Stockpiling Seeds

Brain and I are a bit tired at the moment, so I don’t really feel like writing up my Home Front garden plan, but there is one. Well, there’s a list of crops we want to eat (and hence grow) next year, which is the start of a plan. It’s enough to get me to an active stage of planning – stocking up on seeds ahead of any big Brexit-related rush.

Normally I try very hard not to buy a lot of seeds. I have been a bit of a seed addict over the years, and I always have a seed box full of the things (often weird and wonderful varieties). The problem with that is that some of them never get in the ground. By the the time the growing season comes round, I’ve changed my mind about what to grow, or it won’t all fit. So I try and be restrained when I’m buying seeds. Seed companies don’t help, of course, when they have minimum order values, or they nudge you to buy just one or two more packets so that you get free postage….

Wyevale sent me a “£5 off this weekend” voucher a couple of weeks ago, which I used to good effect and bought some things which are in short supply in my stash – autumn-sowing broad beans, leeks, beetroot and some borlotti beans. I also want to grow caraway at some point (although whether it finds a space in the 2019 garden is doubtful), so that rounded out my purchases. I think I ended up paying 50p.

I wanted to return to growing my favourite courgette/summer squash next year – ‘Rugosa friulana’ – which is only available from Seeds of Italy. So I put in an order with them, and included sweetcorn and peas, and also a packet of fenugreek, which I want to grow because we’re doing more Indian cooking, and fresh leaves are hard to come by. I’ve ordered my seed garlic at the same time, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

A few days