Is this my daftest idea ever?

[Penellype]

Not for me VC, the tidy half of my mind doesn't like this idea. The untidy half has not been allowed near the garden or allotment - it is restricted to house, garage and shed!

[Mr Bones]

Not such a whacky idea VC. Sepp Holzer uses the same method in Austria. Can't find the actual clip but when he makes a new bed he broadcasts a huge mix of seed to get it started.

There's a five minute clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7mQZHfFVE

[rary]

These strange practices are for normal gardeners.

And you don't come into that category
And Snoop I think its the second with you and SP for even showing a bit of encouragement, and just wait and see what the next idea will be

[4Shoes]

Fairly sure this was a solution for all the seeds in the bottom of the seed box. Perhaps on the Crackers box thread....

Why not if you have some old seed that should be given a chance... even if it ends up as chicken food

[lottie dolly]

From so called simple idea's,great things have materialized,chuck a few seeds on vacant unloved land,gorilla fashion,and watch without the work hehehe,this has given me a thought VC,sow some parsnips,carrots and beetroot between the broad bean plants,by the time they are grown up,the beans can be chopped off,a space saving idea.

[ESBkevin]

Those that grow food forests do just this. The idea is that a lack of concentrated attractions for pests keeps the risks very very low. Using chop and drop mulching means the soil retains a great ability to feed all types of plant and permacilture exponents rate the idea.
Don't expect to win awards for pretty though!

[Jungle Jane]

From so called simple idea's,great things have materialized,chuck a few seeds on vacant unloved land,gorilla fashion,and watch without the work hehehe,this has given me a thought VC,sow some parsnips,carrots and beetroot between the broad bean plants,by the time they are grown up,the beans can be chopped off,a space saving idea.

I’m doing something like that,sowing parsnip & carrots around my broad bean & pea bed but I’m not adding brassicas I don’t think onions like peas either,it might be difficult with onions & keeping them dry before harvesting,whilst watering everything else?

[veggiechicken]

Don't expect to win awards for pretty though!

"Pretty" is in the eye of the beholder - I don't find regimented rows of identical veg pretty.

[lottie dolly]

if you not want rows,make little beds like those posh gardens with the low box hedge,but just use veggies,say carrots surrounded by onions then marigolds,to help with root fly,mix and match veg and flowers for color and design,come lass lead the way,could this be counted as a container for later in the year hehehe,you certainly wake peeps idear's up.

[Kirk]

OK, where is the daft bit?
If you planted alternative rows and let them go to seed then the wind, weather and nature would accomplish much the same.

A wild flower area is "planted" on the same principal, mix the seeds up and scatter. The idea is in effect little different.

It is a good way of using up old seeds, find a new footpath (like the new one just down the road from me) where they have conveniently resoiled the edges and left untouched and scatter all your old seeds, wild flower and veg.

[veggiechicken]

Nice idea LD and its the sort of garden I aiming for! Can you remember when I started with the aim of having 30 beds, each containing at least a fruit tree or bush, a vegetable, a herb and some flowers to attract bees and butterflies. I'm getting there slowly.
This year I'm thinking of adding a climbing framework for beans or flowers on each bed and, maybe, a mini compost bin/wormtower.

[boatsman]

Of course you could sow tumeric seeds with your mixed vegetable seeds and expect to harvest piccalilli.

[4Shoes]

VG needs to go to the forest gardening. Lots to be said, but I'm a n engineer, so cant read the manual.

[mothhawk]

I'm loving this idea VC and quite excited to start. Wish it was March already. No point me sowing any earlier 'cos of lack of sun in the garden.

I've sorted through my seeds and made a list of 34 packs, 24 different veg, some multiple varieties. I may add a few herby things like hyssop to the mix but they are in the "flower seed" box to be sorted later. The freshest (2 packs) were packed in 2016, the oldest (4 packs) in 2008 and everything else is around the 2011 - 2013 mark, so I shall sow generously and see what comes up.

This is a great way to clear out my seed box so I can start collecting again in the Autumn seed sales

[mothhawk]

I know it's getting a bit late in the year, but finally today the weather was good and coincided with me having the free time to clear my patch of its winter left-overs, move flower pots around, shift some netting, raise up my little brick path to the compost bin (as over several years the veg patch has grown taller but the path hasn't ) rake everything smooth and even, and sow a mixed bowlful of 19 different veg.

I cut back on cabbage varieties as cabbage seeds tend to last for years so they would likely all have grown and swamped me in brassicas, but all the other stuff had the whole packet tipped into the mix, so that's nearly all my very old seeds used up. If they all grow I can eat the thinnings, and if they don't, then what does come up will be welcome.

I added a packet of new parsnip seeds since I didn't have any of those.

All the seeds were mixed around then broadcast and raked in, except the courgettes, which are being started in pots on the windowsill.

So that's my veg sowing done for the year, apart from the runner bean seeds which I'll do tomorrow as they will need shoving down into the soil a bit