We have all heard of Nigella Lawson, the British cooking show goddess who advocates the importance of a well-stocked pantry. But the seeds had the name first. Nigella sativa have a spicy, nutty flavour with a crunchy texture, they may be used whole or ground, and develop their flavour best after short toasting.
White Lisbon is an old favorite and ever popular Spring Onion. It is a hardy and reliable variety which features long white stems with bright green tops. It is quick and easy to grow, sow in autumn or spring, Cropping in 60 days. NIAB Accreditation and RHS AGM.
White Lisbon is traditionally the most popular spring onion for successional sowings from March to September, it can also be sown in autumn and over wintered for early spring harvests. Matures in 60 days. NIAB accreditation and RHS AGM. Organic seed.Dwarf Canton White is a short and squat variety, often known as Baby or Squat Pak Choi. Tender and delicious, with a compact habit, this fast growing vegetable can be harvested at any stage, for ‘baby leaf or left to mature to thick succulent white stems.
Summer Purslane was highly esteemed and cultivated in Europe as far back as the Middle Ages, but is now cultivated only for specialised connoisseurs.This wonderfully succulent and cooling herb has tangy leaves make a very nice contrast, in texture as well as taste to other salad leaves.
This highly esteemed ancient crop can be used raw in salads, sautéed as a side dish or cooked like spinach. Summer Purslane has a crispy texture you would expect from a succulent and an interesting nutty, peppery flavour. It is salty on the tongue.
The globe shaped roots of Radish ‘Cherry Belle’ have appealing bright red skins, smooth white flesh and a crisp, crunchy texture. This fast maturing variety is reliable and versatile, producing early crops of sweet and succulent, mildly flavoured radish.
Salad Burnet is a wonderful old herb that makes a great addition to any garden. It was planted along pathways ‘to perfume the air most delightfully, being trodden on and crushed’, the delicate leaves have a subtle cucumber flavour and today are used in salads, as a flavouring and to add interest to cold drinks.
Mexican Tree Spinach is the latest ‘new’ arrival on the veg-growing scene. A beautiful plant to have in the garden or allotment. Vivid pink tinged triangular bright green leaves with each new set of leaves blushed a shocking magenta.
A favorite with growers, Swede ‘Best of All’ is an old variety that produced globe shaped roots with purple tops and yellow flesh. Very easy to grow, very hardy and reliable with good storing qualities, it isn’t as heavy cropping as modern varieties but has good flavour and low water content.
This heirloom variety has been long favoured in the local markets of Germany and Northern Europe. Swede Wilhelmsburger is a “green top”, a variety that is considered to have the best table quality and to be the most refined in terms of taste. RHS AGM Tatsoi or Rosette Pak Choi is among the most popular of oriental greens. The spoon-shaped, dark green, evenly spaced leaves form a plant worthy to be grown for its decorative value alone. Given enough room the plants will form beautiful wide rosettes of regular, concentric circles.
Purple Top Milan is a classic Italian heirloom variety and is still as popular as ever. Highly ornamental, it has smooth creamy-white flat roots with bright purple shoulders and pure white flesh. A strap-leaved variety, quick to mature and early cropping, it is an ideal ‘catch crop’ between slower growing vegetables.
Introduced before 1888 Purple Top Milan has smooth creamy-white flat roots with bright purple shoulders and pure white flesh of choice quality. Quick to mature and early cropping, it is an ideal ‘catch crop’ between slower growing vegetables. Organic Seed. Turnip ‘Snowball’ is a very popular first-class, globe variety with solid flesh and a juicy, sweet, mild flavour. They are a fast crop, being ready in just five to eight weeks from sowing. With pure white flesh as its name suggests, Snowball is superb for both table and exhibition and is recommended by the N.I.A.B
Amaranth ‘Green Giant’ is a vigorous selection that produces slightly savoyed, large mid green leaves. The popular Calaloo in Caribbean cuisine, the leaves have a mild spinach flavour and can be harvested when plants are just 20cm tall.
Amaranth tricolor ‘Variegated’, also known as ‘Red Leaf’ has attractive oval, mid-green leaves that are streaked through with shades of red and purple. Easy to grow and tolerant of wide-ranging conditions. Its soft leaves are a great addition to salads and, like spinach, it melts delectably when cooked.
A favorite with chefs, Amaranth tricolor ‘Red Army’ is an intense cherry red selection that grows to around 35cm tall. The attractive leaves have a delicate pea-like flavour and can be used at babyleaf stage for salad or garnish, or can be left to mature for steamed vegetable or soups.
