Monthly Seed Collections
I worked through 2024 with Premier Seeds Direct to create collections of seeds for sowing each month, based on my sowing timeline. It’s an important part of successful gardening to start seeds at their best time, which is different for every vegetable.
Before deciding to work with them, I grew selections of their seeds. I want to be recommending a good product, and I’ve been impressed on three counts:
1. The seeds are excellent value.
2. The germination is strong.
3. The variety choice works well. For example, the kohlrabi and fennel are not named varieties, but they grew into decent bulbs.
Each monthly collection has a range of seeds, and they come with my suggested timings and a description of why I have chosen them.
Find out more, and order, from Premier Seeds Direct
Vegetable Garden Planner
I’ve been collaborating with Growing Interactive website company to create my own Garden Planner.
It's easy to draw out your vegetable beds, add plants, and move them around to get the perfect layout and a personalised planting calendar for your location.
Products of my own design
Module trays
Module trays made of recycled polypropylene which is strong and durable.
The trays have wide holes at the bottom that enable plants to be pushed up easily and also improve drainage. The tapered cells require less compost and result in no waterlogging around the roots. The polypropylene creates smooth and solid cells that help plant rootballs slide upwards with little or no damage to the plant roots, and none to the tray.
More information in these YouTube videos:
The trays are available in three sizes – 15, 30 and 60 cell. Cell size is the same in all of these trays, the only variable is number of cells per tray.
Available from the following distributors (prices vary so best to check the individual websites).
UK: Containerwise
Australia and New Zealand: Sow Your Seeds
Benelux: The Farm Dream (deliver to most countries in western Europe)
Denmark: Fantastiskfroe and Bjarne's Fro Og Planter
Ireland: Quickcrop
Jersey, The Sustainable Cooperative (no online sales)
Norway: Lindholmgard
Poland: Plena Natura
Sweden: Lindbloms Frö and Garden Market
North America: All About The Garden
Long-handled ash dibber
These are made in the UK by an expert woodturning company. As you would expect for a product of this quality, the dibber is superbly sanded and finished with the best product available, Danish Oil.
The latest model features grooves notched into the timber at precise intervals to help with spacings between plants.
To purchase, and for more info, visit the Garden Imports website.
US stockist: All about the Garden
No dig clothing range!
For that no dig reminder and to keep you warm in the garden – t-shirts, sweaters and hoodies, all made from organic cotton.
Please visit the Teemil site.
More products that I recommend
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A curated collection of useful tools and products on the Crocus website
I worked with Crocus to create this collection of gardening essentials.
Black Gold peat-free compost by Urban Wyrm
A top potting mix and general compost made using 30% worm casts, and 70% garden-waste compost sieved to 3mm. The garden / green waste compost is made by Growmoor, and is one of the best I have seen and used.
Copper tools by Implementations
Beautifully made copper tools. My favourites are the Castor trowel, Hydra hoe, and … Orion spade. A spade? So good when planting trees and shrubs, plus for removing stem roots of brambles.
Uses magnetic fields to enhance water properties, providing a chemical- and maintenance-free solution for limescale treatment. It’s highly cost-effective, and offers benefits for growing.
Get 10% off both Magnostream and Magnostream Pro, with the code NODIG.
My preferred Bt product, from eBay, UK.
The larger that knife I use mostly is No. 8, some people prefer the smaller No. 7.
Covers from Gardening Naturally
This is a great site for fleece, mesh and bird netting, for warmth and pest protection. Also for traps for codling and plum moths.
Trimmer and shredder
The hedge trimmer I use is a Stihl HLA 85. It’s so quick, and quiet!
The shredder I use is electric, a Bosch AXT 25 TC, which chops and crushes up to 45mm diameter.
Newton Gravity-Powered Water Filter System
Although not a gardening recommendation, I think a lot of gardeners who grow their own food are interested in their health. I'm a fan of this water filter.
This wand has been developed by a group of scientists in Europe over the last two decades and with extensive trialling, with people and on plants.
By stirring the with the Analemma device, which holds "coherent" water, you can transform tap water, even beer and wine, into liquids with wonderful flavour. Just to be clear, the water stays as water and does not become wine! The most common feedback I have is that it's so smooth!
The water molecules become aligned and the feel of the water when you drink it is soft, also a little viscous. This aligns with the work of Gerald Pollack, in his book, The Fourth Phase of Water. That phase is defined as existing where the H2O molecules have flattened down into a hexagonal framework, such as one sees in a honeycomb. Another term for it is liquid crystalline, or semicrystalline water. Other people call it structured. There is no one agreed term.
