Free seeds from the BBC Dig In Campaign
It’s time for the BBC Dig In: Grow Your Own campaign again!
We took part last year and were sent five packs of seeds: carrot, beetroot, tomato, squash and lettuces. The biggest success were the carrots and beetroot. I have clay soil so made up a container especially for the carrots containing compost, sand and some grit. They thrived and we were eating carrots for many months. The lettuces didn’t grow at all. In hindsight I think they were in an area that was too shaded.
The squash grew beautiful large plants which produced no fruit. And the tomato; well I don’t know what happened to that, but I’ve been growing tomatoes for as long as I can remember, so they must have died from neglect.
This year the seeds are slightly different. We’ll be getting french beans, salad, carrots, courgettes and basil and the BBC Dig In website is ready to help with all sorts of tips and advice.
There’s a gardener’s calender to let you know what to do each day. Today is the day to prepare the beds (check) and plant tomato seeds (waiting to get potting compost) apparently. You’ll also get plenty advise during the growing and harvesting season about how to get the most from your veg and recipes to try. There are videos and pdfs to download as well as advise from gardening experts.
All in all it was a great scheme last year and we can’t wait to ‘dig in’ to 2010!
What about you – what are you growing this year? In addition to these veggies, we’ll be planting potatoes, kale, beetroot, broad beans, parsley and watercress. I always tend to take on too much, but this year I’m scaling back. I’m grassing over 3 of my beds and having just one…
Wow … what a great idea … wish they had something like this going on in the U.S. Actually, I’m assuming they don’t but … perhaps I should do a little checking. 🙂 Reading the list of veggies that you are receiving makes my mouth water. 🙂
We grow veggies on our apartment patio in containers … we grow herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, figs, beans, potatoes, and a variety of peppers. This year we’re adding some heirloom tomatoes and green peppers. I can hardly wait! 🙂
By the way … I missed your article for Change The World Wednesday last week (didn’t get to my email in a timely manner … ugh). But, I’ve got it and will include it, complete with stumbles and tweets, this week.
Take Care!
@Small Footprints: Did you find anything? It would be great if you did and I could post about it too. Figs – wow! We have a fig tree but it’s not produced anything yet, maybe it’s not hot enough for long enough here? It sounds like you grow a lot in your containers!
We’re growing tomatoes, onions, mint and potatoes and of course a date palm! We tried growing squash and was amazed at how quickly they germinated unfortunately after accidently leaving them outside overnight they died – not one of our best successes. We’re also growing a fenugreek plant – smells lovely. Read more about how we’re getting along at http://www.giftboxgarden.co.uk
@Gift Box Garden: a Date palm – how interesting! I’ll check out your blog to read more! Good luck and thanks for the link to your site; you have some great stuff on there.
They’ve run out! I was telling a friend about the free seeds I got and sent her a link to their website, but it appears she’s too late! And the roadshow is going to only a few places and none near her.
I’m sure they didn’t run out this quickly last year.
I know last year we got some seeds from netto and they were really cheap. Wilkos have some for 52p a packet too and a couple of other places have some great offers. It’s well worth a look at the poundshop at the multi-seed packs they have as they’ve got 6 types of seeds in one packet for £1 which is a bargain!
I’ve only just noticed the “what to do today” thing on the dig it site and was pleased to see I was ahead of the game having put my carrots in at the weekend!
I’m doing the carrots in a bucket of sandy compost mixture – everyone on the allotment last year grew carrots in tubs perched on top of the compost bins. Everyone apart from one old chap who reckoned the carrot flys will find them whereever you hide them!
@Diane: Hi Diane, what a shame you missed out. Thanks for the tip about looking around pound shops. I gave away a load of seeds on Freecycle this year, perhaps your friend could ask around? We didn’t have a problem with carrot fly and ours were off the ground too. Let’s hope we have success this year – good luck too!