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Looking for new things to grow?
There are always new variants and varieties you won’t have heard of, from disease-resistant leeks to blue potatoes. To find them, look in seed catalogues, recommends MAT COWARD

SEED catalogues are a good source of free information and inspiration, especially for those new to vegetable gardening.

I suggest you get hold of as many as possible, online or on paper, because the range of crops you can grow in your garden or allotment these days may be much wider than you imagined.

I must admit I’ve never much fancied blue potatoes, but one of the reasons people choose so-called “heirloom varieties” is because, if gardeners have used them for generations, they are likely to have proven themselves in terms of flavour, yield or reliability.

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