There have recently been press articles saying that the range of
available seeds is very restricted.

I am interested in growing food, not growing for exhibition.

Where is the best place to get good vegetable seeds for the garden?

--
Chris

"Chris" wrote
There have recently been press articles saying that the range of available
seeds is very restricted.

I am interested in growing food, not growing for exhibition.

Where is the best place to get good vegetable seeds for the garden?

It is true that a lot of the seeds available are the same as used
commercially and as we who grow for ourselves don't want a whole field to
crop at exactly the same time that can be a problem. F1 Cauliflowers seem to
be the worst for that trait, who other than a farmer needs a whole row to
head up the same week!
We get our seeds from...

http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/ Only Veg seed, the allotment gardeners
favourite.

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/ Lots of seed in the packets, good lettuce
varieties and interesting things.

http://www.thomasetty.co.uk/ Heritage seed merchant, a one man band,
interesting stuff.

http://www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk/ Good variety of Chilli seed etc.

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/index.html

http://www.suttons.co.uk/

A pleasant way to waste a few wet evenings, browsing the catalogues and
dreaming of crops to come. Why does reality never match the dream? :-)
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 13:19:49 +0000, Chris wrote
(in article ]):

There have recently been press articles saying that the range of
available seeds is very restricted.

I am interested in growing food, not growing for exhibition.

Where is the best place to get good vegetable seeds for the garden?



You could do worse than join Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple word game

On Dec 9, 4:50 pm, Sally Thompson
wrote:
On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 13:19:49 +0000, Chris wrote
(in article ]):

There have recently been press articles saying that the range of
available seeds is very restricted.

I am interested in growing food, not growing for exhibition.

Where is the best place to get good vegetable seeds for the garden?

You could do worse than join Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple word game

Also in West Cork, Ireland
http://www.brownenvelopeseeds.com/

Des

In theory you can now only sell seeds commercially if they are varieties which have been tested for the safeness of the food they produce. Only the high volume commercial varieties are tested. There is concern that this is going to result in a rapid loss of about 99% of our genetic diversity in food plants. Special repositories of vegetable seeds are being set up to preserve that diversity.

Some sellers get around this to sell you garden varieties by getting you to join a club for a nominal fee. One who does that is www.realseeds.co.uk They specialise in varieties which are tested as good for the garden.

Another method is probably to sell the plants as ornamentals. After all, Dahlias were originally bred as food plants.

Yet another method is to buy the seeds from abroad. I don't know how legal it is, but there doesn't seem to be any difficulty in achieving it in practice.

So the big boys who have to be seen to be following the rules. Don't by your vegetable seeds from the big boys, buy them mail order from little sellers who specialise in garden varieties.

In article , Bob Hobden
writes
A pleasant way to waste a few wet evenings, browsing the catalogues and
dreaming of crops to come. Why does reality never match the dream? :-)


Never matches the blinking pictures!
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article ], Chris ] writes:
| There have recently been press articles saying that the range of
| available seeds is very restricted.
|
| I am interested in growing food, not growing for exhibition.
|
| Where is the best place to get good vegetable seeds for the garden?

I grew two fancy carrots this year, in addition to a fairly standard
'fly-resistant' Nantes type.

Spanish Black bolted faster than a CD-ROM of personal data from a
government department. We got one meal's worth from three sowings.

Kinbi (supposed to be well flavoured) tasted of almost nothing, and
didn't root up at all well.

Both did seem to be a bit more fly-resistant than the 'fly-resistant'
one, but there wasn't enough of either to be certain.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Janet Tweedy wrote:

Never matches the blinking pictures!

Just got my Fedco seed catalog (Co-op in U.S.), and the cover has a gent
eagerly reading the catalog with the caption "Publishing fiction for 20
years."


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

"Gary Woods" wrote after...
Janet Tweedy wrote:

Never matches the blinking pictures!

Just got my Fedco seed catalog (Co-op in U.S.), and the cover has a gent
eagerly reading the catalog with the caption "Publishing fiction for 20
years."

That sounds like a British sense of humour. :-)
and an honest Company.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

"Nick Maclaren"wrote
I grew two fancy carrots this year, in addition to a fairly standard
'fly-resistant' Nantes type.

Spanish Black bolted faster than a CD-ROM of personal data from a
government department. We got one meal's worth from three sowings.

Kinbi (supposed to be well flavoured) tasted of almost nothing, and
didn't root up at all well.

Both did seem to be a bit more fly-resistant than the 'fly-resistant'
one, but there wasn't enough of either to be certain.

Give the old "Chertsey" or "Long Red Surrey Carrot" a try Nick, grows well
for us and we have been keeping our own seed for years. Mind you, we are
near Chertsey which is why we tried it in the first place. :-)
Not fly resistant though so a 2ft tall barrier around the crop is essential.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

In article ,
"Bob Hobden" writes:
|
| Give the old "Chertsey" or "Long Red Surrey Carrot" a try Nick, grows well
| for us and we have been keeping our own seed for years. Mind you, we are
| near Chertsey which is why we tried it in the first place. :-)
| Not fly resistant though so a 2ft tall barrier around the crop is essential.

Thanks. Normally, I find that the ones I grow are fine, but it was a
BAD year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote
"Bob Hobden" writes:
|
| Give the old "Chertsey" or "Long Red Surrey Carrot" a try Nick, grows
well
| for us and we have been keeping our own seed for years. Mind you, we
are
| near Chertsey which is why we tried it in the first place. :-)
| Not fly resistant though so a 2ft tall barrier around the crop is
essential.

Thanks. Normally, I find that the ones I grow are fine, but it was a
BAD year.

Not for us it wasn't, same as usual, almost 100% germination and a good
crop.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

In article , Bob Hobden
writes

"Gary Woods" wrote after...
Janet Tweedy wrote:

Never matches the blinking pictures!

Just got my Fedco seed catalog (Co-op in U.S.), and the cover has a gent
eagerly reading the catalog with the caption "Publishing fiction for 20
years."

That sounds like a British sense of humour. :-)
and an honest Company.


Cotswold garden flowers and Bob Brown have the same type of catalogue
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes


Spanish Black bolted faster than a CD-ROM of personal data from a
government department. We got one meal's worth from three sowings.

Kinbi (supposed to be well flavoured) tasted of almost nothing, and
didn't root up at all well.

Both did seem to be a bit more fly-resistant than the 'fly-resistant'
one, but there wasn't enough of either to be certain.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


I tried "broad yellow ripple currant" tomatoes one year from Garden
organic or whatever they were calling themselves. They were lawful.
really titchy and tasted unripe. Difficult to grow as they were spindly
as well. Also "vale of tears" beans supposedly taken by the Indians when
they were marched off their lands to those awful reservations. I can see
why they didn't want to go if they only had those beans for company.
Grew to about 6 inches, fell over and withered.................


Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article ,
Janet Tweedy writes:
|
| I tried "broad yellow ripple currant" tomatoes one year from Garden
| organic or whatever they were calling themselves. They were lawful.

Which laws do your normal tomatoes break? :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.