"Garden Seeds"

<

Most of the regular garden seeds we buy these days are hybrids, which basically means they won't reproduce.

In fact nearly all fruits from hybrid seeds WILL reproduce, but not as efficiently as the first time round!

Collect a few seeds from your cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, and any other garden vegetables or fruits. Dry them carefully and store in an airtight container. Make sure they are totally dried before you seal them, or your seeds will grow mould and disintegrate before you even open your seed pots in the spring.

Label them carefully. Here is a perfect example of what happens when you don't label carefully....

I collected many different seeds from the garden one year, stored them well, and planted them out in good faith the following spring.

I planted the 'courgette' ( zuchini ) seeds in the greenhouse as it was a little early in the year. With the warm wet spring weather, the greenhouse soon resembled a jungle. 'Going to be a bumper courgette crop this year' I commented smugly to my long-suffering gardening partner.

After planting out, strange things started to happen. The courgette fruits grew but changed shape and colour as they did so.

Uh Oh....so much for my free crop of courgettes from my very own garden seeds. Here's the resulting harvest!

Oh well, the gourds, or whatever they were, made great halloween gifts and stunning displays in the house throughout winter. Totally inedible though!

So if you collect your own seed, make sure you label them carefully when dried.

Keep them in a container that is mouse resistant. Mice love seeds - don't put anything past them. They get hungry during the winter months and a generous supply of fresh garden seed in your shed will be very tempting!

Before you can start collecting your seed, you have to grow the plants. Which came first, I wonder? :-)

There is a huge supply of seeds you can buy directly online here. Thompson & Morgan are GLOBAL suppliers!

Thompson and Morgan UK
Thompson and Morgan US
Garden Seeds at Thompson and Morgan Worldwide

Prepare your soil well before planting any garden seeds. You need a fine tilth if planting directly into the ground. Otherwise choose a good seed or potting compost to start your seeds in trays or pots.

Read the instructions on your seed packets:

Every variety of every garden vegetable or flower will have its own special needs.

Full sun, part sun, shade etc;

spacing between plants

Some garden seeds will need to be started off in trays, then potted on before planting into the garden.

The instructions on your seed packets will give you further advice on growing your seeds;

watering,
potting on,
planting out,
thinning young plants,
and even when to harvest.

Read the instructions on each packet -garden seeds vary greatly, vegetable to vegetable, flower to flower.

Keep your seeds in a container and sort them into 'planting months' For example, place all seeds to be planted in March before those that want planting in May.

It's also not a bad idea to keep seeds that need planting inside in a separate box/container than those seeds that are planted directly outside.

A little organising here will really help when you start sowing.

Lots of salad vegetables can be planted every couple of weeks. This gives you a constant supply of fresh salad throughout the growing season. Plant a very short line at a time. You'll be surprised at how many lettuces need planting out from a 30cm ( 12 inch ) line of seed!

Happy Gardening!

More "Garden Seed" Reading

Back To Garden Vegetables

Back to Flower and Garden Tips Homepage

Click Here To Subscribe to "Creative Gardening" - our FREE monthly ezine!