A single seedling with a drop of water on its leaf against dark soil.
Sow

Heirloom seeds, grown out next door, packed by hand

Forty-two varieties, every one open-pollinated, every one sown on our allotment the year before so we know it comes up. Sent in a plain envelope with the name written on in pencil.

See this season's list
Bright green seedlings standing up out of dry soil in soft light. Rows of old-fashioned paper seed packets labelled beet, corn, spinach and leek. A gloved hand lifting a tiny seedling with its roots from a tray. Two cupped hands holding a small fern-like seedling in soil. One small green shoot coming up through dark earth. Young seedlings in small black pots seen from above.

This season: sow now, eat by midsummer

£2.40 a packet, any four for £8, postage 90p however many. Each packet holds more seed than a small garden will use; the rest keeps for three years in a cool drawer.

Rows of tiny seedlings with drops of water on their first leaves.
Broad bean 'Crimson' sow now, 5 cm deep
A tall rack of paper seed packets in rows.
Lettuce, six kinds every three weeks till August
Trays of flowering plants and racks of seed packets outside a shop in the sun.
Sweet pea, mixed soak overnight first
A woman crouching in a tidy wooden garden shed hung with tools.
Beetroot 'Chioggia' April to July, thin to a hand
Old paper seed packets for turnip, okra, beet and leek in wooden rows.

How a packet gets to you

SummerWe let one row of everything run to seed on the allotment.

AutumnPods dry on newspaper in the shed, then get threshed in a pillowcase.

WinterA germination test on wet kitchen paper. Under eight in ten, it does not go on sale.

Your orderCounted by hand, sealed, name in pencil, posted the next morning.

Before you sow

A single green shoot breaking through dark crumbly soil.

Wait for the last frost

Anything tender goes out after the last frost where you are — for most of the country, the middle of May. Before that, a windowsill.

Every packet says "tender" or "hardy" in the corner.

Small black pots of compost, a few with young seedlings.

Twice as deep as the seed

The one rule that covers almost everything. Dust-fine seed goes on the surface, pressed in with a flat hand, and never covered.

Keep it damp, not wet, until you see green.

Hands holding a seedling with a clump of soil over a leafy ground.

Save your own

Everything we sell will come true from its own seed. Leave the best plant to flower, let the pods dry on it, keep the seed in a paper envelope. Then you do not need us.

A leaflet on how is in every order.

Sunlit green seedlings in a row, blurred into the distance. A gardener's gloved hand among trays of young plants.

Sow

The potting shed, Plot 14,
Rivermead Allotments

+44 7700 900 862
Orders posted Mon, Wed, Fri

Sow is a fictional example. The shop, the allotment, the varieties and the prices do not exist, and the sowing notes are not gardening advice for your area. Photographs are stock images and were not taken at this shed.