Over the Garden Wall
Bryony Lewis

I have been reading quite a lot lately about the ever-reducing number of vegetable seed varieties that are available. Reading up on the topic being one of the few gardening chores you can perform during these wet and windy days when the hours of daylight are few and most plots are reduced to squelching patches of mud.
I have pulled some leeks, cut a few sprout sticks and grabbed some parsley from my garden but not much more than that lately. Every time I have hoped to be able to get out there it has literally poured with rain and the gales this month (December) have been enough to keep everyone indoors. So reading about gardening and watching repeats of old gardening programmes have had to substitute for getting my hands dirty. Not that there is anything wrong with swotting up on the subject when there is so much to be learned.
Anyway, what I have found is that Garden Organic believes we have lost around 98 per cent of all vegetable varieties over the past century. It is new regulations and red tape that are behind this tragic loss and the extinction of many species. Put simply, if plant varieties are not registered on a national or EU list then the seeds are unable to be sold. Obviously the large seed companies concentrate on the proven big sellers, ordinarily the heavy croppers, though some have begun to re-introduce some heritage seeds. But I suppose that like all commercial choices they are going to focus on where the volume is rather than the more obscure and likely less profitable lines. 2007 was not a good year either for the gathering of seed of many vegetable types so I have heard it mooted that prices will likely be much higher when we come to buy our seeds for New Year sowing.
Time to do something about all of this then. But what can the individual gardener achieve single-handedly? The first thing is to seek out heritage seeds in place of the more common ones and make contact with other gardeners who may grow some of the endangered vegetables. It also really worthwhile to plan on gathering your own seed in 2008 and keeping any paper bags, small jars and containers as well as buying in some labels for the purpose. You will then be able to save money by using your own seed in 2009 – OK it seems an age away but time flies once Spring arrives. You can then swap your excess seed with other gardeners for types you’d like to grow as well which is how things always used to be.
Gardeners are a generous breed and are usually more than happy to engage in swaps or even pass on spare seeds without expecting anything in return. With some 800 endangered varieties in need of rescue you can do your bit and make a difference. Garden Organic can advise on which varieties are in endangered. Local gardening clubs, allotment associations and societies are also a very good source of information on vegetable types with a long history of successful cropping in a local area. You may well trip across delicious types you have never come across before that flourish in your local soil simply by asking for advice. The chances are that there are many skilled lifetime gardeners who have never bought seed but have instead kept favoured varieties alive via the thrifty and ecologically sound practice of gathering seed at the end of the cropping period and storing it for it for future use. It is said that much seed can germinate even when it is as much as ten or twenty years old provided it has been stored in dry, cool and dark conditions.
The other aspect of this, and of taking cuttings, and composting, is that you can seriously reduce the cost of gardening as well as be a much greener gardener – now that can’t be a bad thing!
Happy New Year… here’s to successful sowings and bumper harvests for everyone!