Wow family and friends with an additional particular Christmas dinner filled with your individual residence grown veggies. With just a bit planning upfront, you may serve up crispy roast potatoes, delicately flavoured sprouts, scrumptious carrots and the sweetest parsnips – all out of your very personal veg patch. Observe the variability strategies, rising suggestions and planting occasions beneath to get your implausible festive feast underway in loads of time for subsequent yr.

For one of the best outcomes, use Suttons top quality vegetable seeds in your Christmas crops.

One of the best potatoes for Christmas dinner

Potatoes are the bedrock of any nice Christmas lunch whether or not you’re keen on them boiled, mashed or roasted. Select from our flavour-packed vary of late season seed potatoes or retailer your maincrop favourites in a cool storage via autumn to take pleasure in them in the course of the festive season. We rigorously maintain our late season seed potatoes at low temperatures in order that they’re raring to go once you obtain them in the summertime. Listed here are just a few of our favorite spuds to eat at Christmas:

• ‘King Edward’. Plant between March and Might and harvest between August and September. This conventional maincrop favorite wants a reasonably lengthy rising season and produces a harvest of huge tubers 17-20 weeks after planting. Merely retailer these tasty spuds in a cool, darkish house till the massive day. Good for roasting, King Edwards can be crispy on the surface and fluffy on the within, however they can be boiled, mashed, sautéed, baked and became Boxing Day chips!
• ‘Maris Peer’. One of the best late season selection for that particular ‘new potato’ flavour. Plant these implausible scab resistant tubers in July and begin to harvest your spuds from late October. Go away among the tubers within the floor the place they’ll keep contemporary for harvesting on Christmas morning. ‘Maris Peer’ are scrumptious boiled and served with butter and a sprinkle of salt. 
• ‘Charlotte’. Holding an Award of Backyard Benefit, ‘Charlotte’ is a tried-and-tested late season winner. This selection’s blight tolerance makes it a good selection for a lot of growers and it produces giant, oval formed tubers that make a superb salad for the buffet desk.

Rising tip: Plant your late-cropping seed potatoes outside in June and late July. Select fertile floor with good texture or pop your spuds into patio potato baggage with peat-free compost. Earth up the soil across the creating shoots as they develop via August. Be sure you water your spuds often. Begin to harvest the scrumptious tubers from late October onwards. 

One of the best Brussels sprouts for Christmas

Love them or hate them, Brussels sprouts are an absolute must-have with regards to Christmas dinner. Why not attempt your sprouts steamed or roasted with smoky bacon or pancetta? And for one thing slightly totally different why not sneak in just a few ‘kalette’ vegetation too. Our vary of Brussels sprout seeds is filled with high performers however listed below are just a few of our favourites for the festive celebrations:

• Brussels sprout ‘Brodie’. Anticipate a sprout with light flavour that the entire household will take pleasure in, together with the youngsters. ‘Brodie’ continues to crop via winter and properly into the brand new yr.
• Brussels sprout ‘F1 Brigitte’. These agency buttons maintain on the stem for longer making them an ideal cut-and-come-again crop for the winter veggie patch. A vigorous hybrid, ‘Brigitte’ exhibits good illness tolerance, crops closely and has a scrumptious flavour. 
• Brussels sprout ‘Purple Ball’. A singular deep purple sprout with an extended cropping season. This selection not solely tastes nice, however makes an attention grabbing addition to the veg patch. The buttons have a sweeter flavour than different varieties and the fabulous color deepens because the climate cools. 

Rising tip: Sow your Brussels sprout seeds from February to March. Hold them undercover and solely plant the seedlings outside into their last positions in Might when the climate warms. Anticipate to begin harvesting your individual tasty sprouts from September till the tip of December. Harvest the buttons by gently twisting them off the principle stem, beginning on the backside of the plant and dealing your approach up because the season progresses.

One of the best Christmas parsnips

Parsnips are a conventional favorite for Sunday roasts and a vital a part of a Christmas dinner. Their candy flavour enhances many dishes they usually’re historically roasted with honey. From thick white to lengthy slim tapering roots, parsnips present a reliable crop all via autumn to December. Caught for alternative? Listed here are our high performing parsnip seeds in your Christmas day feast: 

• Seed tape parsnip ‘Tender & True’. A splendidly candy selection, the seed tape makes these seeds even simpler to sow and the spacing a doddle. Similar to the title, anticipate to reap lengthy, smooth-skinned roots which have good resistance to canker.
• Parsnip ‘White Gem’. One of the best parsnip to develop in shallow soils. With a implausible flavour and productive nature, this selection types shallow, thick roots which can be simple to reap.
• Parsnip ‘F1 Warrior’. British bred parsnip ‘F1 Warrior’ roots develop as much as 28cm lengthy! This implausible performer has chunky, flavoursome roots that present good resistance to canker.

Rising tip: Direct sow parsnip seeds in April, in rows 30cm aside. Germination takes as much as 28 days and is quicker in hotter spring temperatures. Hold your parsnips weed free via the summer time and water each week to maintain the soil moist and encourage the roots to swell.

