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Too many seeds!

79
7 years ago
in#gardening

I have way too many seeds!

My 'seed management' has been very lax over the past few (10?) years.

Rather than being organised and planned I have bought on impulse and fancy.

I have overbought, underused, got inappropriate seeds, and let many of them get too old.

This year I am trying to be organised.

I have divided all the seeds in to four boxes :

Roots - beetroot, carrots, onions, parsnip, swede, turnip...

Leaf vegetables - broccoli, brussels, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, salad leaves...

Legumes - broad beans, dwarf beans, runner beans, peas...

Everything else - herbs, flowers, cucumbers, squash, tomotoes, fruit, exotics...

This year I am going to sow all these seeds to make a clean start next year.

Some are very old (even 10+ years) and probably won't germinate, but I think it was @bobydimitrov who gave me the tip of soaking old seeds in warm water prior to sowing. I will try that.

I may of course end up with too many plants but I have a lot of space. I have the polytunnel, two greenhouses and several new raised beds that I didn't have last year.

Any plants I can't fit in I will give away to friends.

I have made a start with the tomatoes. Two packets (one old, one new) have been sown in the past few days.

Going forward my grand plan is to save as much of my own seed as possible. I began last year with peas.

To this end I will eliminate any F1 hybrids in future seed purchases.

I will also be concentrating any seed purchases I do make primarily on :

  1. The Real Seed Catalogue in Wales

  2. Seedaholic in Ireland

Both these companies offer excellent personal service with high quality, often organic, seed.

By the end of this year I am hoping to have my seed stocks under control and up to date.

Aside from seeds for regular use I have wondered about getting in stock some of the Heirloom Survival Seeds packs that are popular with preppers in the US. These packs appear to be common in the US but rare and very expensive in the UK.

I guess I could just make my own...

You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

[ photos by pennsif ]

gardeninghomesteadingpreppingfoodselfsufficiency
7 years ago
pennsif79
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