the seeds I've chosen are as follows:

Courgettes: Trieste White Half-Long - described as a Cousa Courgettes

Carrot: Giant Red

Summer Squash: Crookneck - described as 'bent Summer Squash'


Tomatoes:
Latah - described as very early Red Tomato
Legend Bush - described as Tomato
Urbikany - described as Tall Bush Tomato

Peas: Charmette - described as Early Dwarf Pea Petis-Pois type

And finally:

Melothrie - these are the salad/pickling Cucurbit which you may have seen advertised as 'Cucamelons' in the James Wong collection at Suttons. I've grown these before and really like them, so I'm hoping for another excellent crop this next year.

Does anyone have any experience of any of these varieties, and is anyone else trying out anything similar from uŷReal Seeds or any other seed company of a similar ilk?

[muddled]

Hello,

Yes, I've grown the crookneck squash for the last couple of years. Very good texture, not nearly so prolific as normal courgettes though and crop a little later.
Melothrie were quite nice, skin a bit thick though; might have been better pickled?
Carrot giant red; really just a carrot. Might have been enormous if a better gardener had grown them to be fair!

I love realseeds, get most of my seed there. This year I'm trying banana shallots from them; I only ever grow their sweetcorn; Russian red kale; ground cherries and minnesota midget melon. That's all I bought from them this year but as I've saved seed I'd say that 3/4 of everything I grow came from them originally.

[Noosner]

Hello Herbsandveg! You are just round the corner from me!

Yes, I have grown Latah and also Crookneck Squash from Real Seed Co, both successful. The Latah plants grow quite big and straggly so you'll need to give them plenty of room. The squashes are lovely, just the right size for a meal.

I haven't tried any of the others you mention, but I do like the Real Seed Co. I'm trying to think what I've had from them now.... oh yes, Champion of England peas and I've tried a lot of their lettuces which have all been good except for Red Iceberg, which for some reason fail to germinate for me, even though they sent me a free pack when I told them (which also failed to germinate!).

Anyway, good luck with your experimentation.

[Herbsandveg]

Thank you for your replies, Noosner and Muddled

I wish I could just 'fast forward' to the Spring to get things going, but I'll just have use the anticipation of the happy gardening season to ease me through the Winter instead. Great to hear back you both, though, and I'm sure we'll chat again as we go on...

[sparrow100]

Am growing true potato seed next year for the first time - am really excited by this.

I do like Real Seeds, their seeds always germinate well and they are really helpful. I've also saved a lot of seed this year, so with that, seed circles and the Wyevale sell-off am doing ok for supplies this year!

[Herbsandveg]

Am growing true potato seed next year for the first time - am really excited by this.

I do like Real Seeds, their seeds always germinate well and they are really helpful. I've also saved a lot of seed this year, so with that, seed circles and the Wyevale sell-off am doing ok for supplies this year!

Hello Sparrow

Great name and lovely photo, by the way!

Thank you for your reply. I'm really interested in your 'true potato seed' and I'll try to Google it if I can, but could you tell me any more about it, and how you came to know about it? This sounds really interesting to me...

Thanks in advance for our time...

[veggiechicken]

Here's a thread to start you off Herbs http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eed_66885.html

[Bigmallly]

Here's a couple of threads from years gone by which you may find interesting:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...9-a_20577.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eed_42453.html

[Guest]

Hello Sparrow

Great name and lovely photo, by the way!

Thank you for your reply. I'm really interested in your 'true potato seed' and I'll try to Google it if I can, but could you tell me any more about it, and how you came to know about it? This sounds really interesting to me...

Thanks in advance for our time...

OO-er I have just been having a read on this, this afternoon and started on

Daughter of the Soil: Woohoo! My potatoes germinated

and have drifted to the land of no return