Any arbtalking veg growers in da house?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I have recently gotten back into growing my own, and this time I'm doing it not just for food but for biodiversity and seed conservation of old or obscure varieties that are being lost due to stupid legislation, poor farming practice and a general uniformity drive by supermarket chains.

 

Just wondering if any of you lads or lasses do much growing yourselves either for food or pleasure, what you grow, what origin your seed came from, do you have an old family variety grown from seed for generations for example? or do you buy F1 hybrids from the local garden centre?

 

There is something very earhty and satisfying raising food crops from seed, and i cant wait to actualy see this through to harvesting seed for myself. That has many advantages, as strains can be adapted through time to the location.

 

Im reading an absolutely marvelous book at the moment called "Back garden seed saving" by Sue stickland and can thoroughly recomend it to anyone interested in the subject. Some great history in it and great stories of the seed saving project that saw many elderly folk sending in breeds of unkown crops that had been grow fo 180 years in some cases.

 

I have fond memories as a child growing my first plants, and when actively gardening can never rsist the urge to plant some sunflowers, happiest plant on earth!

 

not trees, not big saws or guns im afraid, so expecting this one to die rapidly but you never know.

[NI Tree]

i need to plow the veg garden when i get home from uni

[NI Tree]

but do grow odd ball things

[slack ma girdle]

Yeah baby yeah, just ordered this years seeds from the organic garden catalogue.

Just need the ground to dry out.

[WorcsWuss]

I start with good intentions but our erratic watering programme generally sees my attempts wither very quickly.... THIS YEAR it will be different!

Oh, and mostly just packets but some stuff is foraged.....

[rooster74]

This will be my third season growing my own veg nothing hardcore just things like runner beans peas beetroot onions carrots I do it more for kids try and get them interested in it

[s.varty]

I grow a lot of my veg, you just cannot beat the flavour.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

This will be my third season growing my own veg nothing hardcore just things like runner beans peas beetroot onions carrots I do it more for kids try and get them interested in it

 

 

and that is to be highly commended

 

glad to see theres a few out there, I shall keep this updated regular with photos as the project named "off grid sububan!" gets going:laugh1:

 

so a new season, about to begin, share your stories wins and losses, and especially epic failures! and defo get the kids involved, get them some sunflower seed, got me hooked from day one.

 

In fact I will give away a family day out ticket to the park of your kids choosing (U.K obviously!) for the most headed sunflower of the season:thumbup1: and no cheating or helping!

[Le Sanglier]

It's the wife who does the veg, me, the flowers. except for the asparagus, she cannot be trusted with those!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

It's the wife who does the veg, me, the flowers. except for the asparagus, she cannot be trusted with those!

 

asparagus is my fave:thumbup1: