Kitchen Garden Forum

I noticed in Tesco's that their range of seeds have been reduced to half price. It may be worth having a look and buying now ready for next year. In Tesco's own words, "Every little helps..."

A timely word of warning: don't buy something just because it's half price

It's what I call the Joe syndrome. My late good friend used to buy anything gardening related which was cheap. The result was that on his allotment he had to regularly build new storage boxes to house the stuff - needless to say he didn't use more than a small fraction of what he bought. Another story from the same allotment site. When another hoarder died I had the job of clearing her locker (7 feet high, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep). I found hundreds (yes, hundreds) of unopened seed packets, all with reduced stickers on them. What were not hopelessly out of date kept quite a few people in extra seeds for a few years

I'm afraid I have Joe syndrome - can't resist buying
garden bargains but I do use them as have 2 large
plots and lots of family and friends - well loads of
friends now anyway

This is my only compulsion though - haven't got loads
of shoes and clothes (leave that to my hubby) so
actually think I am rather virtuous with just this one
habit.

Westi

I quite often buy reduced/half price or whatever seeds - but never from T sco. Evil place. I pass on what I can't reasonably use or save for future sowing, either for swaps or just give away.
It's very hard to resist when they're a good price.

I've had some lovely carrots and other veg from Lidl's seed range at 28p a packet. Usually generous quantities of seeds too.

I've used Lidl seeds carrots.radish and patty pan-which now they've grown i'm not quite sure what to do with them?
We can buy seeds from our allotment "hut" at very reasonable prices however we sometimes get mixed results.A couple of years ago we were having problems with germination so I wrote what I thought was a very nice letter to Kings seeds only to get a very unpleasant patronising reply

Dear Macmac. I hope you sent them an equally unpleasant, patronising letter back, saying you're not impressed with their customer services OR their seeds......
Cheers!

No I didn't Elaine 'didn't feel inclined to waste the stamp!The problem was there were several of us complaining in the hut about the seeds but the guy in charge didn't pass on our comments so my complaint was seen as isolated.Having spent many years working for a large retailer dealing with customer service I really couldn't understand their attitude.I wasn't asking for a refund or anything just their comments.....careful what i ask for in future

Following on from your customer care problem, I complained to Marshalls about a new packet of Greenshaft peas having very poor germination and they replaced the packet. I did ask them whether the replacement packet was from the same batch and they said it would be so I said I would get back to them if the replacement didn't germinate too. They'll have to wait until next year now.

They said the usual that it could be mice etc, but I know it wasn't as two rows of other varieties were almost 100 per cent, and only 12 of the Greenshaft came up in a 20 ft row.

I ruthlessly cull my seed collection every winter. and give away packets unused..

madasafish wrote:I ruthlessly cull my seed collection every winter. and give away packets unused..

This seems like a recipe for expensive rather than cheap seeds

If you store your seeds correctly they will last for a number of years (depending on the vegetable). For some ideas look at this list. I would agree with most of the figures, though some might last longer than indicated.

If you give your seeds away, someone is getting free seeds

Alan I printed off THIS LIST that you mentioned and then went and got my seed box and had a good clear out of out of date packets, that maybe why my broad beans didn't do any good this year as it was dated 2008.
I've listed what I have left so won't get buying what I don't need,when we go to a garden centre my daughter says mom not more seeds.

Bren