Description
Back Garden Seed Saving – best UK book on seed saving. Easy to follow crop-by-crop guidelines help you save seed at home.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Where do all the seeds come from?
Why save your own?
Seed saving techniques
Crop-by-crop seed saving:
Beetroot, Spinach, Beet and Chard, Broad bean, Carrot, Celery and Celeriac, Cucumber, French bean, Leafy brassicas, Leek, Lettuce, Melon, Onion, Parsnip, Pea, Pepper and chilli, Radish, Runner bean, Spinach, Squash including Marrows, Pumpkins and Courgettes, Tomato, Turnip and Swede
Community seed saving
How easy is it to save seed? (Crop by Crop Table)
Varieties index
Useful addresses
Vanessa –
This a wonderfully inspiring book that will encourage even the most reluctant gardener into a flurry of seed saving and instill an awareness of the need to preserve our garden heritage. Sue sets out the background to seed saving in such a clear and purposeful way, supported by colourful case studies derived from Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library archives. The reader is led on into a crop-by-crop seed saving guide which includes information on growing plants for seed collecting, pollination and isolation techniques, how to harvest and process the seeds, and how to dry and store them. There is also specific detail on different varieties under each crop type. Delightful illustrations throughout, by Susanna Kendall, serve to enhance the practical qualities of this book. Sue has added a table on how easy it is to save seed, which I found rather complicated to use, preferring the written descriptions for each crop. The Glossary, Useful addresses and Bibliography sections at the end are comprehensive and will undoubtedly propel the reader into further investigation and discovery.