GrowGirl

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It looks like it’s up to us gardeners to keep hundreds of traditional varieties of vegetable from extinction.
The situation is dire. Around 98 per cent of vegetable varieties have already disappeared, according to Garden Organic, an arm of the Henry Doubleday Research Foundation. And when it comes to the vegetables we do eat, just 20 varieties account for 95 per cent of consumption.
The culprit is Red Tape. Seed varieties must have specific marketing consent and be on an EU or UK approved list. And while a new conservation-varieties directive designed to encourage the growing of such varieties is due next year, it will cost at least £4,000 to win the right to trade in one of these seeds.
So what can we do about it?
Well, Garden Organic would like us to adopt an endangered species this Christmas.

It costs £20 a year, which sounds like a pretty nice present for a keen gardener. If someone gave me Bull’s Blood Beetroot I’d be well chuffed.
There is an impressive list of veg awaiting a foster parent.
Garden Organic have saved varieties including the Ne Plus Ultra pea from extinction and have a keen membership of 10,000 busy growing the 800 varieties in their heritage seed library. Become a member and they’ll give you seed to grow.
There are other ways.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, is a past project of Tim Smit, the man behind the Eden Centre. Helegan, a once-great, long-neglected Cornish garden, was recreated and planted with the varieties that once flourished there. Heligan offers a fantastic range of heritage seed for sale.

I’ve grown their wonderful Crystal Lemon cucumber, a sphere about the size of a cricket ball with a skin like a melon and a wonderful, delicately lemony flavour; Rhubard Chard; and Mr James Scarlet Intermediate carrots, among others.
Browsing their site I came across a lettuce called Fat Lazy Blonde. Now that’s a seed I’d like to get to know. They have a lot of flowers as well.
We might be accused of nostalgia and sentimentality in seeking to nurture these old varieties. Not a bit of it. Being dependent on a few varieties is dangerous – if they got wiped out we would be in trouble.
And it does seem there is a problem with the fertility of much modern seed.
A recent Which? report said “poor quality seeds are preventing gardens from growing”. It goes on: “The results of a study of leading flower and vegetable seed brands show huge variation in quality, with only six of the 15 companies tested coming up to industry standard. One supplier’s delphinium seed packets were found to contain no healthy seed at all.”

We’ve probably all had failures that we put down to our own incompetence, but the Which? survey suggests we are being too hard on ourselves.
When I complained to Thomson and Morgan about some Nepeta that did nothing they wrote back a long letter saying how puzzled they were about the increasing incidence of seed failure, and promising a replacement pack. Which never came.
So, it really does look like it’s up to us to save the world.


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