Mrs Burns’ Lemon Basil is a legendary heirloom, nothing short of an idol among fine chefs and gardeners alike. With the strongest aroma and flavour of all the lemon basils, the scent is powerful, resinous, and oily, followed by spicy cinnamon, with a strong floral note. It has a concentrated lemon oil taste, with mild spice and mint. Part of the ornamental Spice Boys range, Basil ‘Queen of Sheba’ is one of the most ornamental varieties available. Intense purple flowers on tall flowering spikes rise above bright green, highly aromatic foliage. In the kitchen it is particularly well suited to Thai and Asian cooking, though it works just as well stirred through a simple pasta or tomato sauce.
The ‘ Yin Yang Bean’, also known as the Orca or Calypso bean. This bean is a reminder to stay zen with your gardening, with its emblematic black and white symbol right there on the seed. A great soup or baked bean, this compact variety grows to a height of around 45cm producing loads of beans with a mild delicious flavour.
French Bean ‘Blauhilde’ well known German heritage variety that produces attractive purple-skinned pods that have excellent flavour. The entire plant is pretty, purple flowers and purple stems, they produce myriads of flowers from which large, long 20 to 25cm (8 to 10in), fleshy and stringless pods develop.
French Bean ‘Blauhilde’ is a reliable, attractive and extremely purple-skinned climbing French bean. Sown from April to July, They can be harvested continuously over a long period through to late autumn. Organic Seed. 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.
‘Weinländerin La Vigneronne’ pole beans are a classic from Switzerland, cultivated and preserved by the country women and known as ‘Wine country beans’ the distinctive pods are marbled and speckled with purple, as if stained by drops of wine. Organic Seed.French Bean ‘Faraday’ is one of the best, if not the best new Dwarf French Bean to become available for some time. A white bean variety that have excellent flavour, it produces extremely tender, uniform long, dark-green pencil pods. Harvest from late May right through to September.
This French Bean may be dwarf but , oh la la – do they taste good! ‘Maxi’ is an outstanding variety that is very easy to grow and full of flavour. Superb yields for a small amount of space, outlay and effort. Organic Seed.
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.
Cobra is one of the most reliable French beans around. This prolific cropper produces heavy yields of long, straight sweetly-flavoured beans over a long period. The stringless pods grow up to 20cm long. RHS AGM.
Runner bean ‘Lady Di’ is an exceptional variety that produces long pods of exceptional quality. The long, slender beans are slow to develop seeds, meaning the pods can stay on the plant for longer before they become tough, giving you more time to harvest them.An improved selection of this well known and much loved variety, Runner Bean ‘Painted Lady’ is well know, as much for its astonishing bicolour, coral red and creamy white blooms as for the superior beans produced. The beans are deliciously thick and meaty with a sweet balanced flavour.
When I was young and idle, I’d dream of a self-refilling pint of cider. Now I’m older I dream of the slightly more realistic horticultural equivalent: beans and plenty of them. Bred for high yields and reliability, ‘Streamline’ gives heavy yields of fantastic tasty pods giving you effortless food for weeks.
Beetroot Cylindra is a dark red, cylindrical root. This unique variety has a fine, smooth texture with little fibre, the root maintains its sweetness and tenderness over a long growing season. With an earthy-caramel taste, they are especially lovely when roasted.Popular and productive, beetroot ‘Forono’ forms a uniform, elongated, dark-red root that has a fine, smooth texture with little fibre and maintains its sweetness and tenderness over a long growing season. Awarded the RHS AGM. Organic Seeds.
Neat and globe-shaped, with smooth orange skin and rich golden flesh Beetroot ‘Burpee’s Golden’are full of sweetness with a mild, gentle flavour. Cooked, they deepen to a warm turmeric gold, while eaten raw, they bring colour and sweetness to salads. Even the foliage is handsome, with light green leaves beautifully traced in gold.
Calabrese Broccoli ‘Belstar F1’ is a superb organic variety. The compact plants have round domes, small to medium beads and short flowering stems with a thick main stalk. Ideal for short-stemmed crown cuts or florets. RHS AGM. Organic Seed. Bred to overwinter, Purple sprouting broccoli ‘Mendocino F1’ is prized for its uniform, high-quality spears. Sow anytime from April to June, overwinter and harvest from mid March to mid April.
If you’re one of those gardeners who like to push the envelope, don’t forget to add purple sprouting broccoli to your overwintering repertoire. ‘F1 Rioja’ is a compact, very productive plant with a bushy habit, which produces very high quality, brightly-coloured spears.
