VEGETABLE SEEDS Aubergines Beans - French Beans - Runner Beetroot Broad Beans Broccoli & Rapini Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Carrots Celery Chilli Peppers Courgettes & Summer Squash Cucumbers, Gherkins & suchlike things Fennel Flowers Grains Herbs Kale Kohl Rabi Leaf Greens for Cooking Leeks Lettuces Melons & Watermelons Mustard Greens ( for cooking) Onions - spring sowing Onions - overwintering Onions - special types Oriental Greens for cooking & salads Parsnips Peas Pumpkins & Winter Squash Radishes (salad, & cooking types) Root Parsley NEW Salad Vegetables Sweet Corn Swedes Sweet Peppers Tomatoes : Bush Types Tomatoes : Vines - Cherries Tomatoes : Vines - Larger Tomatoes : Bulgarian Tomatoes : New Centiflor types Tomatilloes & Groundcherries Turnips Unusual Tubers: Oca & Yacon

Chard, and All Sorts of Other Greens for Cooking:

It's worth scrolling down, as there are all sorts of other interesting greens listed here, as well as the Chard.
Once you've tried all these, don't forget the Kale, Oriental Greens,
and Mustard Greens (which have their own pages) too.

~ CHARD Seed ~
(also called LEAF BEET, SPINACH BEET & PERPETUAL SPINACH)

We are very fond of Chard, it provides a great cooked green for nearly all of the year, easier than spinach.
One of our 'must have' crops, such a good return from even a little space.

When to sow chard? Two sowings: First sow in spring for crops through summer and autumn.
Or alternatively, sow after midsummer, for the heaviest production over winter and through to the following spring.

Leaf Beet (aka 'Perpetual Spinach')

This variety of chard is bred to have minimal stem (and maximum leaf) for picking and cooking like spinach. It responds particularly well to repeated cutting and is one of the easiest and most productive vegetables for a a small space. A sowing in late spring can provide greens for almost a whole year, until the plants bolt the following spring.

We are always astounded when we meet gardeners who haven't tried leaf beet or chard. You rarely see it in the shops because it ideally needs to be picked soon before eating, but it is such an easy and prolific crop in the garden, and so tasty too.

Light green leaves , minimal stem

Order ChLB - 300 seed £1.62

Sibilla Chard
A larger chard with dark green leaves and wide white stems.

A fast growing and productive plant with tender but slightly more substantial leaves that reduce less on cooking than other similar greens. Very good value, cropping over a long period.

Great in soups too! Dark green, medium white stem

Order ChSi - 300 seed £1.47

Golden Chard New
A fantastic new chard bred specially for home gardeners.

We liked it in our trials because it has really strong colouring on its stems, as well as a good texture and flavour.

The leaves are a nice deep green, and it is very vigorous, making lots of leaves. The deep gold stalks even keep their colour well after cooking.

Very beautiful, as well as tasty. Limited seed each year, just a few hundred packets.

Order ChGo - 120 seed [CO1] £2.27

~ TURNIP GREENS ~

'Turnip Greens (also known as 'Rapa Senza Testa' )

This is a good quick growing alternative to Chard or Kale. Ready about 4 weeks from sowing, it makes mild green leaves that have a wonderfully buttery flavour when cooked, and are also nice and mild if used raw in salads.

Unlike chard it doesn’t take up space for months on end, so you can just throw in a quick row here & there as a catch crop.

Turnip Greens are a really good green from central Europe. It's been bred from the turnip family, instead of the cabbage family that our better-known Kale comes from.

Great quick green - give it a go, we think you'll like it! Not ‘turnip-flavoured’ - just a wonderful green on its own.

Order BrTG - 1.5g seed £1.48

When to sow? It bolts in the heat, so either sow very early for spring greens, or sow after midsummer for a maincrop harvest in late summer / early autumn.

'Belleville' Leaf Sorrel
We are always surprised how few people grow sorrel, and we would encourage you to try this rather fine vegetable. Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good sharp lemon flavour - great in salads, as a lettuce substitute in sandwiches (doesn't go limp) and also very good cooked in soups and sauces.

One of the earliest green crops to start in spring and perennial - once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it. Hardy, early salad. Lemony!

Hardy, early salad or cooking leaf green, very easy to grow.

Order SoBE - 1.5g (lots of seed) £1.86

Huauzontle (Aztec Broccoli )

This amazing plant grows large bushes (4 ft tall) with delicious edible leaves. However the best bits are the hundreds & hundreds of flower shoots which you gather just before they show their tiny yellow petals.

Easily picked, just take the top 3 inches of each flower stem (which will have both leaves and flowers) and boil or steam them. They are simple to cook and really nice.

It is hard to explain, but as well as the flavour, what is quite special about this plant is the texture of the cooked huazontles.

The best way to put it is that they don't go mushy the way that most greens do when cooked - this is one of the very few greens that keep a great texture when cooked, with a very slight crunch to them. They're not in any way chewy - but they just don't go completely soft the way that for example spinach does.

Because of this, as well as just eating as a green, they are a really great thing to mix in with rice, potato cakes, couscous or stir-fries, as an easy way to make a very simple and plain dish seem really special.

If you're a particularly keen cook, search on the internet for 'Huauzontles' for lots of Mexican recipes for fritters and more! But they're great just cooked simply and quickly as a side dish too.

Leaves go red as nights cool.

Order LGHu - approx 200 seed [OG1] £1.54

~ SPINACH Seed ~

Whatever happened to the spinach?
Well, we simply cannot grow enough or find a supply of good enough quality seed,
and rather than send out seed we are dubious about, we would prefer to leave it out.

You need to be able to trust our seed, and we will stand by this, even if it means the odd gap in the catalogue.
Try Leaf Beet as an excellent and more easily grown alternative.

~ ORACH ~

Orach - also known as German Mountain Spinach -
is another vegetable that is rapidly gaining in popularity .

Orach is great. It grows quickly early in the year, supplying mild spinach-shaped leaves with a pleasant flavour and texture.
They are great as a major ingredient in salads, or cooked like any of the other greens here.

Tim's Red Orach

A purple-red orach grown for us by Tim Fieldsend, this looks great in the garden and on the table.

The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer. Plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young.

Deep Purple-red.

Order SaTi - lots of seed [OG2] £1.75

This is a bright and lively mix of two orachs - the Green Velvet and the new Golden Orach. Both are from salad breeder Frank Morton.

Orach is really great in salads, and also nice as a cooked green, too.

The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer.

Glowing green and gold leaves, with a good flavour. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots.

Order SaGG - about 180 seed [CO1] £1.75