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Seed swap

Now we can communicate privately on the forum - those who are interested could set up a seed swap by exchanging email addresses and swap accordingly with like-minded folk. All gardeners have more seed than they know what to do with and properly stored they can last for years - so lasting from autumn until spring shouldn't be a challenge. Also some hardy annuals (marigolds, nasturtium etc) and natives naturally drop their seed in autumn, so they could be planted immediately on arrival and we could stand back and see what happens, worst that could happen is nothing and as they're free...apart from postage.

  • Brilliant idea Kezsmum!  I have no doubt that I'll have plenty of welsh poppy seeds available judging by the number in the garden!

  • Goodo Alan and KatTai, I'm definitely in:-) I'll have salad rocket running out of both ears, so expensive to buy as salad and so easy to grow, it's practically a weed! I'll also have Hesperis (sweet rocket, lovely pong, quite tall flower spikes in mauve) various poppies including Californian, opium and field, possibly dog violets if I can catch the sneaky little things at it:-) cowslip (dead easy to grow from seed), Jacob's Ladder - and probably loads more, but all these are easy and grow more-or-less despite me.Insects love 'em all:-)

  • Trouble was, we couldn't swap addresses in private then and let's face it, although most of us are lovely:-) Say no more...

  • The advantage of having a private messaging system - just remember you'll need to add people to your friends list to send and recieve messages!

    My poppies seeds are probably a little while off yet, though I can see them in their storage pods getting riper lol  Plus there are poppies still to flower!

  • I think this is an excellent idea too.  I won't have many flower seeds this year but I always have left over commercially packaged veggie seeds.

  • Always happy to scatter seed further afield!!

    Haven't yet noticed that we can message one another withoutt he big wide web knowing - great if we can!! Can we post wee plants? Wild strawberriew + giant primrose coloured scabies a plenty as well as seeds!!

    Another forum I'm on does 'fairies' where you 'promise' sweeties, baking, crafts etc depending on the 'fairy' + you opt in + then send to your appointed recipient + someone sends to you. It works really well. Might be worth thinking about in the future?!

  • Osprey - you can only send p. messages to people on your friends list. Fairies sound like fun, but I'd be jealous as anything because I can't eat wheat:-( Or sugar for that matter:-(( I've got a nice giant primrose coloured scabious - I'm waiting for it to flower now - got it from Carol Klein's little nursery:-)

    ClaireM - there are always way too many seeds in veggie packets for the average gardener aren't there? For a while I was able to source modest packets of seed but they seem to have disappeared - don't know why, they were a good idea.

  • Well this all sounds v exciting, personal messages, woo hoo!!! Now that is something that I thought just wasn't being considered!! I'd better spread the hand of friendship a bit futher afield to benifit from seed scattering!!

    My yellow scabious + wee wild strawberries self seeds on the gravel drive!! I'm trying to get raised beds sorted for veggies, they need lined + filled etc not sure when I will find the time!!

  • Think I have some Hellebores soon to produce seed so would give sending seed a go if anyone interested and the Hellebores produce.

  • Sooty:- Hellebore seeds are always exciting because you never know quite what sort of plant they will produce as they are a promiscuous bunch - some can turn out really lovely with interesting spots and blotches and others, well the less said the better:-)It's like a horticultural lucky dip:-) Let us know when they're ripe and I'm sure we'll be queuing up:-)How long do they take from seed to maturing into a flowering plant?

    Osprey:- Wild strawberries - yum, yum - if you can keep the beaky ones at bay that is. I'm looking forward to my yellow scabious, I shall totter up the garden in a minute and see how it's doing. Himself made a nice, gritty, well-drained bed right at the top of the garden (it's on a hill). Some of my other scabious are in flower and the Knautia Macedonica is in bud. I love that plant and so do bees:-)I've also grown the annual Black Cat this year, so let's hope it 'does' - I've got as far as planting the seedlings out.