The Saga of the Seeds.

OK, it’s late December, time to plan the garden for the coming year. I’m new to this lark, so I needed some guidance. Happily I was the grateful recipient of the River Cottage Veg Patch guide a few months ago. So according to its advice I wrote out my veggie ‘wish list’. My ambition was to cultivate a total of thirty different vegetables. Reading on in the guide it suggested different varieties to grow to get the best of flavour and the longest season for each veg. So, on to the internet. Where are all these varieties available from and how much are they going to cost me? After a little surfing I alight on the garden organic website, lovely! They have almost all the seeds I want and their principles on maters organic align with mine.

The next morning in back to the Garden organic website, in the shop, busily selecting which seeds I want to buy. I’m attracted to the offer of two months free membership. On the click of a mouse button I’m into the application form and after a few more keystrokes I’ve paid £28 for a year’s membership of this, very worthy, organisation.

At some point in the morning, an epiphany takes place. Hang on, most of the seeds I’ve looked at are about £1.50 a packet and a good few of the more unusual verieties at well over £2. So taking an average price of say £1.50, 30 veg, two verieties of eact, 60 packs of seeds will cost about £90. Add two that the £28 for membership but take off the 10% discount that membership gives me and I’ve spent £108 and that’s without onion sets and seed potatoes. This is getting out of hand time for a re-think.

Isn’t the point of an allotment to produce good food, but economically? Secondly, as a first year allotmenteer are 60 varieties of veg a bit ambitious? Yes and yes are the answers to those two little posers. So with that in mind it’s off to Wilkinson’s to see what they have to offer.

In Wilkinson’s the veg seed are variously priced, but the overriding offer is 3 packs for £1.50 or 3 packs for £2.50 depending of the seed. So I go to work trying to remember what’s on my wish list and the varieties I had selected from the guide. I ended up with 24 pack of seeds for about £14.

So, what s the lesson in all this. It would be nice to grow all that we desire, it would be great to grow all manner of unusual varieties for flavour and season, it would be great source all the seeds sets and plants from an organisation that is furthering the cause of organic food production. BUT, I need to have clear objectives in what I’m trying to achieve. I’m making an effort. I’ll produce organic home grown veg, and I’ll do it in a way that supports the family income rather than put it under further pressure.

First posted on the River cottage website on 01/01/2010