Over the last few weeks, we’ve gathered together most of our seed stock for the coming season. It’s mostly our tried and tested varieties that we’ve grown before and which give us a decent crop providing the weather plays fair. However, every year we try a few new varieties to see if we can find something better than our normal varieties. This year we have decided to try the following:

Courgette Sunstripe for no other reason than we like to grow a yellow courgette and this is a stripy one. We’re trying a beetroot called Bona rather than Boltardy. We don’t eat all that much beetroot so we’re hoping this will supply us with enough roots. We are trying a leek called Batter along with our usual varieties to see how it performs. It looks as though we will need to cover our leeks this year in an attempt to control the allium leaf miner invasion which seems to have arrived on the site.

I’m trying two new tomato varieties, Cocktail Crush and Buffalosun both of which are supposed to be blight resistant. The last two years have seen our outdoor tomatoes on the plot wiped out due to blight although we’ve been more successful at home.

We never do well with red onions from sets so this year we are trying our luck with seeds in the hope of doing a little bit better. Our final new variety is a winter squash called Bush Baby. We’ve really still to find a rival to Crown Prince which normally produces well and just as importantly keeps well.

We follow a YouTube channel called Bill & Val’s Allotment’s with videos produced unsurprisingly by Bill and Val. They refer to their allotments as Two Plots of Heaven. If you haven’t watched it then I can thoroughly recommend it. It’s both entertaining and informative. We normally comment on each other’s videos and Bill and Val have sent me some heritage seed varieties to try. Bill is extremely keen on growing heritage seeds, especially the varieties his father grew. I’ve probably got enough seeds to fill one of our larger beds producing a sort of mini Two Plots of Heaven bed. I’m planning to grow our mini Two Plots of Heaven bed in West Yorkshire rather than the south coast of England. It will be interesting to see how these heritage varieties perform

We have four packets of heritage seeds to try. We have two sorts of peas, a mangetout Kent Blue and a variety called Ne Plus Ultra. We also have a runner bean Liberty and some Pongo French beans.

I’ve got a little bit of information about each variety from Bill and Val. Kent Blue has attractive bicoloured flowers starting off maroon and turning blue as they mature. Ne Plus Ultra is a tall growing pea with white flowers and long pods. Liberty is a red flowered runner bean. Pongo beans are self supporting bush beans and a specialty of Bill and Val’s Two Plots of Heaven.

Finally, we’re trying two new potato varieties called Alouette and Heidi Red. Over the years we’ve struggled to find a good red potato that grows well in our ground. We’ve recently found that Rudolph provided us with a good cropping red potato but another variety would be welcome. Hopefully, one of these varieties will produce a good crop of red potatoes.

I’ve noticed that Alouette have some blight resistance, but hopefully we’ll have a good growing season and one unaffected by the dreaded blight.