Welcome to
the NEW 2024 vegetable seed CATALOGUE
Last days for Christmas Post: Dec 17th Normal Post / Dec 19th Tracked Post
Welcome! Our heirloom and heritage vegetable seeds are specially chosen for home gardeners.
Over the past 25 years we've collected the very best varieties for you to grow.
ABOUT OUR CATALOGUE
You'll find no F1 hybrids or genetically modified seed here - just varieties that do really well and taste great when grown on a garden scale - a catalogue of real seeds for real gardeners wanting to grow proper vegetables.
Because all are open-pollinated (non-hybrid), if you wish you can even save your own vegetable seed
for future years, using the instructions we supply. There's no need to buy new seed every year.
Wondering what to sow now? Check out our monthly sowing guide
If you're new to veg growing you might also like our hints for beginners and also our germination tips page & seedling gallery
There are sowing calendars on each page - dark green squares show the main sowing times for each crop.
Lighter green are extensions/options.
For more detailed sowing plans throughout the year, we have a month-by-month guide.
See the latest news from the field on our Facebook or Instagram pages.
How We Are Different
We don't just sell seed; we're gardeners and also grow these veg for our own use at home,
so we really know how they grow & how they taste.
We only offer what we think is really good,
rather than listing lots of different varieties just for the sake of it.
Every vegetable here has been chosen - from hundreds of trials - for a particular reason, which we try to explain in the description.
We do our own website - so it has been written by gardeners, for gardeners.
It should be easy to see what each vegetable does, how it grows, and when to sow it.
We really do hope you enjoy these vegetables as much as we have enjoyed tracking them down and trying them out.
Each and every one has been chosen for its merit in the kitchen as well as the garden.
Our aim is to offer you the very best seed of the best vegetable varieties we can find!
- best wishes for a great season from Ben, Kate, Catherine, Tam, Ian, Josie & Melissa
To reduce plastic waste, we supply most of our seed in paper envelopes,
and small runs are packed by hand using beautiful brass scoops we made ourselves:
But to pack larger numbers of paper envelopes we have purchased two of the last existing Ballard-Brown seed packing machines.
Weighing 1000lb in cast iron and brass, and built a hundred and twenty years ago, these amazing devices have been in constant use ever since.
Designed by Henry Cummings in 1884 , it picks up and opens the paper packet, put in an accurately measured scoop of seed,
glues the flap, folds it over and stacks them neatly in a wooden tray.
Originally steam powered, ours are now run by an electric motor, & here's a video of one in action!
We designed beautiful new seed packets to go with it, inspired by the Art Nouveau posters of Mucha,
& have had the correct 1880s-pattern envelopes manufactured for us by a company in Wales.
