This one means planning ahead and the packaging may not be plastic free – you will have to check with the company BUT it means years and years of plastic free seed ahead of you. Basically you grow the plant, harvest some but let others go to seed. You then collect the seeds, store them then use them again next year to grow more food, more seed! How good is that?

You can buy real seeds from this company. They have a great selection including veges, herbs and flowers.

The following bits of info were copied directly from their website real seeds

Seed You Can Save Yourself

One of the main aims of the company – written into its deeds – is to educate and encourage home seed saving. All our varieties are real, open-pollinated seed (non-hybrid), so you can save your own seed for the future, using instructions we supply. We have written freely-copyable seed-saving guides, and we sell a more detailed seed-saving book at a subsidised price. There’s really no need to buy new seed every year – you can just save your own.

Hybrid (“F1”) seed is the result of a cross between two different , but heavily inbred parents. Seed you save from these plants will either be sterile or a give a whole mix of shapes and types, usually producing a poor crop.

Only the seed company knows what the parents are, thus only they can produce that particular variety. If you want to grow it, you have no other source – good for the seed companies but not for you! Small growers should be able to keep their own seeds, selecting each year the best plants most suitable for their own land and conditions.

Yes, there are a few exceptions, but in general, the hybrid seed business has been a public relations victory over the small grower. For example, you will soon see more and more hybrid leek seed offered to you. This is because the supermarkets have set incredibly rigid limits on leek size, and the only way to achieve this is through hybridising two inbred varieties, so all leek seed production is switching to hybrids.

You will be told that these new leeks are ‘more uniform’, ‘straighter’ and so on. But what about flavour and adaptability? People seem to forget that we want to eat & enjoy these things – food is not just a commodity!

Despite common urban myths, there is no magic about hybrids. So-called “hybrid vigour” is the simple fact that good hybrid seed is better than bad real seed, and that sadly much of the real seed you get now has been badly maintained. But good real seed – which admittedly requires time, care and patience to produce and maintain – must, by virtue of the genetics of these things, be just as good, and in fact much more adaptable to different soils.

The key here is that it takes less manpower to make the hybrid seed, so the wholesale seed growers are much happier to let the old varieties fade away.

It is hard to find plastic free seeds. They are usually sold in waterproof plastic lined foil or plastic lined paper sachets. It’s not much but it is there. If you want to be a real purist you can try these.

Plastic free heritage seed

But if you do want a whole packet here are some seeds that are plastic free AND you can harvest the seed to use over and over again. As I’m sure you know many hybrid seeds are good for one year only – you can read more about that here. Not these

Vital Seeds

“As all of our seeds are open-pollinated you can save your own seed from them year after year.”

And more

• Organic seeds: vegetables, herbs and flowers
• Plastic-free and compostable packaging
• Free delivery on orders over £35
• Open-pollinated varieties
• Based in Devon
• Absolutely no GMOs
• Proud members of the Open Source Seed Initiative

see the range here

More Seeds Here

“Here at The Heritage Organic Seed Company sustainability is at the heart of what we do and it is so important to us to offer our products in eco friendly, plastic free packaging.

Our seeds are lovingly hand packed in manilla seed envelopes which, along with our mailing envelopes are made from recycled materials and can be recycled or composted after use.

You may find some of your seed packets also contain glassine envelopes, we use those for our tiniest seeds to help you to handle them more easily but these are also completely biodegradable

see the range here.

Seeds In Tins

You can get seeds in tins though the tins will almost certainly be lined with epoxy resin.

Wildflower Seed Grenades

“Flower Grenades throw a seed bomb for an explosion of flowers in derelict places

Take action in the green revolution and throw one of these fun Flower Grenades. Each ‘grenade’ is an air-dried clay shell containing a selection of wild flower seeds, and soil to get them started.”

Got to love that idea. Get them here

Or make your own! Instructions here

You can harvest your own seed. You can find out more here.

The Plastic Free Garden

You can find other plastic free garden products here.

Take a look at this beauty – my  galvanised watering can with removable brass rose. Looks good and lasts forever. Comes with absolutely no plastic bits and no packaging at all. It holds 9 litres – 2 gallons which is big enough to matter but light enough to carry when filled with water.

Rose

The brass rose can be unscrewed and this is a very important feature. Put the rose on and water can be sprinkled over seedlings or delicate plants a necessary but slow process. Take the rose off and water can be poured in a stream which is great for soaking plants at the roots. A removable rose means it can be cleaned when bits of soil and residue block the holes. Without this feature your can will eventually clog up.

Finally the rose can be replaced when knackered. Interchangeable roses can also be bought resulting in ever finer sprays.

Haws Cans

Haws also do a metal watering. It is the Rolls Royce of metal watering cans with a price tag to match. These too have interchangeable roses

Kiddies Cans £5.25  

Made by Garden Angels these cans are as classy as you would expect from these guys. They are metal watering can with enamelled finish and will last much longer than plastic counterparts. They don’t have removable roses but in all fairness they are more for fun then real work. They come in pink or blue – I don’t know why. Plastic and packaging free they

Sadly they have plastic handles and come wrapped in a plastic bag.

Buy

All the above can be bought on line or from local hard wear shops and some B&Q stores.

If you have trouble finding them,  you can get them here (along with a lot of other plastic free garden supplies), from  Amazon  You can read our Amazon policy here.

Busy digging over the garden and planting up next years crop in the allotment and I find myself:

• Turning over a new seed bed to find ugly plastic markers polluting the soil:
• Uncovering plastic plant markers relating to some kind of plant but all the text has disappeared:
• Hoeing away and cut through another perennial;
• Plant up some lettuces in lovely rustic pot which I don’t want to sully with nasty looking plastic plant markers
• Planting up rows of seedlings and not wanting to use plastic markers because of – well -all of the above:

So I have bought some wooden monster-size, lolly-pop stick. NB The normal size lolly pop sticks are too small. I tried them but couldn’t read them.  Actually I couldn’t even see them and so another peony died.
These big boys come in at 150mm length x 19mm width x 1.8mm giving me plenty of room to write on and if I use a permanent writer, the writing lasts as long as the marker.

I can also use pencil which doesnt last as long but is plastic free.

If they get dug into the soil no problem they will biodegrade and feed next years spuds.

They look much nicer in my pots and allotment.

Where to get them?

You can buy these from craft stores on-line but they often come in little plastic bags. To ensure I got these plastic free I had to buy in bulk so they came in a box rather than a bag. I searched for medical spatulas on ebay.

If you have trouble finding them,  you can get them here (along with a lot of other plastic free garden supplies), from  Amazon.  

One of the real joys of buying #plasticfree is sourcing the stuff in local shops. However sometime you have to buy on line and if I don’t know of anywhere else I tend to end up recommending Amazon. I know and I don’t like what they do either but t I have always found Amazons service to be good, the recommendations are for second party sellers and the packaging usually compostable.

You can read our full policy here

Tongue Depressor, 6-inch, 11/16 No Splinter… £4.99	Paper Pot Maker & Accessories Gift Set … £11.99	Giant Paper Potter £11.00