Buying Vegetable Seeds
You have made the first step to semi self sufficiency and dug an area at the bottom of your garden to grow your own.
This will bring you hours of theraputic pleasure and a few nightmares as well with the continuing fight against cats, birds, insects and slugs.
But there’s nothing like it; out the earth and into the saucepan or freezer for winter food and fond memories.
Maybe it’s 30feet x 10 feet, sounds about right. You pop down the Garden Centre (always a joy, see the Garden Centre post) or into the Supermarket and choose the seeds.
You’ve decided on five most common outside vegetables and puchase the packets spending around £8, or £3 if you look around.
Getting home, you read the back for instructions and happen by chance to read the average contents as well…
Carrots - 1,100 seeds
Cabbage - 600 seeds
Brocolli - 500 seeds
Courgettes - 30 seeds
Runner Beans - 25 seeds
Blimey, they’ve got a sell-by date of this autumn!!
So are you, your partner and two kids ready to eat 3 carrots, 1.6 cabbages, about 1 courgette with side servings of runner beans and Brocolli EVERY DAY for a year? That’s some going and don’t forget you’re alternating the fruits of the 400 tomato plants you’ve had growing in the Porch as well!
There are various ways of looking at this problem (beside the profits made by the producers).
1. Seed swapping is quite popular nowadays.
2. Don’t take too much notice of the use by date, us hardened veggie frugal types (cheapskates) will tell you that we’ve used seeds from the same packet for 5 years. You sow them, if they don’t come up, buy a new packet.
3. Forget about the small plot down the end of your garden and buy a Farm.
I don’t have a huge veggie plot, but I grow more than 200 Onions, 20 odd Tomato Plants, Cucumbers, Courgettes etc., simply to make Chutney’s and Relish.
I did try the ultimate and grow some of my Grandfathers Tomato seeds dated 1946 - but alas, that came to nothing. I thought I may get a slot on local television with that one!
The other solution of course is and I’ve done it in my tainted past, is to take a few seeds and chuck them in the borders of a local Park. The Nasturtions can look quite attractive next to Carrots and the occasional Squash plant.
I wonder what the Producers answer would be if you asked why they sold you so many. At least it’s cheap, £1 for 3.6 carrots a day for a year can’t be bad!
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So you’ve got a secret camera somewhere near me???
Only recently discovered your site, and only since the new year have I discovered that I LOVE gardening when I got the allotment. Growing EVERYTHING down on the plot - and yes, I currently have 2 trays of tomato seeds that have sprouted beautifully, but there are enough little seedlings in there to grow into enough to feed my whole street (lesson - 1 whole packet of seeds is too much for one seed tray). And the same with all the others already in ‘the plot’, and the geraniums on the bathroom windowsill, and on and on…
I think my next lesson may be ‘thinning’??
Keep this up - I am learning loads from reading this when I should be looking at boring spreadsheets and figures at work - after a long weekend at Easter I couldn’t wait to get out in my boots again after work on Tuesday. Have started to think about a bit of downshifting - have a mini trial in the summer with 6 weeks off. Beginning to count the days.
You’re fab!
Nicky x
Your story above had me giggling out loud (cats now think I’m even more barmy) but I figure this whole thing is a learning curve, and what better way to learn than by my mistakes!