No. 38: Jealous!

We can be glad we didn't live in the eastern US or Canada this winter. One of my suppliers and some of my friends live there and they had a kind of opposite winter to ours: the last snowstorm was in early April! Here we enjoyed (some more than others) an extremely mild winter. All the vegetables sown in the autumn have continued to grow. Broad beans in the greenhouse were harvestable from February onwards; one of my customers told me he has broad bean plants 2 metres high! You can imagine that we followed all this early natural spectacle with mixed feelings. You were more eager than ever for fast delivery, which worked reasonably well until the end of January... Starting early means a long spring, maybe an extra crop, that will be exciting!

• Flower bulbs and tubers can still be planted throughout May. Sometimes (despite our cool storage) a tuber may have dried out, which is why there will be a favourable clearance offer in the remainder of this Newsletter. The advantage of, for example, a dahlia tuber: no need to worry about the initial growth period, at most some supportive measures during budding and splendid flowering all summer (into autumn)! Not everything is still in stock, but click here for the full assortment. (link to summer flowering bulbs chapter)
• From the group of annual flowers, you can still sow the “fast growers”. These are the varieties that do not need to be pre-sown indoors, so they can go directly outside in a seedbed. The surprising mixtures (link to Mixtures chapter) can also still be sown well this month.
• Perennial plants (provided they are not cold germinators, which are better sown in September) can be sown in May-July. We are still working on restocking our assortment; you have almost bought me out.
• It is possible to plant asparagus until the end of June. We store the plants in the cold room, allowing for a long planting period. See our assortment on our site or click here (link as on the homepage).
• Bell peppers, chillies, and aubergines can only be sown now if you have a greenhouse or if you can allow the plants to ripen indoors in a pot in autumn. Tomatoes are on the edge now... Most of the other vegetables can still be sown or are even just not yet ready: for beans it's a bit early, except for broad beans and the very strong runner beans. Did you know that peas, shelling peas, and broad beans can be sown again in July for an autumn harvest? It usually works out great!
• Garlic, onion sets, and shallots can simply be planted if the cloves are still good. You can harvest them at any stage; an “unripe” garlic (also called “fresh garlic”) is extra fresh and tasty. Further on in this Newsletter, you will find a clearance offer for this group.
• Potatoes can, of course, still be planted. Let me clear up a persistent misconception, namely that early potatoes should be planted early and later ones late: early varieties do indeed have a shorter dormancy period, so their shoots are eager to grow, but they are mainly called “early” because of their shorter growing time. So, an early potato can actually be planted very late (provided it is stored very cool). Compare it to early beans: these are beans that you can still sow at the end of July due to their short growing period. Later in this Newsletter, I will make a great clearance proposal for the last potatoes.

Every year, different trends emerge, and I'd like to share a few of them with you.

Jerusalem artichokes and Scorzonera were very popular this year. I could have sold several thousand more kilos of Jerusalem artichokes, but they were no longer available. If anyone knows sources of good growers who are happy to sell their harvest: please tell me!

Our large assortment of tomatoes and peppers is becoming increasingly noticeable. Because the harvests are small, I sometimes have to turn down sales around this time, but due to the wide selection, there is always a good substitute available. You all respond very positively to this offering, both online and in the store.

Many of my colleagues and suppliers are significantly narrowing their assortment of flower seeds. We increasingly have to fill more varieties ourselves to maintain an attractive offering. These sudden assortment changes cause me annual headaches. What do you do when an entire company stops, or when, for example, Thompson & Morgan discontinues more than 40 varieties? Fortunately, there are still a few active German packagers who offer beautiful varieties. We now need to double our "filling team" to get all that work done on time!

The VegTrug and GrowCamp are real hits. They bring a lot of satisfied customers, and even gardeners with disabilities are happy with these products.

Will this pumpkin craze ever end? Absolutely not! Enthusiastic growers who sell from home: a playful way to let children have a little business. 20 years ago, I mainly sold pumpkins for their appearance; now, taste is becoming increasingly important, and that's how it should be!

Sweet potato plants are flying off the shelves this year. You can buy them from us until September, as you can overwinter young plants as houseplants. Take cuttings all winter, and you'll have a cheap start in 2015. Click here for the assortment. Feel free to plant them in large pots too, and what do you think of our sweet potatoes with colored leaves?

It's amazing how quickly Northern Europe has discovered that growing (and eating) garlic is also for us and is suitable! You can plant garlic in the autumn, but you can plant it for a long time in the spring because all onion-like plants can be eaten at any stage. Fresh, juicy garlic does not need to (and cannot) be broken into cloves, but can be processed well both whole and cut. We have purchased a lot of virus-free planting material and this spring we also helped a grower with his special stock. Now the rest has to go: very occasionally a rotten clove in between, all good cloves you can plant or store for consumption. You don't have to miss out at this price! Each bulb has 7-15 cloves.

Click here for the "Garlic at the last minute" offer

Our shed was bursting with beautiful seed potatoes this year! Each variety has a wonderful story or a rich history; will you help us preserve this collection? They can be planted until mid-June; even very late crops (started in July) still yielded a nice "young" potato in the autumn of 2013! Just like garlic, potatoes can be harvested at any stage.

For an attractive offer, see our "End-of-Year Package"

If you plant these bulbs, tubers, or rhizomes in June, you can enjoy their blooms in late summer. We could replant them ourselves, but we prefer to let our customers benefit from a 50% end-of-season discount. Choose from our "Full of Bulbs" packages in various price ranges

Do you have a particularly large space available? I'm offering a special discount for larger gardens: 1 package worth € 200.00 now for the special price of € 89.00 (maximum 3 packages per customer!)

Known and unknown species: Ulluco, Oca, multiplier onions, shallots, garlic, Madeira Vine, Lima Bean, Chinese Yam, Tania... all easily grown bulb and tuber vegetables. Around this time, we pot them to extend their selling season. Before then, I'm giving away a round of benefits:a beautiful and varied package(I'll also include some special potatoes) worth €40.00, offered for €19.50