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

~ Seed for HERBS ~

Herbs can be some of the most rewarding plants to grow, with even a few plants providing flavouring for many different meals, as well as filling the garden with scent and colour. Many of the herbs we offer can be grown very successfully in containers if you have limited garden space or want to cheer up a patio or balcony.

~ (i) BASILS ~

Finissimo Basil
The smallest-leaved basil there is. Finissimo forms a neat round bush which is ideal for growing in a pot. The leaves are tiny (1/2 cm), but have a lovely strong basil scent and flavour. One of Kate's favourites - perfect for growing on a windowsill so that it's always to hand when you're cooking.

Tiny, strong-scented bushes.

Order HeFB - 400 seed £1.69

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Mammoth Basil
We had to put these two together! This is the largest-leaved basil we could find. Relatively compact (30cm) plants, but they have large 'lettuce'-type leaves. An excellent sweet basil flavour for salads and other dishes. We like it in tomato sandwiches as each leaf will cover an entire slice of tomato!

Note: several people have pointed out that this has a slightly more aniseed-tinted flavour than other basils. We like it! But we also now have a different sweet basil as well - see below.

Green, huge leaves.

Order HeMB - 400 seed £1.69

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Sweet Genovese Basil
This is a medium-sized sweet basil from Genoa - which we have added for those of you who requested a traditional pesto variety.

Green, medium-sized leaves.

Order HeGB - 400 seed £1.69

~ (ii) OTHER HERBS ~

Give outdoor parsley some protection with a cloche or sow a late crop in a polytunnel for fresh leaves right through the winter.
Coriander can also be sown undercover in late summer for harvesting in autumn & winter.

'Frise Vert Fonce' Parsley
A nice tightly curled green parsley from France, bred to have good long stalks that hold the leaves clear of the soil, so less mud to wash off when it rains. Germinates and grows easily in a pot or in the ground.

Good strong parsley taste - try an unusual 'pesto' made by blending lots of this parsley, cashew nuts or almonds, garlic, olive oil and a splash of vinegar plus a little warm water if needed to help it blend. Delicious!

An essential herb for the kitchen . Tightly curled.

Order HeFV - 2g (lots of seed!) £1.48

'Gigante di Napoli' Parsley
A large flat-leaved parsley from Naples, ideal for cooked dishes and for those of you who prefer this type. Really huge dark green leaves & a good flavour.

Order HeGN - 2g (lots of seed!) £1.48

Coriander - leaf selection (Coriandrum sativum)
If you want to grow coriander for the fresh leaves (rather than for seed), it is important to grow a variety selected for this purpose. This selection is slow to bolt and produces nice bushy plants. Keep well watered and pick very frequently to maximise production.

Grows well outdoors from late spring through into summer. Extend the season by sowing under fleece or (ideally) in a polytunnel in early spring or in autumn and you can have fresh coriander almost all year round.

Slow to bolt, for fresh leaves

Order HeLC - 120 seed £1.86

Chinese Chives (a.k.a. Garlic Chives)
Chinese chives are an easily grown herb, very useful in the kitchen. Their clumps of distinctive flat leaves have rounded tips and a mild garlic flavour, hence their other common name of Garlic Chives.

We particularly like them snipped into an omelette. They actually make an underground rhizome and come back year after year, so once you have a clump established you have them forever.

Order OnCC - (lots of seeds) £1.68

'Quillquiña' (Porophyllum ruderale)
With a citrus spicy scent and flavour, this is used in South America to make delicious salsa, & can also be used anywhere you would use fresh coriander. The plants have pointy leaves with an attractive blue-green colour & grow eventually to around waist high. Particularly good with bean dishes and potato cakes.

3' Tall. Spicy-citrus flavour.

Order HeQU - 40 seed [OG2] £1.50 - Seed kindly grown for us by Anne Bartlett

'Papalo' (Porophyllum coloratum)
This quick-growing annual has a nice, intensely spicy-sharp scent, suitable for salsas, or an alternative to coriander.

Bright green plants with pretty round leaves grow 2' to 5' tall, and need a warm sunny spot. Ben's favourite, makes fantastic refried beans and chillies.

2' Tall. Nice savoury flavour.

Order HePA - 40 seed [OG2] £1.34

'Green Perilla'
Perilla (also known as Shiso) is an easily grown, handsome annual herb similar to Basil but without such a high heat requirement.

This strain is a particularly bright and vivid lime green with a strong fruity flavour and an almost cinnamon-like aroma.

Used as a garnish in meat dishes, or wrapped around sushi in Japan, but equally good used in UK cooking. Perilla can also be used in sweet dishes like fruit salad.

Order HeGP - 1g (lots of seeds) £0.99

Saving Herb Seed:

It is different for each herb, but in general with the herbs, you get a lot of seed for not too much effort.

You need to grow only 1 variety to avoid crossing, and let it flower.

Usually you rub or stomp out the seed (the rubber mat from your car is ideal for this!), and then pass it through a sieve to get rid of the big bits of stalk etc.

The pictures show basil seed being done by Ben.
Basil seed is easy because although it looks as it will fall out when ripe,
it doesn't, so you can leave it to get really brown and dry without worry.