Topic: Buying seeds, Garden centre or online ?

[trogg]

 I've yet to start growing anything because I haven't got at allotment,
but I've noticed on here that a few people grow veg in planters, buckets etc , so I thought I'd try doing the same.

My Question is, Should I be buying my seeds on-line or down the local garden centre ?
I bought a few seeds from my local allotments but they didn't have much choice and having looked at a couple of seed web sites I have found not only choice but also loads of information.
 Where do you get your seeds from ?

 :)

[DaveR]

I got all mine from the garden centre because I'm a newbie and wanted to make sure I could read the packets before I bought them! I may try buying online next year because there is a bigger selection of interesting stuff, and I'm a bit more confident!

[ceres]

For basic reliable varieties Wilkinsons, Lidl, Aldi, Pound/99p Stores etc.  For exotica, online, where depends what you're looking for.

[Bjerreby]

I'm not sure there is a lot of difference really. You can get duff seeds from anywhere.

I live in Denmark, and could get seeds locally, but I buy from Thompson and Morgan because of the variety they offer. This year, from T&M

-   Jubilee Hysor broad beans.....excellent result
-   White Gem parsnips, ditto
-   Chartwell lettuce, ditto (in fact an extraordinary fine result)
-   Onward and Hurst Green Shaft peas, ditto
-   Alto F1 beetroot, ditto
-   Bedfordshire Champion onions and banana shallots, ditto
-   3 kinds of leeks, ditto

but

-   aquadulce claudia broad beans, disaster
-   Early Nantes carrots, ditto
-   salad bowl lettuce, ditto


and

Medania spinach, germination rate only about 15%

I'd say just go for it. Hey..........start off with French breakfast radishes. You'll be eating them in 4 weeks time! You can also have Chartwell lettuce in 8 weeks from now, if you keep the seeds cool after sowing them and give them some midday shade. Don't pull the plants up, pluck the Chartwell leaves off and leave the plants to grow on.

Good luck with it.

[PurpleHeather]

I have a bee in my bonnet about seed prices. There are lots of shops like Netto Lidle and Aldi who have perfectly decent seeds for sale for pennies a packet and then there are big named seed companies who supply to small garden centre where the packets cost pounds. Fine if you are going to try for unusual varieties but for new growers the bog standard established varieties are hardier so here cheapest is actually best.

Even cheaper are the seeds you can take yourself from loads of fruit bought in shops. Peppers, chilli, Butternut squash, I have some growing at the moment and over the years I have shared plants with other people and we have all had a good harvest from them. You can take the seeds from fresh salad tomatoes and grow them into plants but they could be hybrids and may not reproduce, but give it a try.

Peas can be grown from those packs of dried seeds you soak to make mushy peas or pea soup.

Corriander from the seeds sold for cooking.

Mung beans can be grown on a window sill to give you 'bean shoots'. on a thick wad of kitchen paper kept moist. In a few days.

Every gardener out there will tell you that they have failures so don't expect to get it right straight away.

Since a lot of plants need to be started off earlier in the year, the sort of things you will get to grow now are 'mixed salad leaves' a cut and grow again mix often with vermiculite added so that you can spread them over a container of damp compost and cover with about a quarter of an inch or dry compost will give not only a pretty container of reds and greens of lettuce but also something to eat.

Packet seeds carefully re-sealed and kept in a draw at home can last a couple of years, so there is no need to grow them all in one year.

If you have a bucket, put holes in the bottom for drainage and then put 4 inches of soil/grow bag/compost, what ever is available in it and add one potato which is 'sprouting'. cover with 4-6 inches of more soil and when the green bits come through keep adding more soil, leaving the tops of the leaves showing each time until the bucket is full of soil. Try not to over water. In about 12 weeks you should get enough potatoes for a meal.

Pips and stones from your fruit , can be put in pots of compost, filling up window sills for many weeks before a little baby pops through some times but the feeling of joy when it does, is worth it.

It is a learning process. If nothing else.

Write on pots what you have planted and the date. Just use a felt tip pen for indoors, but check that the sun does not bleach out what you have written.

Asda have bags of their own brand compost at a pound. Grow bags cost less than £1.50 in most shops. and you do not even have to go to a great deal of expense on containers. Used plastic food containers with a hole in the bottom for drainage. I have seen people grow spuds in old paint cans and tile cement buckets in winter with bubble wrap tied around them.  The problem is appearance if you are doing it at home but even so, pretty containers are fairly reasonably priced and can be cleaned and re-used.

