An Ish Club?

[Millymollymandy]

I've never even looked at Marshall's seeds so I have no idea if I would want to order from them - I'll have a look see now but buying seed online depends on whether I will get to England next year or not before the growing season as I'd rather buy in the shops there and save on postage.

I think a lot of Ishers like to buy organic seeds and have their own preferred websites they buy from.

Also I feel like this would be a lot of hard work and hassle for Big Al, and wonder about the postage costs too (especially for overseas) and how he is going to recuperate that from Marshalls?

So I'm not sure, at the moment!

[JulieSherris]

Hmmm... there's a lot of good points here, and yes, I can see that whoever took on the admin role would have a bit of work at certain points of the year.

So, let's have a look at postage....The admin gets in the order and it's already separated for the members. So admin could weigh each package, assess the size & then email the member for a SAE of the relevant size/postage costs. That wouldn't involve any paypal account or any packaging costs. That would just mean stuffing an envelope & posting it.

The original idea of paying P & P by paypal could have worked if there was an extra 50p or so added to each order - but yeah, I can see the complications from this.

I also get seeds from different companies, but I've been quite impressed with the Marshalls seeds & services over the years and I like the fact that they have put the gardeners club together. I just thought that it might have been a scheme which we could have benefited from.

In the meantime, I am heading out to the great outdoors today to replace the felt on the chook house roof that has come off somehow - not good, Andy always does the high stuff - wish me luck!!

[Muddywheeler]

Hi. this type of idea is great, but and like all good ideas there may be an alternative, there are many garden clubs, societies, etc. out there and we belong several that do seed swaps and free plants, the club we belong has over 150 members and does buying seeds, bulbs etc., we swap seeds and plants its great, we do this with friends as well, but we found one has to be careful in buying as a collective as you may not actually be getting things cheaper, take Marshals seed spuds, they are one of the dearest on the market, we buy a 20kg bag and share with friends, cost is about a 1/4 of Marshals, on my plot I save many seeds, some spuds for next year are saved, beans, carrots, brassicas etc., we may only spend a couple of pounds each year for new seed and get a full years yeg out of this, this is saving real money and real ishness, so consider carefully before you jump.
Good Luck if you do it.

[Big Al]

[
Sorry Al. I didn't mean to put you in an awkward position there. When I was typing, I originally put that the member would have to pay upfront, but then I changed it when I had the idea of a membership fee, thinking the money from that could be used upfront, and the repayment would go back into that pot. I was being constantly interrupted by my 4YO nagging for an icepop while I was typing, so I didn't manage the concentration I needed to type it well. I should have waited until she was in bed, but I didn't want to forget it all.

I was also wondering about different currencies and how that would work.

No probs Rosy I'm not in an awkward position ( unless you see me when my back is really bad and I'm bent double, lol) just skint. I don't mind being skint because if I had a lot of money i'd either give it away or spend it so no problems.

I don't like the big seed companies as they seem to push the F1 hybrid seeds and I want to start collecting and saving seeds so you need real seeds not the F1's for this. Also I like the idea of the old or heritage varieties and I know I keep banging on about thehttp://www.realseeds.co.uk company but I was totally blown away with their quality of seeds and their service. For these reasons I won't be buying from marshals.

Has anyone calculated how much seeds cost and how many seeds you get in a packet from the marshals club ? A thought just popped in my head there that the prices might work out cheaper but you also don't get many seeds compared with another seed company.

Right off to get bashed about by my lovely wife.

Take care,

Big al. ( who has nearly got the recycled greenhouse finished, Yee Ha).

[Big Al]

Ok peeps,

We have had a good go at this for now so is anyone seriously wanting to look at joining this "marshals club" and plan to order?

If you think this is an absolutly fantastic idea and are serious about this put your names below then we can see if it's a goer.If this turns out not ot be a goer I have another idea but don't want to hijack this thread at the moment.

Names here:

[Flo]

You should all check first whether you have a local gardeners association who already bulk order seeds before you think of joining up with this idea. Many of us may already have a local facility.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade - just doing the buy local thing. I'm already involved with the local gardeners association and am surprised at how many people have forgotten we exist.

