Asparagus

Bachlim

Mid to late season male variety, with consistent yields of large, smooth spears with well closed tips. It boasts good disease resistance, and is a very reliable performer in the kitchen garden.

Asparagus

Crimson Pacific

This mid season purple variety, is so tender and super-sweet that young spears can be eaten raw in salads, providing unusual colour and flavour.

Beetroot

Woden F1 Hybrid  

Woden F1 hybrid was bred by Thompson and Morgan and introduced in their 2004 catalogue. It is a globe beetroot with bright red flesh that can be harvested as baby or mature beets. Mature beets do not go fibrous and store well. Young leaves can be eaten as spinach.

Too early to tell, planted October

Beetroot

Detroit 2

Perfect for pickling!  Dark red, delicious-tasting roots, ideal fresh or pickled.

Grew well and tasted wonderful.

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Broad Beans

Red Epicure

f you are after something special, this is the broad bean to choose. The chestnut crimson beans retain their striking colour if lightly steamed rather than boiled, and have a taste we consider to be unequalled.

Grew and cropped well.   Very tasty.

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Cabbage

Round 'Stonehead' F1

Plant April / August. Good quality, uniform with very solid heads. Use for successional plantings. Can be used as baby vegetables. Harvest June to November.

Very attractive to slugs and catapillers.

Cabbage

Savoy ‘Mila’ F1

Plant April / July. Early maturing. Dark green, good standing ability and resistance to bursting. Suitable for successional plantings. Harvest November to February.

Very attractive to slugs and catapillers.

Cauliflower

Nautilus' F1 improved

A high quality variety with extra white deep curds. Also a vigorous hybrid even in cooler climates and useful for extended autumn crops. Sow Feb for cutting July to November.

Very attractive to slugs and catapillers.

Carrot

Nantes 2

A tasty early to mid-season bunching variety which stores well.

Really good carrots, tasty and big.

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chilli pepper

Anaheim

Very mild, medium sized chile to 6-10", often used when green. The basic variety ripens to a dark green/reddish color, but other strains ripen to full red.

These grew well.   Not very hot when green.

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Courgette

Tondo di piacenza

A round variety from near Parma. It's shape makes it ideal for stuffing.

Disappointingly low yield but tasty.   Needs a better position.

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Cress

American Land

Easy alternative to water cress

Really good, very tasty.   Gill loves them.

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Dwarf French Beans

Rocquencourt

very productve, primrose-yellow podded dwarf French bean. One of the most cold tolerant of all French beans.

Hard to get going but cropped well, beans very tasty

Dwarf French Beans

Sonesta

Early maturing, waxy yellow beans on compact plants. Pods are slender, straight and stringless reaching up to 13cm (5 inches) long.

Hard to get going, not a great crop

Dwarf French Beans

Slenderette

Slender, smooth stringless pods are glossy and dark green. Very high yield and quality

Hard to get going, cropped well and beans tasty.

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Garlic

Cristo

Very white skin, pink cloves and round bulbs.

Too early to tell, planted October

Lettuce

Pinares

Improved Parris Island Cos selection. Uniform crops averaging heights of 30cm. Very adaptable and has some resistance to tip burn. Lovely sweet flavour and crisp texture.

Really nice, wish I’d planted more.

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Parsnip

Avonresistor

Quick maturing established favourite. Flat purple top turnips. Sow Mar - Jul, harvest Jun - Oct.

Good, tended to fork.    Good taste and roasted well.

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Pea

Feltham First

This first early, round seeded variety gives early crops of large well-filled pods of sweet tasting, fine flavoured peas. It can be autumn or spring sown as the plants are winter hardy.

Grew well and tasty.   Not a great crop, but perhaps I didn't water them enough.

Potatoes

Arran Victory

Victory was bred in the Isle of Arran by Donald Mackelvie. Victory, the oldest of the "Arrans" still grown, was named in 1918 in celebration of the ending of the war.  

Grew well and tasty.   Not a great crop, but perhaps I didn't water them enough.

Potatoes

Edzell Blue

Edzell Blue was first recorded in 1915 but it is said to have been bred in the Victorian era. Edzell Blue has an attractive bluish/ purple  skin with deepish eyes, contrasting with the snowy white flesh.

This might be a rare potato but it didn't crop well and didn't taste that good.

Potatoes

Rocket

First early maturity producing an attractive uniform sample, very early bulking, and high yielding.  

Didn't crop that well this year.

Raddish

Neckarruhm (White Dream)

For greenhouse, cloche and outdoor production. Fast growing,nicely shaped,pure white roots with white flesh. More uniform and longer than Icicle and well suited for slicing.

Quite hot and grew very large when left to their own devices.

Raddish

Saxa 2

Alan Titchmarsh organic

Lovely

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Rocket

Wild rocket

A tasty 'cut and come again' variety producing masses of attractive strong-flavoured leaves. Ideal for salads or cooking, it can be harvested all summer.

Good, but decimated by white fly.

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Salad

Oriental mixed leaves

Cut and come again crop.   Mixture of pak choi, mibuna, green mustard, cima di rapa nand red mustard.

Not bad, attractive to white fly.

Shallots

Red Sun

Gaining in popularity due to its attractive red tinged skin. Arguably the best of the red shallots. Good yields of crisp, white fleshed bulbs of excellent flavour for cooking, in salads or for pickling. Bulbs have long storage potential.

Grew really well, nice flavour

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Shallots

Golden Gourmet

Dutch. This is a major advance on the traditional Giant yellow and produces larger and better quality bulbs with reduced bolting incidence.

Grew really well, nice flavour

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Spinach

These struggled a bit, I think because I didn't water them well enough

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Sweet Pepper

Pepper Quadrato d’Asti Rosso.

The lovely golden brown skinned bulbs store well throughout the winter.

Failed

Sweet Pepper

Golden Bell F1 Hybrid

This pepper matures to a large, 4-lobed, blocky fruit. These shiny, medium-green peppers are very thick walled and turn a golden yellow when fully ripe.

Greenhouse.    Grew well, reasonable crop and tasted good.

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Tomatoes

Red Pear

Like 'Yellow Pear', this small, red pear shaped tomato makes a very nice salad garnish.  The fruit typically weigh one-half ounce.  The plants will tend to sprawl all over the place and will be loaded with large clusters of fruit.  Likely predates 1800.

Didn't crop that well, but tasted good.  Succumbed to tomato rot

Tomatoes

Gardener’s Delight

Cordon (Indeterminate). The true tangy flavour of tomatoes of a century or more ago.

Once again, really good crop with excellent flavour.

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Turnip

Purple top milan

Quick maturing established favourite. Flat purple top turnips. Sow Mar - Jul, harvest Jun - Oct.

Grew well.   Taste a little strong.