VEGETABLE SEEDS Aubergines Beans - French Beans - Runner Beetroot Broad Beans Broccoli & Rapini Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Carrots Celery, & Celeriac 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 Salad Vegetables Sweet Corn Swedes Sweet Peppers Tomatoes : Bush Types Tomatoes : Vines - Cherries Tomatoes : Vines - Larger Tomatoes : New Centiflor types Tomatilloes & Groundcherries Turnips Unusual Tubers: Oca & Yacon

~ MELON Seed ~

Deseeding melons has to be one of the best jobs for us. Why? Well, because you get lots and lots of melon to eat!
We are always searching for the ultimate early melon for the UK climate, and we think we are doing really well
now with the collection that we have here.

'Collective Farm Woman' Melon
This old Ukrainian variety is not only nice and early, but has sweet, crunchy flesh. Each vine produces several melons just the right size for two (greedy) people to eat. Said to be grown in central Russia and even to ripen in Moscow - we can believe it. Most unusually, it keeps for several weeks after picking.

It has always been very reliable in the UK, and popular with you all, so when in 2010  it was dropped by the Seedsavers Exchange, we took it on.  This years’ seed crop grown for us by Melissa Stephens in Wales.

Fantastic Ukrainian melon. Note: just a few packets available this year due to the wetness of last summer - we did still get lots of melons, but they didn't have many seeds in them!

Order MeCF - 10 seed £2.95

Minnesota Midget
First seen in 1948, this fantastic variety was bred for short summers - it swaps size for earliness - but without any sacrifice of sweetness or flavour. Compact vines grow about 4' and quickly set several small (cricketball-sized) melons with sweet orange flesh, edible right to the rind.

The scent and flavour are incredible. Ripe melons can be located in the garden by smell alone! Fusarium-resistant, and the female flowers are formed even while it is young, thus outperforming many other varieties.

Very, very early melon. It's going to be hard to improve on this one.

Order MeMM - 10 seed £2.28

Prescott Fond Blanc

This is a unique French variety from the early 1800s. It is a most colourful melon, with a gently ribbed surface and beautifully variegated and marbled skin.

It has been well maintained over the years and is still 'exceedingly fine flavoured and melting', with an exquisite fragrance.

Like all rock melons, it does not come off the vine when ripe, but you can tell when it's ready by the sweet scent, from a distance of several feet!

Beautiful, multi-coloured rock melon

Order MePF - 14 seed £1.85

Eden's Gem NEW!
This is an heirloom early melon that was bred in 1905, which we have chosen for its excellent flavour when ripe.

The melons are fairly small (about 1 lb) so that they ripen early, and are slightly ribbed with a netted skin. The succulent flesh is bright green and very juicy when ripe.

Warning, sniffing the fruit may cause involuntary drooling. . .

Order MeEd- 14 seed £1.89

Sweet Granite NEW!
A specially early, medium sized melon (about 1 to 2 lb) bred for home gardeners in shorter-season areas. The fruit are oval, with orange flesh, and a slight netting on the skin.

This melon was bred by the late Professor Elwyn Meader who dedicated much of his life to breeding really tasty varieties for home gardeners in places with shorter or cooler summers, so many of his varieties do really well in the UK. We have several of his other creations (such as Sweet Chocolate Pepper) in our seedbank and they always rank highest in our taste trials.

Medium melon for short seasons.

Order MeSW- 14 seed £1.89

Petit Gris de Rennes NOW BACK IN STOCK!

This 400-year old variety , originally from the garden of the Bishop of Rennes, was originally sent to us by melon enthusiast Frank Keirsblick of Belgium. We were discussing early melons and he said:

" . . . and I think this is the best outdoors melon, together with De Belegarde. Not as early as Minnesota Midget but very tasty. Watch the watering though as they can split just before harvest. It is even better of course in a greenhouse - more productive. . ."

This view is shared by Amy Goldman (author of "Melons for the Passionate Grower"), who writes "this is the champagne of melons . ..you'll blink in disbelief when you taste its sweetness . . . it inspires devotion".

The melons are round, and smooth-skinned with slight ribbing, and very sweet, with a really good flavour and texture.

Serve as it comes off the plant, or try it chilled with slivers of ham.

Early melon with low heat requirement. Can try it outdoors in warm areas, but best in a greenhouse or polytunnel. Particularly good flavour.

Order MePG - 14 seed £2.32

~ WATERMELON Seed ~

'Blacktail Mountain' Very Early Watermelon
If you've had no luck with watermelons in the past, here's your chance to try again with a better strain. This is a very, very early variety.

'Blacktail Mountain' was developed by plant breeder Glenn Drowns of Iowa when he was a teenager in 1977, and time after time it beats all the other early watermelons in trials - it is widely acknowledged as one of the earliest varieties available.

It has nice sweet red flesh, and is the best we have found to try in a polytunnel or greenhouse in the UK.

Very early small red fleshed fruit.

Order WMBM - 10 seed £1.99