Now you’re probably wondering why I’ve picked three packs of seeds from Dobies, and three from Thompson & Morgan – well I was sent a £5 voucher from Dobies as a Christmas present for being on their mailing list, and spotted T&M had the same offer on their facebook page. So even though I had to pay postage, I was able to save £10.

Starting from the top line we have…

• Radish – Dragon F1 (Dobies). Last year’s radish seeds were reasonably successful, so I thought I’d try a F1 variety this year, rather than always going for the cheaper options.
• Radish – Mixture (Dobies). …having said that, I couldn’t resist a pick and mix style selection of radish, as that’s going to be interesting to see all the different varieties and colours which (hopefully) grow!
• Celery – Golden Spartan (Dobies). We’ve been buying celery plants from Homebase each year, but last year’s ones weren’t overly successful. So this year I’m going to be reckless (or just plain crazy) and try growing my own from seed.

Moving on to the middle line…

• Cucumber – Hopeline (Mr Fothergill’s). I actually won this seed packet in a competition last year, but never got as far as sowing them. Seeing as the Cucamelons were so successful last year, this year I’m determined to try growing these miniature Cucumbers.
• Potatoes. No link for these, as they’re going to come from a local garden centre. I just need to figure out which varieties to grow this year, and get a lot of manure to prepare the ground!
• Florence Fennel – Victorio F1 (Thompson & Morgan). Last year’s Florence Fennel wasn’t overly successful either – only two plants grew. However, I’m hopeful that it was just down to the extreme weather during the summer, and that this year things will grow much better.

And last but not least, the bottom line…

• Leek – Musselburgh (Thompson & Morgan). This year we’re not growing Broad Beans, so I needed an alternative. These will (hopefully) be sown in March or Aprilm but like the cucumber, I’ve never grown these before, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens!
• Carrots – Paris Market – Atlas (Thompson & Morgan). Carrots are supposed to be easy to grow, but I’ve never had any real success. A previous year all I had was leaf growth, and last year the leaves were lying flat on the ground as I’m assuming “something” had eaten them away from the growth at the base. This year will be different, as I’m planning on sowing these in a pot in the garden, as well as on the allotment. I wonder which will be most successful…
• Cucamelon. No link for this one, as I’m hoping that my plants from last year have produced viable tubers which will regrow this year. The plant which was in the pot in the garden hasn’t been touched other than cutting it down, and I still haven’t got back to the allotment (yet) to dig up the cucamelon there. Maybe next week…

So there’s my Grow Nine for 2019 – what are you planning on growing this year?

Don’t forget to check out the Propagator’s Six on Saturday  and read through the comments section for more blogs to check out!

1. First up, one of my “unknown” plants on the allotment. Several years ago I scattered wild flower seed (labelled “British Wildflower Mix”) in this patch, and this year we have this plant growing…. it’s quite tall, but shorter than the Teasel.
   

   

   
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2. Some of the second early potatoes are in flower – the first earlies are growing quite well considering their lack of chitting progress, but I have a feeling some of the second earlies might be ready first!
   

   

   
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3. Moving on to the herb patch, the sage is flowering away – I was considering cutting the flowers off, but after seeing just how many bees were collecting pollen, the flowers have had a reprieve!
   

   

   
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4. Just Add Cream is next – while those strawberries look small (in fact they’re smaller than the ones from my original plants), they’re said to be particularly tasty…. just need to wait a day or two for these to be ready & we’ll find out!
   

   

   
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5. We’ve never had a particular success with growing peas before, but this year I planted some in a partly shaded area of the plot…
   

   

   …I think we can safely say the peas approved of the partial shade!
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6. An unusual photo to finish, but a classic one from an afternoon on the plot.    

   

   
   One bag of rubbish ready to carry home…. if only the wheelbarrow wasn’t currently out of action, it would be a lot easier to get it back home!

Don’t forget to check out the Propagator’s Six on Saturday  and read through the comments section for more blogs to check out!

1.  First up are the Broad Beans…. earlier in the week we had none, now we have 9! Just a few (!) more needed for 100% success rate, but hopefully the warmer weather will encourage them to get growing.
   

   

   ….on the allotment, the ones I planted under fleece last year are looking great!

   

   
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2. A quick chitting update on the potatoes – the first earlies are still looking like they’re hardly doing anything (egg box to the top left in particular), while the second earlies look almost ready to plant out!
   

   

   
   I put my weather station sensor on the rack next to the spuds to see what the temperature was – it’s been about 6C during the cold snap this week, but on Thursday was more like 13C. Hopefully that extra warmth will encourage those first earlies to get a move on!
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3. On to the strawberries now, and the ones that were partly covered with snow from earlier in the month. These are white-fruiting strawberries, and most look like they have fresh growth – next month they’ll be planted out in the raised bed (once I’ve laced some twine through the net to close up the holes – these nets rip far too easily!).
   

   

   
   And the new addition (last year) on the allotment, pink-flowered “Just Add Cream” which is actually looking better than some of my older ‘regular’ strawberry plants!

   

   
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4. I thought I’d better plant out those new Spring Onions from last week (the packaging says “plant out as soon as possible”), so I spent a while carefully separating each plant. Not only did it fill my newest half-sized raised bed (avoiding where I planted the chives of course), but I had three left over, which went into the raised bed with the Just Add Cream strawberries.
   

   

   
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5. I dug up the oldest lavender plants, and tried digging over the soil in preparation for the pea plants. About 3 inches below the surface, I kept hitting stones so I think this bit is in need of a thick layer of fresh compost before anything gets planted in it.
   

   

   
   The two pots house two mint plants – the one on the left was so compacted, I couldn’t loosen any of the soil to try and get the weeds out.
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6. And finally, a “mystery compost plant”…. yes, you read that right. I needed to get some compost out of the bin and discovered a lot of these little plants growing in the top. But I haven’t a clue what they are!
   

   

   We did bin these, as we didn’t want to find it was a weed we didn’t want to keep, but does anyone have any idea what they could be? I think there’s possibly more growing in the compost bin still!

   

Don’t forget to check out the Propagator’s Six on Saturday and read through the comments section for more blogs to check out!