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.  I’ve grown herb fennel on the allotment for years. I planted it next to the compost bin in the hope the aniseed smell would cover any pongs when the compost bin lid is removed! However, I’ve never grown bulb fennel, so this will be an interesting experiment!
   

   

   
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2. I know I bought a pot of sweet peas, but this packet of seeds is left over from a previous year. I’ve tried growing sweet peas from seed before, but it’s never been successful (the loo roll tubes got so soggy it all disintegrated before the seeds had germinated!). Maybe this year I might get on better….
   

   

   
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3. Runner Beans are a standard sight on our allotment. We usually plant two long rows of them, but during the last couple of years the bamboo canes kept falling over with the weight of the plants. This year we’re planning two long rows again, but this time we’ll only join the bamboo canes together for half of the row, so if one end starts to fall over, it shouldn’t pull all of them over…. I hope!
   

   

   
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4. Our local council-run allotment site allows 25% flowers (including wild flowers), but that limit only counts non-edible flowers…. Nasturtiums flowers are edible (although I admit I’ve never tried them!), so these seeds will be going into my flower patch to work as some ground cover, and also to attract the pollinating insects.
   

   

   
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5. This packet of green manure was probably bought a couple of years ago. It’s a good idea in theory, to grow something which can then be dug in to help improve the soil…. but I think we left it too long before digging it in when we tried before.
   

   

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6. And finally, I had totally forgotten we had this packet of seeds! I’ve never tried growing Rocket before, and I think it was the name Dragon’s Tongue which attracted me to this one. Apparently they can be grown indoors as well, so I might try sowing a few seeds in a pot on the windowsill as well as sowing some on the allotment.
   

   

Here’s hoping for some dry weather after Easter, so the soil will be suitable to dig! Don’t forget to check out the Propagator’s Six on Saturday and read through the comments section for more blogs to check out!