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Main News Page

Here are our latest News Items:--

Grow your own featured vegetables

Vegetable garden seed featured in Grow Your Own Magazine:
Brussels sprouts One of the best for early cropping is Crispus top quality dark green buttons. A mid season vegetable variety Trafalgar is excellent with medium sized smooth buttons. Falstaff no longer available, replaced by Red Bull
Asparagus a luxury vegetable crop that takes 2-3 years before the first harvest but well worth waiting for, some of the best varieties from seed are Gijnlim, Backlim and Conovers Collossal.
Microgreens Grown from seed they are harvested at the seedling stage when they have grown their first set of leaves.
Buy seeds online Quality garden seed flower herb vegetable seed and wildflower mixtures.

Autumn sowing Broad Bean seed

There are a number of varieties suitable for autumn sowing Aquadulce, Super Aquadulce, The Sutton, Grano Violetto, and in milder areas broad bean Stereo seed. Sow direct 23cm apart, 5-7cm deep in rows 60cm apart. Autumn sown broad beans should be ready for harvest late April.

Autumn sowing sweet pea seed

Sweet pea seed can be sown during late September to end of October, they can be sown as late as November if the weather is warm. This will allow the plants to get established quickly in the spring when they are planted out. The young plants can then be over winter in a cold frame or in a unheated greenhouse. Soaking the day before sowing or chipping (opposite the eye) aids germination. For beautiful blooms throughout the flowering season try to prevent Sweet Peas from setting seed. Large selection of Sweet Peas look out for new varieties this autumn.

Growing salad leaves

Sow seed for salad leaves for a continual supply right up to autumn, lettuce, mixed and baby salad leaf, corn salad, land cress, raddish, salad onion and annual herb seeds for fresh salads straight from the garden or containers. Sow Pak choi from late July onwards, picked early for baby leaf for salads and sti fries. French beans can be sown up to mid July for late harvests untill the first frosts. Sow perennial and biennial seeds. Sow winter pansies for containers and hanging baskets.

Growing salad Leaves part 2

Keep sowing seeds every 3 weeks of Spring or Salad Onion, seeds can be sown in June right up to August, some varieties can be sown autumn to overwinter, Salad leaf mixtures, baby leaf veg and lettuce, sow seeds every 2 weeks to ensure a continual supply of young salad leaves. Sow salad leaf mixtures in borders, pots, containers, seed trays and grow bags. Lettuce can be difficult to germinate in the hot weather, it is worth experimenting by sowing in a cool shaded area outdoors or even a cool room indoors if the weather is too hot. Do not forget sowing of Celtuce, Corn Salad, Rocket and Pak Choi grown as baby veg or cut and come again (which prevents them from bolting during summer) the young inner tender leaves are ideal in salads.

Ornamental Kale

Sow seeds of Ornamental kale they make excellent cut flower subjects and container plants, sow seeds from late May until early August and as the temperature drops there colour will intensify. You can overwinter late sown plants for colour in containers early spring. A great plant for impulse sales during Autumn and early spring especially when displayed in containers and as cut flowers in vases and flower arrangements. See Ornamental Kale seeds for our large selection.

Gardeners World Magazine May

Favourite plants from seeds for Wildlife, Pond edge plants, Monty's tried and tested Jewel plants and  Beetroot taste test.
Beetroot
A number of varieties of beetroot were tested:-

1st for taste & colour was Bolivar 
2nd Cylindra 
3rd Chioggia 

Beetroot seeds are best softened in warm water for about 1 hour before sowing.

Monty's Jewel Plants
Listed are the ones you will find in our catalogue:-
Humulus (hop), Sweet Pea’s -  purple prince, black knight, Annie Gilroy and Henry Eckford. 
Grasses Stipa Gigantea, Fennel bronze, cardoon, Geum Mrs Bradshaw, Lychnis chalcedonica, Oriental poppies, Allegro and Pattys plum.  Rudbeckia, Saliva,  Sunflower Tall single (giant russian)  Tithonia,  Sambucus racemosa, Buddleja

Plants for wildlife
Achillea summer berries, Echinacea (coneflower) Pow Wow Wild Berry sea holly and foxgloves

Carol Klein favourite pond edge plants   Marsh Marigold, Yellow Flag and Ragged Robin

GARDENERS WORLD Magazine recommended plants from seeds for Summer Pots

Raise your own annual plants from seeds for summer pots, containers or the garden borders.

Fancy Frills Combine Zinnia with Portulaca & Kohl Rabi Ballot in a 40cm pot

Evening Splendour Combine Nicotiana (try Hot chocolate [alternative] & Lime Green) with Oenothera Sunset Boulevard

A Field of Dreams wild Cornflower, Cornflower Black ball and Grasses Eragrostis Ruby Silk

Full of Impact Amaranthus Foxtail, Amaranthus Green Thumb & Ornamental Millet Purple Baron

Garden Design & Writing by Helen Riches

New Sweet Pea varieties

New sweet peas includes heirloom varieties, highly scented and Exhibition varieties

Sweet peas:-

Alan Titchmarsh - Exhibition variety
Almost Black - Dark maroon almost black, the darkest sweet pea available
April in Paris - Lilac Picotee
Blanche Ferry - Heirloom
Blush Perfume - Exhibition variety
Butterfly - Heirloom
Cathy - Cream highly scented
Gwendolin - Exhibition variety
Heathcliff - Eye catching blue highly scented
Juliet - Citrus scecnted, cream with apricot blush flowers
Lady Grisel Hamilton - Heirloom
Lianne marie - Striking Magenta flowers
Nelly Viner - Heirloom
Purple Prince - Heirloom
Velvet Crush - Exclusive
Winston Churchill - Exhibition variety Sweet Pea seeds

Late Sown Lettuce Varieties

The following Lettuce seed are the best performers in the late sown lettuce trials by Sarah Raven in the Cutting Garden.
Black Seeded Simpson
Cocarde
Erika
Marvel of Four Seasons
Red Sails
Reine De Glace
Unicum
Valdor

Which magazine recognise Nickys Nursery.

Nickys seeds awarded 'Which Best buy' for the second year running, and Which Enthusiasts Choice.  
Nickys Nursery Ltd achieved the highest germination rate of all the 17 seed companies tested, awarded joint 2nd place overall of all the major UK seed companies tested.  Read more http://www.whatconsumer.co.uk/seed-germination-often-impossible/

Grow your own even more popular.

More and more people are turning to growing their own fruit and vegetables from seeds, many councils report a long waiting list for allotments. The advantages are endless, harvesting your own vegetables full of freshness and flavour straight from the garden. Kids love growing their own vegetables, gardening is great exercise, cheaper than buying vegetables from the supermarket. The excess you grow can always be frozen or used for making jams, pickles and chilli sauces.
You do not need an allotment to grow vegetables; you can grow your own vegetables at home even if you have only a small garden, patio, or windowsill which is ideal for some chilli peppers and herbs. You can even grow strawberries and some tomato varieties in hanging baskets. There are many vegetables that can be grown in containers on a balcony or patio these include tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, baby sweet corn, carrots, cucumbers, radish, beans the list is endless. Many of the Oriental vegetables with careful planning can be grown all year round given the right protection.
In 2008 we introduced vegetables in a smaller packet, ideal for gardeners who only have small gardens or patios, cheaper and less waste. These are the same quality seeds in a smaller packet. Following on from this we introduced a smaller packet size of our chilli peppers and now sell chilli peppers from £0.50 a packet and vegetables from £0.59 a packet, we have now noticed many seed companies are now following the trend for smaller packets.