Cabbage ‘Cape Horn F1’ is an excellent pointed cabbage variety that produces exemplary heads and begins and ends the cabbage season. Not commonly available, it has been developed for cultivation during spring, summer and early autumn. RHS AGM.
When every little sprout and leaf seemingly has its 15 minutes in the spotlight, the possibility that cabbage is being recognised for its deliciousness, instead of its health benefits or affordability, is unexpected, to say the least. Exceptionally sweet and tender. Cabbage ‘Caraflex F1’ is unique.
Cabbage ‘Filderkraut’ it is a medium-late pointed cabbage. The point is coreless, making it very easy to cut fine shreds and it has a smooth and somewhat sweeter taste in comparison to other varieties, making it one of the very best sauerkraut or coleslaw cabbages there is. Organic Seeds.
Appropriately named, Greyhound is one of the earliest summer cabbages and a reliable old favorite. Very fast growing with a yield of mild flavoured tender juicy hearts. Well suited to successional sowing. Sow from February to July, crops will be ready for cutting from June to October.Cabbage ‘Paresa F1′ is an excellent quality winter variety of Savoy Cabbage. This late variety is reliable and frost hardy and can be sown as late as the end of July. Harvested from December to March right through the hardest winter, when greens are so very welcome. Organic Seeds.
Savoy cabbage ‘Vertus’ produces heads of finely blistered, dark green ruffled leaves that have a sweet, subtle flavour. This mid-late, frost hardy variety produces cabbages that have the ability to withstand even severe cold weather. Sow April to early June, harvest October to February.
Savoy cabbage ‘Vertus’ produces heads of finely blistered, dark green ruffled leaves that have a sweet, subtle flavour. This mid-late, frost hardy variety produces cabbages that have the ability to withstand even severe cold weather. Sown from April to early June and harvest October until February.
‘Lila Lu’ is a stunning deep purple carrot with a vibrant orange centre. The wildly unique colour and and sweet taste make this a must grow for both home gardeners and market farmers. Sow May to July for harvesting September to end of October. Organic Seeds.Carrot ‘Purple Sun F1’ is a conical, Nantes-type carrot, with intensely coloured dark purple skin and purple centre. An early-maturing hybrid that is uniform and compact. Seeds can be sown successionally almost all year, or sown directly May to July for harvesting September to end of October.
This is the extra early carrot that organic gurus rave about. With incredibly sweet flavour and uniform growth, ‘Napoli F1’ has assumed cult status. Sow in August in a raised bed or beneath a cloche and experience the full flavour of winter ‘candy carrots’. Organic Seeds.Carrot ‘Yellowstone’ is one of the most attractive and versatile carrots you can grow. They can be sown successionally almost all year from February. Slightly tapered with smooth skin and crunchy texture, honey roasted carrots have never looked, or tasted so good.
‘Giants of Colmar’ is a late-season carrot that reliably produces magnificently large roots with juicy, sweet flesh. Sow from May onwards, they are ideal for winter harvests and renowned for their excellent storage properties. Organic Seeds.
With their compelling health benefits and a thumbs-up from taste testers, colourful varieties of carrots have quickly established themselves to be de rigueur for both home growers and market gardeners. This season we are offering a mix of four rare and unusual, heirloom varieties. Organic Seeds.
Carrot ‘Jaune du Doubs’ is a beautiful old French gourmet variety that produces cylindrical roots 20 to 25cm (8 to 10in) in length with a rounded tip, a smooth surface and thick foliage. Suitable for fresh consumption, it is recognised throughout France as having a good sweet flavour. Organic Seeds. Carrot ‘Nantes 2’ is an excellent variety for early and successional crops producing uniform blunt-ended cylindrical roots. With good carrot fly resistance, it matures in 110 days in a warm climate and reaches an average size of 15cm. Sow February to August, for harvesting June to October.
Launched in 2005, Carrot ‘Purple Dragon’ caused a great stir at grower’s and farmers markets. With compelling health benefits and a thumbs-up from taste testers, it has quickly established itself. A Danver’s type carrot with a sweet flavour and beautiful purple skin, the deep velvety exterior gives way to a starburst of brilliant orange at the core.
Chicory Variegata di Castelfranco has a beautiful form with wavy leaves that are flecked with purple. Incredibly hardy and totally invaluable, this traditional variety is one of the easiest to grow at any time in the year.
Coriander ‘Slobolt’ is a variety for leaf production that is resistant to bolting and running to seed. It isn’t a hard plant to grow and of course, fresh herbs and spices have far better flavours than dried ones. Home grown herbs are infinitely superior, the difference can be quite startling.
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