[Rosendula]

I love the idea, but I'm also not loyal to any company and don't like the idea of being restricted. I'm happy to be a member of the club, but I don't want to promise to order something. I've bought seeds from Real Seeds a couple of times, and their germination rate seems to be much higher than other seed companies. I've collected and sown Quick Heading Calabrese and some of the peas, and have collected the miniature white cucumber for the first time this year. I'd like to have a go at their pumpkins this year because in the 4 years I've been trying to grow them, I've only had one pumpkin. I sometimes buy seeds online, but usually from DT Brown who I think are more generous with their seeds. I bulk up my collection with cheap seeds from Wilkos and Boyes.

So, in the end, if you set it up I'll join, but don't rely on me to make the order numbers up.

[bonniethomas06]

[quote="Rosendula". People look at me with disbelief when i say some weeks we have no money even for food !! Until the 17th of this month I'm in that situation as our total wealth until then is £8.71 but hell knows we will survive for another mortgage payment, lol.

As for buying seeds I will not be buying them from this club or T&M as I prefer to buy my seeds from here http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ so is there more than ten people to order ?

Lol Big Al, I am glad we are not the only ones! I sometimes cannot believe that I, at the ripe prime earning age of 29, on this very evening, have the grand total (allowing fuel to get to work) have less than £19 live on for an entire month. Some of my pals spend that on one lipstick! Good job we can see the funny side eh?

I digress - I would be more than happy to pay upfront allowing for postage, packing and any other expenses, in bankers draft or cheque or cash or whatever, so long as I had plenty of notice so as to make sure we budget for it.

[Andy Hamilton]

£150 went missing out of my paypal account the other day, I got it back but I'm not too keen on them at all. I use realseeds too and think they are much more in keeping with the ethos of the site. Of course you have my blessing to sort this out. Perhaps it is also worth getting in touch with Garden Organic as they are often just keen for people to plant heritage seeds.

In fact I think if someone wanted to contact a load of good ethical and organic seed companies and suggest that we do some kind of seed trial as well as a seed buying club then we could most likely get free seed too. This site is alway high on google searches so it would be good cheap advertising for the companies. Unfortunately the one thing I am always really short of is time (espeically as my book deadline is approaching), but hope I've given some food for thought.

Bottom line off me - if you want to do it under the banner of selfsufficientish then you have my full blessing.

[JulieSherris]

Andy, you're a Star.

However...... instead of charging straight in & setting this project up in particular, my next suggestion is to take on board what Andy has said in his post.... and then anyone/everyone have a think about what can/can't be done.

Maybe if we take a few days, and put the plea out for suitable suggestions from members?


Then at some point over the weekend, we could get together via a chat box or something with (hopefully tons of)suggestions & a huge big iron for all the various wrinkles!!

Whaddya think?

[Sinmara]

I love the idea, it's a great one!

If this could be done with Garden Organic, I would definitely join - not sure about Marshall Seeds.

[madabouthens]

I use Garden Organic and Real Seeds.

[Millymollymandy]

Can you give the links to these sites please someone?

I looked at Marshalls and there was little choice so I wasn't going to order from them. I prefer the idea of organic or heritage seeds to link to this site even though I may not order from them either.

[Big Al]

Well I've just had another fall downstairs and am aching like a stuck pig so I'll not even be going in the garden let alone down town for a few days so I'll offer to do a big search for alternative seed companies. I'll also with the sites blessings contact some, if not all of them regarding this idea. In one of my posts above I was thinking of this with real seeds but as there are other companies I'll check them all out and report back here probably at he weekend if that's ok.

I'm happy to act as admin for this idea, and would probably prefer this idea to that of using marshalls as I suspect with smaller or more ethical companies is that there will probably be no minimum amount we would need to order.

As for the postage idea if you want me to be the admin etc for any future scheme an easy way to get postage to me is where by you email me an order and a follow up cheque or I could give you my bank details where you could do an online payment and then I could order all at once and despatch the seeds when they come to my house.

I used to be in bussiness ans kept my customers informed each time anything changed.

Anyway I'll check out some sites.

Take care,
BA....

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Big Al, sorry about your fall but it's kind of you to offer to check the seed cos. out.