Decisions! Decisions!

I'm not one for making formal New Year Resolutions, but at this time of year my mind is always full of plans for the forthcoming growing season. During the Christmas holidays I have the time I need to peruse in detail all the seed cataloges and websites, trying to decide what I will grow.

I'm sure that many of you will be like me in that your plans tend to exceed the capacity of your plot - however big that may be. There are just so many things I want to grow, and never enough space. I usually end up buying more seeds than I can use, though I seldom go too far over the top these days - I have learned to be more realistic! I think I make pretty good use of my plot, and I manage to get plenty of produce out of it, so my conscience is clear.

One thing I like to do every year is to try growing something new, rather than sticking with the same old things year after year. Having said that, of course you do want to ensure that certain "staples" are always represented, and it makes sense to grow things that you like and things that do well in your garden. For this reason, I always grow Runner Beans, and Sprouting Broccoli, and Tomatoes, but in recent years I have experimented with things like Tomatillos (they produced a bumper crop, but we found them to be less versatile in the kitchen than we hoped),



Tomatillo

  
and Celeriac (lovely taste, but disappointingly small bulbs),



Celeriac



and the Red-veined Sorrel, bought as an ingredient for baby leaf salad, but which grew so slowly that it was left behind by everything else - though it turned out in the end to be very decorative...



Red-veined Sorrel



So my "resolution" for the coming year is to make a conscious effort to try a number of new crops. Top of my list is a new hybrid vegetable called Brokali - a cross between the European broccoli and the Asian kailaan. In the UK you can get a variety of it called Apollo F1 from Dobies or Marshalls Seeds  This is a fast-growing plant, suitable for the Summer months. It sounds as if it may be similar to the Tenderstem broccoli that performed so well for me in 2010. 



Tenderstem Broccoli - re-sprouting for the Nth time


Another new one is Brukale - a cross between Brussels Sprouts and Kale. It apparently produces loads of little shoots like "blown" sprouts. In fact it is also know as the Flower Sprout. In the UK you can get seeds from D.T.Brown or from Dobies (and probably many other places besides...) This veg ought to allow me to have more variety in the garden during the Winter. Dobies say that it is "...very hardy, standing happily in the garden all winter".

Inspired by my blogging friend Takaeko in Japan I am also going to try out a few oriental veg. Jane has never been very keen on the Pak Choi style vegetables - she finds them rather bitter - so I am going to experiment with some other crops, hoping to find something we both like, and (significantly) something that will survive the cooler temperatures of Autumn and Winter in the UK. I'm going to try some Komatsuna, and some Bekana, and also a different variety of Mustard - called Osaka Purple. I think we will probably enjoy the mustard most as a salad ingredient at the baby leaf stage, but the other two will probably end up in stir-fries of some sort.



Komatsuna (Photo courtesy of Takaeko)

 
Whilst searching on the internet for suppliers of oriental veg seeds I discovered Nicky's Nursery which has a very extensive selection of this type of thing. I notice they (she?) also have a good selection of tomato and chilli seeds, which immediately attracted my attention. Their prices are very reasonable too, so I'm hoping this proves to be a good find. Whilst I have no particular gripes about the big-name seed suppliers, I do like to patronise the smaller businesses if I can.

I am very fond of beans of all types, and I have had a lot of success with the climbing varieties, with one notable exception - the Italian Gold , which performed very poorly for me.



"Italian Gold" produced a very small crop



 In 2011 I will be trying a couple of new ones. For instance Selma Zebra, a re-introduction by Thompson & Morgan  It has very striking stripey pods. I am also going to try Yin Yang, which has bi-colour black and white beans, as well as the well-known heritage varieties Mayflower and Cherokee Trail of Tears (which surprisingly I have never grown). Another newcomer will be Amethyst, seeds of which were brought across from France for me by my daughter Fiona. This dwarf variety has purple pods. Alongside my old favourites Cobra (climbing French bean), Aintree (Runner) and the Firetongue (Borlotto), these ought to make a pretty good show!



Runner Bean "Aintree" - a reliable performer




"Firetongue"- very impressive



This post could go on for a long time, couldn't it?? Let me bring it to a close then by saying that just because I haven't mentioned it here, there is no guarantee that I won't be trying anything else that happens to take my fancy!

This blogpost was put together as a contribution to the Blog Carnival being hosted by Fer on his blog "My Little Garden in Japan"... Why not visit (or contribute)?

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