Saved Seed for 2019

Autumn is the start of the horticultural year and last week I decided to go through our saved seed box.  It was a timely opportunity for us to review what had worked, re-order where necessary and fix on crops and rotation for next season, whilst checking our part opened packets and sow by dates.  We agreed on all the usual favourites: broad beans, runner beans, carrots, spring onions, cabbage (to be netted), rocket, basil, tomatoes, coriander, and sunflowers.  These latter are from 2017 as this year's heads were too damp and failed to dry out.  Winter squash features again with our 2018 harvest sitting in a trug in our front room.  We are also going to try seeds from friends in Scotland grown under glass - indoor cucumbers and green peppers.

Then it was time to discard seed.  Sadly, we jettisoned the hollyhocks.  After one season they succumbed to a virus which distorted leaves and flowers. And we will not be growing hellebores as these require specialist conditions. As regards perennials we will keep taking cuttings - from pinks, lavender and our hardy fuschia and from the penstemons which are presently overwintering in the greenhouse.  And next year we will split the Michaelmas Daisies, a gift from a former customer, which are currently in flower.

We had an older customer, now deceased, with a front garden full of self-seeded hollyhocks, and it was in tribute to him that my husband tried them in ours.  They are biannual, so the ones surviving in the front have one more chance before we uproot them.  After that we will plant penstemons beneath the shelter of the hedge.

Harvest - Runner Beans

This week my husband took out two raised beds of runner beans.  These were a variety new to us - 'Moonlight' whose resistance to high temperatures was demonstrated during our summer of heat and drought.  But now in these latter shortening days their flowering and fruiting season was coming to an end.  So on a sunny afternoon my husband set to and I sorted them for freezing or immediate consumption.

This year, however, we, by which of course I mean my husband, did not start freezing right at the end of the season when beans are thick and stringy.  By August, we saw that we had enough to eat, give away and to freeze, allocating them for Christmas.  It is a pity I did not do this earlier when we had our three allotments.  But in the south east we only had a small fridge with a freezing compartment on top - enough for some ice cream and blackcurrants.  Now we have large recycled yoghurt pots filled with apple puree, wild greengages and blackberries and of course bags of beans.

The alternative way of securing your festive root vegetables is to leave them growing in the ground which we used to do with leeks and Jerusalem Artichokes.  Our 'Autumn King' carrots and parsnips are in our home-made raised beds - the carrots swelling already, the parsnips with a long way to go and the necessary first frosts before they are at their best.  Next year potato bags perhaps friends and family have both suggested.