Where to Buy Quality Organic Seeds
Starting your garden with top-notch organic seeds makes all the difference. Not only do these seeds boost your plant’s health, but they also contribute to a more sustainable environment. Choose organic seeds that are free from GM ingredients.
How to Grow Plants for Free shows how to increase your plant stock by propagating them yourself. This book demystifies the art of taking cuttings and offers other ways to multiply your garden plants.
Use no-dig gardening to protect wildlife. Use fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create pet-friendly gardens and wildlife-friendly gardens.
Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Learn the botanical science of propagation and then find practical chapters and plant profiles for the plants suited to each method. You’ll learn how to divide plants, save seeds, take cuttings and increase your collection of houseplants. the final chapters show how to grow new plants from kitchen scraps!
Benefits of Using Organic Seeds
Choosing organic seeds comes with a bundle of benefits. For starters, they’re healthier for you and your family as they’re not exposed to synthetic chemicals.
They also play a vital role in protecting the planet by reducing the reliance on harmful agrochemicals. Plus, they support biodiversity, ensuring that a wide variety of plant species thrive in our gardens.
Where to Buy High-Quality Organic Seeds
Arthouse Unlimited offers packs of seeds for beetroot, peas, carrots and sweet pepper. The difference is that these packs are beautifully illustrated by artists with complex neuro-diverse and physical support needs, providing them with jobs and income, with sales helping this wonderful non-profit.
Stocks & Green is a good place to buy quality seeds. Sold by a small Essex company, find seeds to grow everything from tomatoes to pumpkins, dwarf green beans to salads. Along with Nutscene raffia to stake your beans!
Seed Exchanges and Community Markets
Many seeds sold are F1 hybrid variety, so you can’t replant or save them, to make you buy new packs next year. Buy real organic seeds from The Real Seed Company or consider a seed swap like Brighton’s Seedy Sunday.
Open-Pollinated Seeds (you can grow next year)
Vital Seeds is a Devon company, that seeks to get around the silly laws these days, whereby F1 hybrid seeds cannot be saved to sow again the next year. In order to have to buy new packs of seeds, to make big companies more profit.
This company offers organic and open-pollinated seeds that are grown locally (most seeds found in garden centres and DIY stores are produced thousands of miles away in countries with drier climates and cheap labour.
Such seeds don’t grow well, nor support heritage varieties, so important for bees, butterflies and bats to pollinate food. Some of the seeds you can buy here include:
- Beetroot
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Courgette
- Celery
- Chard
- Cucumber
- Kale
- Leek
- Lettuce
- Onions
- Parsnip
- Peas
- Peppers
- Radish
- Runner Beans
- Spinach
- Spring Onions
- Pumpkin & Squash
- Sweetcorn
- Tomatoes
- Turnip
The Real Seed Company also sells proper seeds, and sells Community Support Seeds, which are low-cost for unwaged and struggling families. It also offers a free online seed-saving guide.
What are F1 Hybrid Seeds?
Years ago, you likely have memories of collecting flower seeds (like lupins – toxic to pets) to plant next year. The sad truth is that today, most seeds are hybrids, which not only gives poor crops, but means this is no longer possible.
The idea is that instead, you have to return to the store to buy new seeds. The way to get around this legally is to have seed swaps, like Brighton’s Seedy Sunday, which also keeps heritage seeds alive.
Another reason seeds are grown like this is to make them more ‘uniform’ for supermarkets etc, which means that non-uniform seeds end up as food waste.
The Real Seed Company offers translations of marketing speak:
‘Really uniform fruit’ means ‘inbred for the supermarket, may not adapt to your soil’.
‘Straight long shanks’ means ‘bred to fit the packing machine’
‘Leafless peas – easy to find in pods’ means ‘much smaller yield, as the plants have no leaves!’
If you want real organic vegetables with wonky shapes and proper taste, then consider proper organic seeds, that you can replant the next year!
We had a quick look at the main seed-selling sites in the UK, and found the following:
Sutton Seeds offer a ‘uniform beetroot’ that is F1 hybrid. Who wants a uniform beetroot? We want a knobbly organic beetroot full of flavour, sold cooked at the local greengrocer!
Mr Fothergill’s again sells ‘uniform carrots that are quick to grow’. Organic carrots are quick to grow anyway, and throwing out ‘non-uniform carrots’ is why we have so much food waste.
B & Q’s website grows F1 Brussel sprouts, made by an ‘EU responsible person’. Who on earth is that? Find a friendly organic seed company, and buy from them instead!
Beautiful Seed Kits for Small Spaces
Herboo makes beautiful seed kits, designed for small spaces like outside the front door or in a porch. The founder’s grandma would take him to open gardens, pocket a seedling or two, and grow something when back home. She also taught him all she knew, about plants.
If you live with animal friends, many of the seeds (including borage, spearmint and poppies) are unsafe near animal friends. Read also about food safety for people and pets, and talk to your doctor before taking herbs, especially if on medication.
The kits all include clear instructions and are designed and prepared in London, to inspire those who have limited space. An emphasis is on organic seeds where possible, and the seeds are packed in moisture-free foil sachets, inside easy-to-recycle sleeves.
Herboo recommends sowing seeds in small batches. That way if something goes wrong, you have enough left to have another go
Herbal Teas Kit contains three easy-grow kits for echinacea, common spearmint and Roman chamomile
Cocktail Herbs Kit contains seeds to grow Basil (sweet Genovese), borage and spearmint.
