Choosing seeds?

[Corris]

I am new - a beginner - and currently have only planted three rhubarb plants..... and yesterday looked at my first ever catalogue for seeds.

Now, given that I've got about 12 catalogues to go through, and I could spend several hundred pounds in the first one (seeds of distinction) how do you choose? There are about 13 pages of tomatoes!

Now I'd like to grow tomatoes, but given there are about 25 seeds in each packet by the time I have a cherry, a 'regular round', a bumpy big one, a plum one...... I quite liked the stripy ones........ well, there is no space left in the garden and if we ever see another tomatoe we'll be ill! So I can't BUY all those - or I could, but I only need about 2 or 3 plants of each. If that.

And that's without the rest of the list of things I want to grow......

So, how do I choose please? How do I decide what company? And which seed? And what on earth do I do with everything left over?

[alex-adam]

I am new - a beginner - and currently have only planted three rhubarb plants.........So, how do I choose please?...........

Much of course depends on the size of your plot - is it an allotment or an area in the garden you want to make into a veg-patch?

Don't be too ambitious at first. Grow things which are expensive or difficult to find in the shops. Your Rhubarb is an excellent choice.

Perhaps consider, Globe Artichokes, Jerusalem Artichokes, Shallots, French beans, Runner beans, Swiss chard, and do try some early potatoes, nothing beats home-grown new potatoes from garden to plate in minutes.

No doubt plenty more advice (some conflicting, I guess) will follow.

a-a

[Corris]

It's a BIG garden. I have a front which is currently mainly lawn and I'm ignoring - a back which is mainly lawn and I am ignoring and a side which we think is 6 - 8 allotments sized.

I have put the chickens onto a corner - and OH is pricing me up a 4.8 x 3.3 metre shed he will build for me (the foundations are already there from a previous owner). I want to have a polytunnel for 2013 - but in the meantime I 'just' have to take off all the rubbish, find the ground under it, dig out the rubbish (they buried an ENTIRE wheelbarrow! Three sacks of set concrete - endless bricks......) - and then cultivate.

I only have about 10 metres x 4 metres dug so far. I have removed as many nettle roots as I can (and thistle and things........) But they will all, no doubt, come back up again - it will be an ongoing battle.

I have tree men coming at the beginning of Feb to take out the elderberry which is killing my big old apple tree.. So I lose a good piece in the middle for the tree - but I shall do it piece by piece and plant as I go. That's the plan.

Having said that I am also using the back of the house for tomatoes - I have two raised beds for herbs near the bungalow in the main garden, and my fruit is currently in pots...

But space? I have lots.

[zazen999]

Year 1 - grow stuff that you know you will eat, and concentrate on getting those growing and pest free first - so choose a few things like runners, peas, carrots, beans, onions, potatoes etc.

Then, all the seeds you have left; pack them up into smaller packs and swap for next year's seeds. Saves you spending a fortune, gets you practice in year 1 and increases your range for year 2.

We have a seed parcel [virtual] that you can use to swap seeds - launching New Year's Day - so don't go spending a bomb - please!

[Potstubsdustbins]

WOW Corris now thats a question with as many answers as there are plants. Zazen has offered very good advice. As to varieties I think we will all have our favourites, plants that we know will do well for us and that we like the taste of.

Your at the start of a wonderful journey of discovery as you grow and eat different varieties of all types. You will find out what you like, what will grow well in your plot etc.

My recommendation for your first tomatoes would be Sungold a lovely sweet cherry tomato grown as a cordon and Tumbler a cherry grown as a bush. Both are prolific, easy to grow and to me have a wonderful taste.

Colin

[horticultural_hobbit]

Looking at catalogues always bamboozles me. I look at the pictures and get giddy with the choice. When it came to buying my first set of seeds, rather than the catalogues; I looked at the various seeds in wilkos. I looked specifically as those veg we would eat, and also any that might be a nice science experiment. I grew chillies and cherry toms at first, just to see if I
Could. Then, as I put more and more pots in pop's
Garden; it was about pushing the envelope .

Now that I have an lotment, tis more about what we will eat and what will be fun to
Play with. One thing I would really recommend is saving and swapping seeds. It is really useful.

[vegnut]

Take note of zazens comments, also to take into account that some seeds like tomatos last for many years, so by sowing 3 or 4 seeds a year will last a long time. So again try swapping them, or keep the ones you really like for next year. Beetroot are the same, they last for years. So don't try everything this year, it's hard work and you probably wouldn't eat it all anyway. Buy some each year, it's much more fun that way.