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| Broad Beans and Peas I grew this year from seed |
'Fashionable' does not necessarily mean most bought, so surely it is necessary to consider the wider context? For example, I recently myself purchased a £120 pair of sunglasses, a vast amount of money that hurts me every time I look at said glasses. I could have bought a pair off the high street for £5 that would have looked good and suitably protected my eyes, but I didn’t because the £120 price tag was not enough to put me off obtaining the image of ‘cool’ pertained by the glasses. The high price is not paying for exceedingly high workmanship, although the quality is undeniably much higher than that of a £5 pair and this of course is one element of the appeal. They are fashionable because of the image of 'cool' the glasses give the wearer due to their celebrity endorsements and other social connotations, they are expensive because the company knows that mugs like me are willing to pay whatever price (within reason) to achieve 'cool' in wearing the item. Clearly £120 is within reason in my book. The same applies to seed companies, if people are willing to buy baby plants to achieve the connotations of 'grow your own', then those companies are going to make you pay for it. I do not think it is so much a question of seeds going out of fashion, as the concept of 'grow your own' is fashionable but the time and effort element of using seed does not fit in with our fast 'have it now' culture.
The Organic Gardening Catalogue’s statement that it is new gardeners such as young families who are buying these baby plants is more than likely true. Why? Well for starters we are discussing the ‘Organic Gardening Catalogue’ which nicely fits the ethos of people who would find the concept of ‘grow your own’ appealing as a hobby not a requirement and who like the idea of the countryside but still enjoy fast broadband, phone signal and buses after 6. Countryfile watchers, Range Rover drivers and if a pair of wellies are to be purchased for a walk, Hunter wearers. The same people who spend £10 on a fancy dibber (I use the end of an old wooden spoon) and a small fortune on slate plant labels (lollipop sticks-£1). In reality any green welly will do and despite driving for over 30 miles through some of the narrowest country roads Sussex has to offer every day, I have a 2 wheel drive Polo that does me just fine except in the depth of winter when any car would struggle on complete sheet ice. Im not a farmer, my need to go off road is very limited and all the farmers I see drive the most battered old cars on the road, generally denoted by the encrusted dirt and sheepdog hanging out the back, tongue lolling merrily in the wind. This disparity between the 'idea' and reality is discussed in The Telegraph's own article 'Countryfile, the TV show that likes to walk on the wide side'.
The reality is growing from seed is beyond time consuming, requires you to garden in conditions that may involve rain and a coat and actually is not that easy. I love growing from seed, I revel in the challenge but half the time they don’t even bother to come up which would put most people off after the first attempt. This summer I wanted to buy two cucumber plants for guaranteed results but was convinced into buying a very expensive packet of cucumber seeds costing a full £5 for five, therefore making the difference in price between plant and seed not very big at all . At a pound a seed I required results; I got nothing. Even if they do beat the odds and germinate normally all do and one finds oneself potting on 30 Zinnia plants when 10 would have been more than ample. Collating 30 small pots with enough crocs took literally hours and my nails were dirt encrusted for days afterwards.
People are not growing 5 organic leeks to feed their family and cut down on food bills, they will be plucked from the ground and presented on a plate when dinner guests are over so the phrase ‘We grew them ourselves!’ can be slipped into conversation as much as possible. In these days of increasingly urban living gardening is becoming cool among the young, but only if its clean and quick, too things gardening most definitely isn’t. Seed companies are merely taking advantage of our desire to have things now without waiting, and we are prepared to pay through the nose to get it. Plants are bought large and in flower when at their most expensive because we see it, like it and want it as it is rather than putting the time and effort in to nurture a smaller plant. At some point growing from seed would have fitted into the 'make do and mend' and 'upcycling' trends, but even then I think most people would rather buy a new cabinet created in that style to making over an old one themselves, me included. There isn't time in my day for sandpapering old furniture. If it was possible to get the same imagery and ethos associated with home baking from a shop bought one most people would throw away the cookbook and nip off to the shops. Unfortunately that isn't possible with baking, but it is with gardening; you just buy the plant ready started.
But Mr Thompson is right; growing from seed is economically a far better bet, and if we consider the old adage 'time is money', supermarket ones will be cheaper than both these expensive baby plants and growing from seed.
Read the original article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/plants/11058870/Is-growing-from-seed-out-of-fashion
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| A slug who ate all my runner beans before they germinated- one of the many things making growing from seed less appealing |
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