Autumn bargains

I've been letting the allotment manage itself for a few weeks, and to not much ill-effect thankfully. I've been very busy re-styling my back garden at home, and won another award for my front garden over the summer too. Luckily a couple of hours weeding and mowing and it looks quite neat again. Perhaps because I started my allotment at this time of the year, I always see the end of the main summer harvest as the start of the new gardening year. So here we are again.

This year's plan is to be a bit more careful where I source my seeds etc. I tend to buy online from the biggest suppliers but I want to be a bit more frugal.  First off, seed potatoes. I read in a magazine that there are only a few companies that actually grow seed potatoes, and they do sell direct - so I'm going to try and track them down, as when I've ordered from Thompson and Morgan I find they take ages and don't give me an ETA.

Second, this is a good time of year to visit the garden centre, just before they get their Christmas stock in. My favourite local centre, Wyvale Woburn Sands, are running an offer for their loyalty card customers of all packets of seeds 50p each! At that price, it makes sense to buy what they've got and not worry too much about specific varieties. They also sent me a £5 voucher recently, so I went and filled my boots with 10 packs of seeds, net cost, FREE! As a result I will be growing mangetout peas and dwarf green beans in 2011, along with a selection of flowers for cutting. Can't go wrong really, all of them have 2012 'best before' dates. The garden centres just want to have fresh stock at this time of year.

One packet was onions - I'm going to try them from seed. I'm always anxious to do some gardening at Christmas when it's too cold to go outside and I've heard boxing day is the best day to plant onion seeds.

Finally I'm going to grow some garlic from my own bulbs this year instead of buying them in. It's supposed to be the best way, and I've got plenty spare.