This is the place to discuss not just allotments but all general gardening problems and queries which don't fit into the specific categories below.
(formerly allotments and tips, hints and problems)
Apologies in advance for the abundance of posts at the moment there's so much we want to pick brains about!
Anyway, we were just thinking about seeds. We've saved seeds from shop bought things (our tomatoes have been a huge success ) and then bought some too. Where do you get your seed? What do you not grow from seed?
I do find ebay fantastic for seeds. After my Forest Gardening cource I was keen to get seeds, out of 40 named species I got 34 on ebay, 4 off of Chiltern Seeds, and two sorts of bamboo you can only get from pots and they wanted £80 a pop, needless to say I got some other seeds from ebay for 99p!
My Annuals I got from Premier Seeds Direct on ebay, and I must say the germination rates were mental, especially when compared to Wilkinsons, Lidl and the poundshop.
Millymollymandy wrote:Bloody smilies, always being used. I hate them and they should be banned.
No I won't use a smiley because I've decided to turn into Boboff, as he's turned all nice all of a sudden. Grumble grumble.
I try to save as much seed as I can and otherwise I pick common things up in £1 shops or local garden centres and try to get Franchi seeds, as they give much bigger quantities for the money, but otherwise for specific varieties you have to hunt around on the internet, but I find Nicky's seeds good, nothing very special just good value, well packaged complete with label to plant with your seeds.
We got a load of seeds from realseeds this year, they only stock non-hybrid, open pollinated varieties and even give you instructions on how to save more seeds from what you grow.
Stormy Hall Seeds - lots of seeds for your money and Biodynamically grown
Real Seeds - interesting varieties and fair amount of seeds
G T Browns good germination and reasonably fair prices
Lidl - very cheap
I find ebay looks cheap , but when you get the seeds there arent many of them
I've also ordered my seeds from premier seeds direct (ebay) this year. we ordered the first lot of purple veg to use as part of our wedding favours. there's a lot of choice and generous packet size (you can print the info & pic from the listing, they come in mini zip bags, which is why they are cheap). I don't know enough to comment on their quality though.
Fantastic seeds from Ireland, I bought ground cover from them, Lemon Balm, Comfrey, Good Kind Henry, & Miners Lettuce, arrived within 48 hours of ordering, with the most fantastic intructions!
Millymollymandy wrote:Bloody smilies, always being used. I hate them and they should be banned.
No I won't use a smiley because I've decided to turn into Boboff, as he's turned all nice all of a sudden. Grumble grumble.
there's so much we want to pick brains about! 
) and then bought some too. Where do you get your seed? What do you not grow from seed?
Read my