Wheres best and cheapest to buy seeds

[Deleted User]

Cheapest by far were from a garden show last autumn, worked out as about 70p a packet and well known make as they had a stand. Next cheapest is ebay and I usually buy at 99p with free p and p. I keep spare seeds in the fridge in plastic boxes

cootambear

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

What I would recomend in our experience is
1) Definately look at the seeds in Lidl/Aldi/Netto and the pound type stores, I know soime people are sceptical about cheap seeds, but we have found them to have great germination rates, in some cases much better than expensive brands.
2) The above stores whilst good will only have a limited range and if you want more specialised veg or a specific variety next stop for me would be the ebay shop I have used before or the garden direct site.
3) Then there is alan romans and real seeds both good, interesting varieties, but a bit more pricey. Or in the real world local nurseries.
4) Finally there are places like suttons seeds,thompsons etc and your local garden centres-but even here watch out for offers, especially on the big websites for free delivery or items on offer or even free with other items.

I guess like MSE be savvy and get what you need at the best price.

ali x

These seeds are often the exactly the same as the higher priced brands, the cheap supermarkets simply bulk buy from the seed producers.

ALIBOBSY

Just to add to this thread about the cheap seeds. Netto have got theirs in now at 19p a pack.
Can't remember all of them but a good few flowers and veggies.

I got
Comos
swede-best of all
lettuce-little gem
sweet pea-spencer mixed
lavatera-pastel mixed
annual mix
candy tuff-fairy mixed
runner bean-enorma
californian poppy
brussels sprout-evesham special
I didn't get too much as I recently had a seed sort and found I had loads lol.
I rememeber some toms but think they were moneymaker so not great. Some kind of dwarf beans a pea, carrots, sunflowers, rocket and quite a few more.


Aldi get their seeds in next week see here
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_17268.htm

35p a pack, 21 vareities. Not a huge selection, but might be worth a look.
Lidl usually get theirs in end of jan start of feb.

ali x

A._Badger

The garden centres formerly branded as 'Wyevale' still have their half price seed offer going and my local branch has just added its Suttons display to the perennial T&M one.

Now's a good time to fill the gaps that I couldn't fill when they were more or less giving seeds away last Autumn!

Kirri

Davesnave wrote: »

'Best and cheapest' don't necessarily go together, but anyway, I like to grow stuff from people who are growing in similar conditions to me, so I buy from Real Seeds. They also show you how to take seeds from your own plants, which will mean that future seasons' seeds will be free, though it's not quite as simple as that sounds!

As you mention squash, here's their squash page:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/wintersquash.html

I can recommed 'Blue Banana;' it certainly was prolific!

I also like Franchi seeds. One can often pick these up in garden centres nowadays, and their content is pretty generous compared with British companies.

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

That's an interesting site, the realseeds one, shall have a better look around there. What is the skin like on the Blue Banana squash? After trying a few varieties of winter squash and them all being very hard to cut (some I gave up on as I couldn't get the knife in!) I was going back to just butternut this year as it's so easy to use...

I also like the seedsofitaly packets, nice produce from them and loads of seeds.

I've also ordered from http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/ recently, no p&p for seed orders and there's a free trial pack of seed to try each year and a few free plant labels too this year. Prices seem fairly good.

Have used Wilkinsons, Wyevale, and Seedsbypost (another free postage place) before.

misskool

realseeds are amazing.

I also buy from moreveg.com 50p a pack in reasonable sizes (not 150 broccoli and 200 cauliflower ones)

ebay and there's always offers. Otherwise, buy a few full size ones and join a gardening forum for swaps.

wssla00

Aldi have their seeds in from Thursday IIRC and Lidl then won't be too far behind

Davesnave

Kirri wrote: »

That's an interesting site, the realseeds one, shall have a better look around there. What is the skin like on the Blue Banana squash? After trying a few varieties of winter squash and them all being very hard to cut (some I gave up on as I couldn't get the knife in!) I was going back to just butternut this year as it's so easy to use...

Blue Banana hasn't a thick skin, but it is reputedly one of the better keepers. Most of mine survived the recent really cold spell in their cold store, but a few obviously went below freezing and I had to chop them up pronto and freeze. The rest still look fine, even though an early frost made me harvest earlier than would be usual.

If you have trouble with squash skin, get a big Y peeler like this one. Mine is made by Zyliss and it's awesome for squash, but a bit OTT for spuds.