Last year, I was fortunate enough to be selected by Mr. Forthergill’s to trial some new varieties of seeds. I was very excited to receive them, particularly as last year, for the first time, I grew some flowers and they sent me some new varieties of the ones I had grown.

I’ve been eagerly waiting for the chance to plant these and finally, it is time to get started.

The first seeds I planted were the sweet pea, Lady Salisbury, which looks like a lovely flower.

These will go down to the allotment and be grown there when they are ready to plant out as they will have plenty of space to grow and will get full sun. The other flowers will be planted at home where the neighbours can enjoy them too.

The seeds were planted in a good quality potting mix with some vermiculite added to help with water retention. I used this particular potting mix last year to great success and decided to use the same way again this year.

The seed tray was covered with a plastic lid and then placed inside a plastic greenhouse to keep it warm. Unfortunately, we have a weather warning this week for very cold weather so I have held off planting any of the other seeds for about a week as the temperatures are predicted to dip below freezing. Unfortunately, I am unable to bring the seed trays indoors thanks to my helpful cats who will be more than happy to wreck them for me!

I will keep an eye on these and update Twitter and Instagram (follow me as @allotmentowner) as they germinate. The next post will come soon as I plant the rest of the seeds and prepare a bed for the carrots I have on trial.