how much would you spend on seeds a year?

[Irish-Veg]

Most people buy/collect shoes, I love buying/stocking up on seeds lol

Just spent €40 on seeds, in fairness though it's my seeds for the 2014 season so not so bad, some are coming from UK (I'm in Eire) and I did find some unique new varieties to play with this year!

and I bought seed labeling sticks (So i'm 1 step up from last year!!)

[Mikey]

Most of but not all of my seeds come from the garden centre when everything gets chucked in a huge tub for 10p. I rarely spend more than £20 a year on seeds, and the bulk of that is seed potatoes.

[AllInContainers]

A lot! I bought a lot of cheap stuff last year, but this year I've gone for the oddball stuff which comes with price penalty. Also, having such a small growing space, I am buying a pack of seeds for maybe four or five seedlings, of which one or two will be grown into the full plants.

I was going to send much of last years seeds into the seed swap thingummy here, but then ripped open the parcel again so I could catalogue all the varieties I grew for future reference .... but I haven't actually done that yet

[Alison]

Not much these days as I tend to save as much stuff as possible from year to year and only really buy new and different stuff on the whole.

[Ananke]

I used to easily spend £30-£40 on seeds for the year, now I save seeds and use the VSP and probably won't spend much more than £5.

[marcofez]

I used to easily spend £30-£40 on seeds for the year, now I save seeds and use the VSP and probably won't spend much more than £5.

Same here for me.
Also joined the 2013 seed circle and lots of seeds I have never grown before to look forward to.

[starloc]

Ive just spent about £20 at the local garden center, b&q and Aldi at the weekend stocking up on some that mice ate early in the autumn , I wanted some quickly so went to the shops, I usually get them on ebay from Premier Seeds Direct , you get far more seeds for a lower price and they grow perfectly , I got a £10 order from them about 2 months ago for loads of seeds for heirloom corn and some beans

Most seeds I grow are from plants Ive grown or wild seed, or from the mass of packets I bought ages ago....seeds from magazines etc, all long out of date but still grow fine

On seeds I now dont spend much, this year more than the last few years put together due to mice, 5 or so years ago I used to spend an absolute fortune on seeds wanting to grow all sorts of weird things like citrus, ornmental gourds , bottle brushes , miracle fruit and sensitive plants.....

[KarlB924]

So far I've spent about £20 on seeds, half of that is on seed potatoes. I've only been growing for 3 years so far though, and took over an allotment late last year, so I needed more seeds (and more interesting varieties) this year. I plan on saving what seeds I can for next year, thus hopefully decreasing that amount significantly.

Where I really spend my money is soft fruit bushes, bought a couple of red gooseberries, couple of jostaberries, some redcurrants... and they're joining the dozen-plus blackcurrants I already have (either established or cuttings), the white/redcurrant duo I bought last summer, and the raspberry and blackberry canes I've got in pots.

[Ladyslip]

I'm like Mikey and tend to catch the garden centre at the clearance stage tho still managed to spent in the region of £20 ish......blushes.......even at those prices........Will probably buy 3 lots of seed potatoes again......only bought earlier so far........and have learnt not to buy fancy stuff we don't eat......tho am constantly tempted by oddball varieties......always learning.

[sparrow100]

I've spent £60-70 per year incl postage, each of my 2 years. But I have been starting from scratch and didn't know things like seed swaps/saving existed. Now I also have a few people to pool seed buying with, so that's also a help.

[starloc]

At the minute I am stocking up for Bulgaria, the seeds are cheap enough, but Rhubarb crowns, onions, shallots and seed potatoes seem to be adding up, a delivery of them this morning I had forgotten about was £90 including 100 strawberry plants

Seeds and plants in Bulgaria are much lower cost, but they all need to be planted by now, so I have them over here in pots

Growing in pots isnt cheap it really puts the costs up due to compost, plantpots are either morrisons flower buckets or I got 1000 free heavy duty hydroponic plant pots from the landlords of our unit from someone who had been locked up for what they were growing!, as I need to move them all to Bulgaria next month anything that should be growing needs to be growing now as its an earlier season over there , compost starts to add up for all the pots

[RaptorUK]

About £45 this year with most of that coming from a company on ebay at 99p a packet and some from a big seed company at closer to £1.99 a packet.

I have bought quite a lot though as this is my first year with an allotment . . .

Cabbage Traviata F1
Brussels Sprout Maximus F1
Cauliflower Aalsmeer
Parsnip Palace F1
Herb Thyme
Herb Summer Savoury
Florence Fennel Amigo
Cauliflower All The Year Round
Garlic Provence Wight (Softneck)

DORSET NAGA BHOT JOLOKIA
PARSLEY ITALIAN GIANT FLAT
LEEK - TOLEDO x 2
CELERY - DEL VALDARNO
ITALIAN PURPLE SPRING ONION
HERB- FENNEL - BRONZE - FOENICULUM PURPUREUM
TURNIP - GOLD BALL
SWEDE - MARIAN
BROAD BEAN - AQUADULCE CLAUDIA
HERB - ROSEMARY
HERB - BASIL - GENOVESE
ASPARAGUS - SWEET PURPLE
CHIVES - CIPOLLINA
CARROT - FLYAWAY F1
HERBS - SAGE - BROAD LEAVED
BEETROOT - BOLTARDY
ONION BUNCHING - WHITE LISBON
HERB - CORIANDER
ONION - WHITE SWEET SPANISH

I have Tomato seeds left over from last year.

[chris]

I stock up on things I'd like in the 50p sales... per "year" I guess less than £10 - some of my seed rolls on over to the next.

[AllInContainers]

Growing in pots isnt cheap it really puts the costs up due to compost ..... compost starts to add up for all the pots

You're not wrong!

Last year I think I bought about 1500 litres of the stuff, and so far this year I've bought 250 litres plus 100 litres of top soil. As a rough estimate I reckon I'll need about another 500 - 600 litres of combined composts and top soil

[JoeDaStudd]

Last year I went a little mad and bought a load, £25+ easily.

I did however make a spreadsheet on the cost vs crop value and once summer hit the savings were pretty impressive.
This year I've held back and only just placed my first order.
Like starloc and AllInContainers I grow mainly in containers or toughs so its the compost which is more of a outlay.