Existing seeds have been catalogued into a spreadsheet and embarrassingly I have about 300 of them! Many of the packets have been sent from my old subscription to Grow Your Own magazine. There’s a lot of duplicates – more carrot seeds than I could ever hope to sow, though most of my carrot sowing attempts have resulted in failure… Many are out of date so I’m not sure what to do with those. Perhaps put them on trial on some absorbent paper and see if they start germinating?
I have bought some fresh seeds though from The Real Seed company based in Wales. I’ve been impressed by the dedication to heritage seeds and the fantastic way in which they show you how to save your own seed. Something I should try and do more often.Their aim is “to assemble the best collection of really reliable, tasty and interesting non-hybrid vegetables for the home gardener, allotment grower, or smallholder.“. and
“Much of our vegetable growing and weeding is by hand – we have a small tractor for preparing the seedbeds at the start of each season. Two thirds of our land are devoted to wildlife and woodland. Overall , our aim is that at the end of our lives, we will leave the soil and ecosystems in a better condition than at the start.”.
Can’t recommend them enough. Last year I bought a packet of magic mix cauliflowers from them and they were fantastic. Such an amazing variety. Still got some left for this year. I asked them for some advice upon the variety of cucumbers to grow outside as the dome greenhouse overheats and I am finding it difficult to keep it well ventilated. They recommended the Wautoma Cucumber variety.
I’ve also bought some sweetcorn seeds – double standard bicolour but they are not hybrids.. Though I have plenty of my own seed!. Somehow some of last year’s sweetcorn kernels escaped being picked. They’ve dried out nicely inside though some of the kernels cross fertilised with another variety I tried the year before which turned out to be highly coloured vibrant ornamental and wouldn’t cook! So I’m not sure what will happen to them
The seeds in the foreground are mostly golden so may grow into good tasting plants. The others will need to be an experiment. If they germinate that is.. I haven’t got much room for experiments though!
Gardening in a Jungle 