Sit back and just grow by the book
(Filed: 12/01/2002)
Good seed catalogues should be clear and concise. Sarah Raven chooses her favourites for veg, and, in a fortnight's time, the best for flowers
 | Seeds of Italy - Franchi seeds |
| Simpson's Seeds |
| Edwin Tucker & Sons |
| Halcyon Seeds |
| Suffolk Herbs |
| Organic Gardening Catalogue |
| Events |
THE making of a really good vegetable seed catalogue is a subtle and finely balanced art. It is not enough simply to dump in every variety of every plant that might be considered interesting. It needs to be more selective than that. The good seed catalogue steers you towards the good garden and the good garden is not a botanical museum, it is something that embodies everything you enjoy and love.
Passion and expertise must have gone into the plant selection. You want to feel that the person writing the catalogue has grown, admired, harvested and tasted each variety on offer. There should be a sense of buying into a great well of knowledge.
A good catalogue should also hold the gardener's hand. Those that have few growing directions, no indication of the likelihood of success and are peppered with botanical language are as useful for a reader who has never sown a crop before as flat-pack furniture without instructions. All you end up with is mess, failure and frustration.
There may be lots of growing details on the seed pack but that's not enough when working out what to choose. The plant list should include plenty of sure-fire crops, and it should be obvious which ones these are.
The best catalogues make the reader feel that they are being taken step by step, so that even the least experienced gardener is bound to succeed.
Another element is the visual. Pictures are said to be an irrelevance for the knowledgeable but I'm a glutton for illustrations. For anyone starting out on a new branch of gardening, pictures are invaluable. Even with the plants I know well, I'm steered by how they look. The whole business of choosing seed should be as luxurious as flicking through a magazine - visual and stimulating - and the better the pictures, the better the experience. With vegetables, which many people might think are chosen solely on flavour, appearance is critical too.
To these four - selection, expertise, direction and illustration - there is one further element without which a seed catalogue never quite satisfies: surprise. For me, a catalogue has to have one or two things in it that no one else does at which you might raise your eyebrows and think: "That sounds like fun."
There is no such thing as perfection and no catalogue that I have come across - including my own - does all of these things. Here is my choice of the ones that come very close.
Seeds of Italy - Franchi seeds
It has the reputation of supplying only very fresh seed with good germination rates.
Selection A cheering, small catalogue that brings back memories of food markets in the Mediterranean - lots of tomatoes, chillis, peppers, aubergines, chicories and lettuce, but not too much of anything.
Expertise Perhaps not quite enough advice on what to choose and why.
Direction Not enough. Sowing details and little else. But there are some interesting recipes and cooking tips.
Illustration About one in five of the plants are illustrated. I like the pictures - of the fruit or veg on the seed packets, big and bold.
Surprise Capers; Mais Rostrato corn, good for popcorn; Stringa Bruno, yard-long beans (new for 2002).
One of the great things about this catalogue is that it does vegetable seedlings as well as seeds. There are things like cucumbers, aubergines, courgettes and even tomatoes, which is ideal if you only need a few plants or want to experiment with several different varieties.
Selection There is a good, not vast selection of most of the veg you want to grow. A lot of potatoes and squash.
Expertise Simpson's is mad on tomatoes, capsicums (chillis, sweet and hot) and aubergines and I drown in this part of the catalogue, which is admirable for its passion and obvious expertise. You feel that it is growing new varieties every year, with some making it into the catalogue while others are spurned.
Direction Patchy: lots of growing detail for chillis, but none for other seeds such as carrots, cucumber and broccoli.
Illustration A few pictures, mainly concentrating on under-cover varieties of cucumber, tomatoes and chillis.
Surprise Delicious mini cucumber La Diva, and Simpson's Sweet Success that will grow happily outside. Plants and seed available of both. Slim Jim aubergine, which crops well even in this country, has small thin fruits from early autumn.
Edwin Tucker & Sons Garden Seed Catalogue
Don't be put off by this rather serious-looking, not illustrated catalogue - it's brilliant.
