I’ve been looking back at this year’s veg gardening trials and starting to plan what to grow next year. This season was a real mix with everything from heritage to Japanese varieties and a few new favourites discovered.
(All seed was gifted in return for a fair review.)
Top of the veg gardening trials for us was something that wouldn’t win any prizes for looks but was stellar when it came to taste.
‘Cornetti Meraviglia Di Venezia’ is an endangered heritage climbing bean variety (seed from Franchi Seeds of Italy). The flat, yellow pods are stringless and outstanding in flavour. Definitely one that deserves to be more widely grown.
There were two more French beans in the veg gardening trials both dwarf varieties – I find these really useful for filling gaps in the veg beds. ‘Dior’ (seed from Dobies) was another yellow variety while ‘Caledonia’ (Chiltern Seeds) was a prolific green variety. Both had a good flavour and produced slender pods.
It was a good year for chillies – I now have a freezer full of them. New to me this year was ‘Havana Gold’ (Kings Seeds), a variety with a lovely yellow-orange colour and very mild heat.
I grow masses of lettuce and am always interested in trying something new. ‘Marvel of Four Seasons’ and ‘Parris Island Cos’ were two contrasting varieties from Seeds to Suit, one a butterhead and the other a crispy cos. This is a new firm to the gardening trials, which specialises in sending out seeds in small quantities to reduce waste.
Both lettuces had a good flavour and added a bit of variety to salads. ‘Marvel of Four’ is a French heritage variety that tolerates both low and high temperatures. It can be sown from February so I’m planning to add some to my greenhouse bed.
‘Gigante of Bergamo’ (Franchi) is another endangered heritage variety and really an endive rather than a lettuce though it looks like one. It needs low temperatures to develop and so I sowed it late in the season. Open varieties like this need tying up about a week before harvest to blanch the inner leaves and make them tender.
‘Frilly Blend’ salad leaves (Chiltern Seeds) was an interesting mix of mild and bitter leaves that made a good addition to a salad as did Bull’s Blood ‘Atlanta Red’, (also Chiltern Seeds) which is actually a beetroot grown for the leaf.
There were two varieties of mustard in this year’s veg gardening trials. ‘Mibuna’ (Seeds to Suit) had a good peppery flavour – the pigeons also like it so I had to put in some protection.
Mizuna is a Japanese mustard that I grew in a pot in the greenhouse. Again, a good peppery flavour.
It was one of the seeds given to me by Niwaki at the Garden Press Event. The firm is more usually known for its tools (you can read my review of its Hori Hori here) but had decided to spread the word about Japanese veg.
As a result, I grew several things. The cucumber was prolific, producing long, slender fruits. The aubergine was also a good cropper with a good flavour. I’d never grown Japanese radish before and it was well worth it – great in a stir fry.
One of the triumphs of the season was growing melons in my new greenhouse. Alongside last year’s ‘Mangomel’, I grew the heritage variety ‘Zatta’ (Franchi). Mine didn’t get the really scaly skin but the orange flesh was juicy and sweet and one plant produced two fruits.
Peppers were another greenhouse success, grown in raised beds this year rather than pots. ‘Californian Wonder’ (Nutleys) produced a lot of really well-flavoured fruit with a good crunch.
‘Thor’ (Chiltern Seeds) was slow to ripen and had to be picked green. However, the fruits quickly turned red indoors. This was a thin-skinned variety, not as good raw but great for cooking.
There were three beetroot varieties in the veg gardening trials this year. We liked ‘Jolie’ (Dobies) best because of the excellent flavour. ‘Pablo’ (Chiltern Seeds) also had a good flavour – both cooked and raw. ‘Karkulka’ (Chiltern Seeds) had the strongest ‘earthy’ taste, good but not our favourite.
Kale is a family favourite so I always make space for it. ‘Cottagers Kale’ (Dobies) is a cross between a kale and Brussel sprout. It had a great colour but not a very pronounced flavour. It’s a perennial variety so I’m interested to see how it develops.
Better still was the frilly ‘Borecole Vates Blue'(Seeds to Suit), which had a really strong flavour. It’s another that the pigeons rather like so it’s had to be protected.
There are still a few things to be harvested, such as parsnip. I’ve also got some winter crops in the beds.
Lettuce ‘Brighton’ (Suttons) is a winter butterhead variety that will withstand low temperatures and should give us a crop early in spring. It’s growing in the cold greenhouse alongside lambs lettuce ‘Vit’ (Mr Fothergill’s). Also known as corn salad, lambs lettuce is a family favourite and I’m looking forward to trying this variety.
Outside, I’ve got a late crop of the dwarf spinach ‘Santa Cruz’ (Dobies) that will be protected by cloches when the weather gets colder.
And of course, there were some failures – something that every gardener gets. Despite the rain over summer, my celeriac is more like micro veg, the slugs enjoyed the turnips – both sowings – before they had a chance to develop roots, and the cauliflower produced just leaves. I will try all of those again next year.
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I love growing Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce – it does very well and looks great on the plot and on the plate and yummy to boot. A winner. And Mizuna is great cool weather green for salads – crunchy and not too mustardy, and lovely in the bowl. Another repeat grower here.
My Corno di Toro Rosso were quite vigorous with lots of fruits but sadly still mostly green Insufficient sun this year? Peppers and tomatoes sulked here in the east until late then zoomed away.
Congrats on the melons!
I think I will be growing Marvel of Four Seasons again. Yes, it was an odd year for peppers. They were slow to get started here and I had to ripen most of them indoors. Strangely, I don’t have as many green tomatoes in the kitchen this year.
This is all so encouraging. I love beans! I discovered some long lost Heritage beans, Hodgkin French Beans, in a relative’s flat that we were clearing and I planted some. They have been such great performers (tasty too) and were still producing beans long after the runners beans stopped. I only have a tiny greenhouse so I have to choose what goes in. I tried peppers and chillies in a sunny cold frame and they did quite well. I intend having more raised beds this year and will try harder with lettuce as slugs, snails and greenfly attacked them this year.
How lovely finding an old variety. Garden Organic are a good source for heritage varieties via their seed library.