This Years Heritage Seed Library Seeds

Before Christmas I picked the ix packet of seed I'm allowed as a member of the Heritage Seed Library

 They always have some really interesting ones to pick from. There was a few that stood out to me.

I couldn't pass up on a bean called "Old Homestead", seems very fitting for this blog. 

The Oden Longstanton Leek is said to grow up to 1.5m tall, I'm not sure how good of a crop it will be, but it'll certainly be interesting to grow.

The other was the potato leaf tomato "Belhomme's Fortuna", there's something about growing a potato leaf tomato I find interesting. The gene that stops the lobing of the leaves is a recessive gene so it's not that common, they look different but one smell is all it takes to know it's tomato. 

Herefordshire Seed Swap This Weekend!!!

This weekend is the big seed swap in Hereford at the courtyard.

This is a great event and even if you haven't got anything to swap we won't mind! We ask for nothing in return but would love it if it encouraged anyone to save some seeds and bring them back for next year.

I'm doing the talk this year (so a little nervious) but I'm looking forward to it and looking forward to meeting lots of like minded people. Make sure you come and say hello if you're about Hereford on Saturday. Be great to see you.

Seed Swap Herefordshire 2018

I've had just the best day!

I've got to talk about trees, vegetables and seeds for the whole day and no one has told me to shut up!

I'm so grateful to be a tiny part of the amazing Seed Swap Herefordshire. It was great fun being behind the tables this year. Such a high level of knowledge in the group, each time we meet up I end up learning more and more about the amazing world of seed saving. I've made some great friends since I joined up to help over the last 12 months and I've loved growing more plants to save for seed.

I was so impressed with what some people had brought with them today. So much effort had gone into growing them and packing seeds up to bring to the swap.

I also picked up some really interesting seeds to grow in the spring.

If there's a seed swap by you make sure you go and get inspired for the next growing season and make sure you save some seeds!

My Seed Problem

The other day Tricky posted about his seed problem and listed all the seeds he had.

Well this week my seed order turned up and I was really excited to see them all laid out. 

I've tried to put my money where my mouth is this year and I've bought all non-hybrid, open pollinated varieties (except one variety of sweet pepper I thought my daughter would like and a few F1's from previous years - sweetcorn & a couple of types squash). 

I've also tried to buy the vast majority of my seed from The Real Seed Catalogue. I've mentioned them before on this blog and I know many of you already buy seed from them, I just feel that their ethos matches (or betters!) mine and I want to grow seeds that are produced in this country rather than China or Thailand and are adapted to a climate similar to mine. 

I did get a nice selection from the seed swap earlier in the month as well and of course I've bought seeds from a few other places as well, I always see a variety that I like the look of or there are some things I want to plant in bulk. Carrots and beets that I can never grow enough of, so I use a couple of wholesale sellers that sell bigger packs of seeds (Kings and Moles seeds are both quite good for this). 

I do think I've probably gone a little bit over board but I know I'll end up planting most of them. I seem to have a lot of squashes and dwarf french beans, both great veg to grow and eat, but hopefully I'll start selling a few veg this year and I want to keep experimenting with growing staples that produce large amounts of the calories that we need. 

As well as this I have the rest of my seeds organised into 12 separate boxes that I group by either family or how I plant them. 

I'll put up my planting plan next week if anyone would like to see it - I have at least 30 beds to organise and I think it might even be more than that by the time I'm finished setting up this year! 

I don't have many vices but this is certainly one of them! 

Who else buys or collects far too many seeds?