March

Borage is one of the most reliable sources of blue flowers, often flowering lavishly for weeks after sowing. The beautiful blue star-shaped flowers are edible and very important for bees, providing pollen and nectar in prodigious amounts.

The herb borage is a well known annual with beautiful blue flowers. Not so well known and not often written about is the equally beautiful form 'alba' which boast pure white, perfectly star-shaped flowers. This mixed pack of seeds gives both blue and white forms.

The herb borage is a well known annual. Not so well known is the equally beautiful form 'alba' which boast pure white, perfectly star-shaped flowers. Each flower is centred by five black stamens which heighten the drama. The flowers are edible, garden visitors can be converted to herbal advocates simply by offering a taste of its white flower.

Beetroot 'Boldor' is a superb, improved golden beetroot that offers superior seedling emergence, strong vigour and excellent uniformity. Attractive copper skinned, globe shaped roots with beautiful, sweet, juicy yellow flesh. Ideal for salads or for juicing. Sow March to July for harvesting June to December.

Chioggia or Barabietola di Chioggia is a globe-shaped heirloom Italian variety. With a rosy orange-pink outer skin and a distinctive dartboard pattern when cut, it is sometimes known as Bull’s Eye Beet or Candy Stripe Beet. Bands of white flesh alternate with bands of pink or rosy red.

“The old Egyptian turnip or flat-rooted beetroot has the best flavour but is scarce.” Bob Flowerdew. Beetroot 'Flat of Egypt’ is a very old heritage variety that produces smooth skinned roots, often heart-shaped, with a deep red, tender and flavoursome flesh.

Detroit 2 Crimson Globe or Rote Ruben is a popular improved Detroit globe beetroot. It is a classic, main-crop beetroot which produces excellent quality, smooth skinned beets with strong skin and ox-blood flesh colour. It is recommended as a good cultivar to use for succession sowings.

Beetroot 'Boston' is an excellent improved Boltardy selection. The round roots have a smooth skin and good internal colour and texture. Slow bolting, it is ideal for early sowings, this maincrop variety can be sown from early March right through to late August.

Beetroot Bikores produces smooth-skinned red roots with dark-red flesh, it is a fairly sweet beetroot with a full and rounded flavour and has consistently been one of the highest ranking beetroot in taste tests. It is resistant to bolting and suitable for early sowing under cloches and for maincrop use.

Blue Lake is a classic choice for early beans of highest quality eating. A wonderfully prolific French climbing bean that does well even in adverse weather, the dark green pods remain stringless and fibreless at all stages of growth. They are tender and rich, and filled with white seeds that are of incomparable flavour.

Very reliable even in variable conditions, Dwarf French Bean seeds 'Tendergreen' is a medium long pencil podded type that produces good yields of medium sized, 15cm pods that have good texture and taste. Very easy to grow, they give superb yields for a small amount of space, outlay and effort.

‘Purple Queen’ French beans are the sort of fun, sassy crop every stylish gardener wants to grow in their good-looking veg plot. They race up their supports, burst into shocking magenta flower, and then produce hundreds of gorgeous regal purple beans which are a pure pleasure to eat.

French Bean 'Gordonia' is a beautiful extra fine, dwarf or Bush Bean that produces slender, dark green pods that have good texture and taste and are tender enough to eat raw. They mature just 8 to 10 weeks from sowing, are very easy to grow and give superb yields for a small amount of space, outlay and effort.

French Bean 'Red Swan' is an heirloom stringless bean with burgundy red pods. The plants grow up to around 50cm tall and are highly productive, with good flavour the beans mature in just 50 to 60 days. For a regular and steady supply of beautiful beans, sow a few seeds every couple of weeks, from April to July.