One of the best Christmas carrots

Among the best root greens to take pleasure in at Christmas, carrot seeds supply implausible worth for cash and are simple to sow, fortunately rising via into the colder months. Roast, mash or steam these candy roots to make the right companion for wealthy gravy. Listed here are our high picks for Christmas dinner carrot varieties:

• Carrot ‘Autumn King 2’. A hardy selection that shops fantastically, ‘Autumn King 2’ crops properly into December from July sowings. The lengthy, cylindrical roots are good for roasting with honey! Anticipate to have a harvest round 70 days after sowing.
• Carrot ‘Black Nebula’. A putting purple root which retains its color via cooking. ‘Black Nebula’ is full of wholesome anthocyanins and is likely one of the darkest purple varieties obtainable to develop from seed. Roast these crunchy, earthy roots with a knob of salted butter.
• Carrot ‘Rainbow Combine’. Serve a rainbow at Christmas with this vibrant combine. Harvest roots in yellow, orange, pink and purple round 120 days after sowing to make a scrumptious coleslaw, or steam and luxuriate in with butter and a twist of pepper.

Rising tip: Sow your carrot seeds in July for a December harvest. Skinny your carrot seedlings to depart 5cm between vegetation and permit loads of room for them to swell. Harvest every carrot by gently twisting till the basis lifts cleanly out of the bottom. Retailer any early pickings of your carrots in buckets of cool, moist sand in a storage or shed till you want them for the Christmas desk. 

One of the best Christmas cauliflower cheese

Cauliflower seeds are simple to sow and homegrown cauliflower cheese is an actual crowd pleaser! Similar to broccoli and kale, cauliflowers are brassicas and love cool, moist situations. With a little bit of particular consideration, you may develop your individual pure white tasty florets for harvesting via the winter season. Listed here are a few of our favorite cauliflower varieties so as to add to the Christmas menu:

• Cauliflower ‘Succesional Cropping Combine’. A mixture of vigorous F1 varieties maintain this mixture of cauliflowers producing via autumn and into winter. Cauliflowers ‘F1 Amsterdam’, ‘F1 Seoul’, and ‘F1 Brasilia’ all produce pure white tasty curds good for roasting or making a scrumptious cauli cheese.
• Cauliflower ‘Romanesco’. Very good chilly tolerance makes this distinctive selection good for rising in cooler areas. Benefit from the lime inexperienced, spiral heads in precisely the identical approach as you’d a white cauliflower. This magnificence appears to be like actually spectacular on the Christmas desk.
• Cauliflower ‘F1 Multi-headed’. Strive one thing slightly totally different with this ‘cut-and-come-again’ multi-headed cauliflower. Good for container growers, this selection produces a scrumptious important head with 4 to 5 smaller offshoots. Scrumptious steamed.

Rising tip: Sow your cauliflower seeds in June for a harvest round Christmas time. Anticipate to get a crop 20-24 weeks after sowing your seeds. Plant your cauliflower plantlets outside into their last positions after they have at the very least two true leaves in July, making certain they keep moist and weed free till the cauliflower ‘curds’ swell to a superb measurement. In case your harvest is a bit forward of schedule, merely reduce the curds and pop them within the freezer. Defrost for cooking over the festive interval, as and once you want them.

One of the best pink cabbage for Christmas

Whether or not you like to pickle your pink cabbage or slowly simmer it into a tasty dish with vinegar and brown sugar on the massive day, this wholesome, vibrant addition to the feast is right for winter cropping. It’s the right leftover so as to add to your Boxing day sandwiches too! In case you add ericaceous compost to the soil as your cabbages develop, it is going to make the pink color much more intense. Listed here are our favorite pink cabbage seeds for Christmas:

• Purple cabbage ‘Pretino F1’. In case you’re after a scrumptious pink cabbage for a smaller Christmas gathering, develop ‘Pretino F1’. The compact heads are very tight and harvestable at simply 0.5kg, good for smaller dishes. This can be a nice selection for balconies and container growers too. Anticipate to reap the heads round 4 months after sowing.
• Purple Cabbage ‘Purple Drumhead’. Named for its fabulous color, this high selection is a winner for appears to be like. The big compact heads and deep purple leaves act as a decorative boon to any backyard while the antioxidant wealthy leaves make splendid pickles and work very properly shredded uncooked into salads.
• Purple Cabbage ‘F1 Lodero’. Good for many who have battled with clubroot in previous cabbage crops. This resistant selection is a powerful alternative with wonderful flavour in addition. The lengthy cropping season and vigorous progress behavior make it a preferred favorite. 

Rising tip: For a Christmas harvest, be sure you sow your pink cabbage seeds no later than June. The heads take round 5 months to mature into their full harvestable measurement. Often water your vegetation as they develop to cut back danger of bolting, particularly throughout any scorching summer time climate. 

We hope you’re enthusiastic about rising your individual Christmas dinner for subsequent yr. And to ensure your desk has a show-stopping centrepiece, listed below are the finest festive houseplants to embellish your house. We like to see your masterpieces! Tag us at #mysuttonsjourney so we are able to see the way you get on.

Picture: Brussels Sprout Seeds – Brodie F1 from Suttons