Why not try?

[Digeroo]

I am a seedoholic can't resist buying seeds.  Get them from all sorts.  Lidl great.  Got some from In Store - Carters seeds about 70p a packet go well.  Get a load every year from T&M when they have a sale.  Franchi are good for lettuce and courgettes, get loads in the packets.  Tried Real seeds this year, plants seem to be very strong.  Done some seed swapping that is fun.  Also joined Heritage seed library, their seed seems to grow like it is jet propelled.  Also now save my own seed.  That seems to grow like weeds.  Got some from Marshalls becuase they do Clarita courgette, bit stingey on the numbers of seeds.

Growing carrots in a bucket, due to slug problems in garden, doing well, rather small, but I am impatient.  Keep eating them.  You can grow all sorts in containers.  Have to keep watering/feeding.

Dont always sow all of packet at once.  You will not need a whole row of radish for example, sow a few every few weeks.  Even beans are best sown in batches.  Though if you are like me you cannot find the packet again when you want it.

[1066]

If you are part of an allotment society they often do 1 or 2 seed orders a year, about 50% of the normal price, so a good deal and any profit gets ploughed back into the society. Kings Seeds and the like do allotment deals

1066

[Flighty]

I mostly buy Kings Seeds from the allotment horticultural society, who do them at just over half the shown price, and, because I only want small quantities,  online from More Veg who I've found to be excellent.

http://www.kingsseeds.com/

http://www.moreveg.co.uk/

[manicscousers]

and seed swaps on here  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I buy almost entirely online these days, or get seed via swaps, because local outlets have a limited selection, and I like the less common varieties. I particularly dislike buying flower seed from GC's as it's not fresh, and there are no legal requirements regarding germination rates. they can legally sell dead seed (and do) and get away with it. Kings Seeds are extremely good value for veg, either via Allotment Associations if they do a scheme, or online (http://www.kingsseeds.com/). I recently bought a packet of 300 Alderman peas from them for £1.50 plus postage. Can't do better than that, and there are legal standards for germination with veg seeds.

[littlebabybird]

my names lbb and i'm a seedaholic and i never heard of moreveg.co.uk :( thats gonna cost



to answer the op, i buy mostly on line but if i go to the shop and see seeeds i like, welll um......

lbb  :)

[Digeroo]

One other good place I forgot is Countrywide.  Their seeds are brilliant.  You get 500gms in their packets.  They only do basic varieties.  But for Masterpiece green longpod BBeans they are great. A £3ish packet lasts for years.  Also do runner bean streamline, pea onward, and small selection of others.   Germination excellent aimed at farmers.

Good thing I like broad beans.  Grew loads of bbeans and peas this year to break up the soil, and for a quick result.

Wish they did more.

[trogg]

Wow, what a lot of information.
I'm not completely new to all this, about 35 years ago when I was a kid, I ripped up me mom's flower bed in order to grow some veg. :o
But that consisted of running my finger across the soil, emptying a packet of seeds into it and covering them over, amazing results, 300 lettuces growing in a 3 foot row  ::)   ;D

Going to try something a bit more scientific this time  ;)

Off to Wilkinsons and Lidl tonight after work, see what they've got.

Thanks for taking time to post, I do appreciate it  ;)

[Digeroo]

Oh how frustrating.  Lidl seeds very popular got snapped up month ago.  What do you fancy growing. message me your address I will put some things in the post to get you started.  I have loads of lettuce.

[trogg]

Did manage to get some seeds from Lidl. although not a lot of choice, I got 10 packets for £3.25.

Also went to Wilkinsons (Wilco) loads of choice, and got 18 packets of seeds for £11.30, Bargain  ;D

Think I got carried away  ::) was after something quick and easy to grow in a small area.

Thank you for your offer Digeroo  :) I think the only thing I forgot was cucumber and cabbage  :) if you can think of anything else , let me know.

Going to do some rearranging of the garden on Saturday, see what space I've got  :-\

 

[asbean]

There's a lot more choice in the catalogues or on line than the range they have in the shops.

[1066]

Hi Trogg, after that spending splurge you need to check into here -

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,37712.0.html

 ;D

[Digeroo]

Welcome to seedoholics Trogg.  Watch out it is addictive.