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Gardening A winter treat for vegetable growers

MAT COWARD guides readers through the best of the latest seed catalogues

IF YOU’RE new to vegetable gardening this year, as so many are, then allow me to welcome you to one of the home gardener’s favourite annual customs: winter evenings spent browsing through the new seed catalogues.

Most seed companies still provide printed catalogues free to those who request them, and they can be a very useful resource for the new grower. 

Of course they are advertisements, and need to be read through that lens, but the beginner can also pick up a lot of information from them — as well as inspiration from the photos.

Every year, the companies introduce new varieties to try to take advantage of emerging trends in gardening. 

For 2021, unsurprisingly, the main theme seems to be growing in small spaces. Most of the catalogues include new introductions designed to be suitable for balconies, patios and steps.

Or, indeed, verandas, judging by Tomato Veranda Red from DT Brown (www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk; tel 08453 710-532). 

This is a dwarf tomato, intended for growing outdoors in pots, and claims to have unusually high yields of sweet fruit on disease-resistant plants.

Texsel Greens is one of those vegetables that’s more commonly found in books than in catalogues, so I’m pleased to see it on offer from Mr Fothergill’s (www.mr-fothergills.co.uk; tel 08453 710-518), under the name Amara. 

Listed as “ideal in pots and containers,” it’s a very useful source of salad leaves in the summer and cooked greens in the autumn. 

The leaves have a slight garlicky taste, and are produced plentifully.

Marshalls (marshallsgarden.com; tel 01480 774-555) has a new courgette, Sure Thing, which it describes as “great in containers,” and a cucumber called Goblin, which promises “a huge yield of handy-sized fruits,” the perfect size for pickling, which grow on a compact plant “ideal for a patio container.”

There’s another courgette, Wave Climber, in The Organic Gardening Catalogue (www.organiccatalogue.com/; tel 03449 670-330) that produces tendrils, and can therefore climb up a fence or trellis. 

This upright habit makes it much more economical on space, and it could easily be grown at the end of a flower bed.

Lettuces usually do well in containers, provided they get plenty of watering, and Mini Gem Mixed, from Plants of Distinction (www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk; tel 01449 721-720), should do better than most, being a new mixture of three small-heading varieties in green, bronze and red.

Basil Everleaf Emerald Towers, from Dobies (www.dobies.co.uk; tel 03449 670-303), boasts short internodes, making it columnar in shape, and a late flowering period so it’ll be livening up your pasta for longer. 

Put it in a pot on the patio during the summer, and on a bright windowsill in the autumn.

There aren't many new varieties of potato this year, but Acoustic, from Seed Potatoes Direct (www.seedpotatoesdirect.co.uk) sounds worth investigating. 

Claiming high yields and “superb taste,” its resistance to blight is described as “very strong.”

Urban Forager Mix, containing various edible native British wild plants, is listed by Suttons (www.suttons.co.uk; tel 03443 262-200), and is particularly recommended for growing an unusual salad on a balcony.

Mat Coward’s latest book is Eat Your Front Garden (Prospect Books).

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