Selection The choice might be rather overwhelming for the beginner, but this is one of the best catalogues to learn from, once you have a little experience. There are lots of varieties of most types of veg, all with good descriptions. Wide range of organic seed.
Expertise Unmistakeably, an old company steeped in horticultural know-how that has been at it for years. I particularly like the potato section where varieties are classified according to their cooking role and disease resistance as well as where they come in the cropping year.
Direction Excellent. Your hand is very well held all the way through.
Illustration None
Surprise A heavy-fruiting raspberry, Glen Ample, and the abundant Alpine strawberry, Alexandria. It also has truffle-colonised oaks and hazels.
A newish catalogue - the 2002 edition is only the third.
Selection A small catalogue, which feels as if varieties have been carefully chosen.
Expertise Personal advice, good detail and recommendations.
Direction Plenty of growing advice, with recipes by Nigel Slater and others.
Illustration A few, mostly in the salad section where it helps to know how the leaves look. Attractively styled pictures.
Surprise Ramsons - wild garlic. I wrote an article about garlic last year and mentioned the joy of the wild variety. I had lots of letters asking where to buy seed as it seemed almost impossible to find. Well, here it is.
The renowned catalogue with lots of organic seed.
Selection Comprehensive but daunting. The herb list is too big for me - I get bored trawling through it. Excellent if you know what you want and want varieties not widely available. The veg section is a better size. Good organic range.
Expertise It has useful panels down the side of many pages giving invaluable tips and information - good companion plants, hoverfly attractants and what is meant by blanching and forcing.
Direction Not enough growing instructions for beginners and no indication as to which plants are easy and which are hard. Angelica, for instance, is almost impossible to germinate unless you have very fresh seed and it takes several months, but there's no mention of this.
Illustration Only in the tools and sundries section, one of the best bits of the catalogue, with lots of good traditional tools and methods of pest and disease prevention.
Surprise Black cumin (Nigella sativa), a delicious, popping seed. Also, the Planter Hand, a tool for planting out annual veg and flower seedlings with handle and blade set almost at right angles - better than a trowel.
Another tried and tested catalogue, a joint venture between HDRA and the venerable seed producer, Chase Organics.
Selection I think this is one of the best, with a good but not overwhelming selection of vegetable types and varieties. It has taken over the French list, Ferme de Saint Marthe, and these varieties are marked. Not suprisingly, one of the best organic ranges.
Expertise I like the expert tips spread through the catalogue, from Chase Organics and HDRA staff. For instance, Jackie Gear writes about the flea beetle and Bob Sherman on avoiding potato blight.
Direction Some instructions, but a bit more hand-holding needed if you are a beginner trying to sow in the garden or greenhouse.
Illustration The most highly illustrated of the catalogues, but not the most beautiful shots.
Surprise Ezetha's Krombek Blauwschok, a purple-flowered and podded mange-tout pea that looks fantastic in salad. Also Strawberry Popcorn, a sweetcorn with little red cobs, and Japanese burdock, a root vegetable that tastes like a cross between Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip and salsify.
There is always my own Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden, which concentrates mainly on cut flowers, but is increasingly moving into the vegetable garden with lots of cut-and-come-again, year-round salad leaves and herbs as well as some veg. Careful growing instructions aimed at the beginner and lots of pictures.
Sarah Raven 2002 lecture-workshops:
February 12: The Cutting Garden, Woodspeen House, nr Newbury, Berks.
February 13: Grow Your Own Veg, Woodspeen House (as above).
February 27: The Cutting Garden, East Kennet Manor, nr Marlborough, Wilts.
March 1: The Cutting Garden, Gate Street Barn, Bramley, nr Guildford, Surrey.
March 6: Grow Your Own Veg, East Kennet Manor (as above).
March 20: The Cutting Garden Camden Rd, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Days run from 10-4. The Cutting Garden, £75 inc lunch; Grow Your Own Veg, £95 incl lunch. Call 01424 838181.
-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002
Answers
Good resources! I'm getting anxious to get my fingers back into the dirt.
-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002
Moderation questions? read the FAQ