Serendipity

I collected a recorded post item up from the sorting office at lunchtime, & found to my delight that it was the Seed Swap jiffy which I put my name down for some months ago.

The idea is that you receive a big & miscellaneous jiffy bag of seed packets, take what you would like to grow, put in your own spare seeds & then send it on to the next person on the list. This is an idea that has taken off through the GYO grapevine when a member put together a pack of various seeds & sent them to a fellow member, who then sent it on to someone else, & it went on from there.

This was so successful, that there are now a number of jiffy bags of seeds criss-crossing the country, with one of the more organised ladies taking charge of the logistics of keeping it all rolling, & it all works remarkable well. It’s a great system – there as so many seeds in most seed packets you could never grow them all. Who would want 700 spring cabbages, for example – there’s plenty for half a dozen gardeners in each packet.

There were some real gems in the package – I’ve fished out quite a few flower seeds, & one or two novelties which I wouldn’t go to the trouble of buying a whole packet of, but which might be interesting. Of course, the packets which most caught my eye were the home saved seeds –

‘Brazilian Organic Squash – saved from supermarket. Prolific growth – an experiment that worked well’
‘Sunflower – 5’-6’ branching. Brilliant’
‘Exploding Cucumber. Starts weedy then really takes off – completely covered my shed’

How can you resist those?

My contribution was hollyhocks & honesty seeds, saved by brother-in-law David from their fabulous bijou cottage garden; some herb seeds which I am never going to sow when I only ever need one plant at any one time & that comes from the garden centre; & half a dozen packs of assorted French beans & pea seed saved from last year – & the jiffy is all sealed up & ready to delight the next gardener on the list…