Dear Wales Seed Hub community,

May is off to a busy start now that most of the beds are prepped and lots of the seedlings are ready to go out. This week in the market garden I’ve been planting out brassicas, courgettes, lettuce, chard, beetroot and fennel, as well as climbing french beans, aubergines, and tomatoes (100 plants!) in the polytunnel. I grow sweet, rich Black Cherry tomatoes and the flavourful, pointed Ruthje salad tomato for Wales seed hub- both of which are popular with our veg box customers. I’ll also be trialling a very striking (and curiously named) new variety this year- Evil Olive!

There’s still lots to sow in May. In the coming weeks I’ll be sowing my outdoor french beans as well as peas, more cucumbers (I grow Syrian cucumber– they’re small and tasty and sell well at markets). I’ll also be sowing the next successions of beetroot, fennel, cabbages and salads. At Cân y Pridd Market garden we grow diverse salad mixes which sometimes contain up to 25 ingredients! Right now baby Jezercë leaves are giving the salads a vibrant pop of bright pink, whilst Purple Frills is bringing in a nice bit of spice. I’m also loving the deep purpley red of Apache lettuce.

Tilly
Wales Seed Hub Grower

More about Tilly…

Tilly Gomersall has been a member of Wales Seed Hub since 2021. She’s been working on market gardens across Wales and the Welsh Marches for 6 years and has enthusiastically incorporated seed production since the start.

Last year she began setting up her own farm ‘Cân y Pridd’ on the Powys/Shropshire border where she runs a cooperative veg box scheme ‘Wern Farm’ with neighbouring producers. Tilly is currently producing 8 varieties for the seed hub and will be bringing lots more into the catalogue next year.  You can find out more about Tilly in this month’s ‘Meet the Grower’ Instagram post here, and browse her seeds on the website here.

What to sow in May

Variety spotlight: Jezercë Red Orache

With vibrant pink flowers and bright purple leaves, this Red Orache is both a practical salad crop and a beautiful addition to any decorative garden. This variety gets its name from the Jezercë mountain in the Dinaric Alps, an ode to its magnificent towering peaks when it reaches full height in summer. When to sow it: Now is the time to sow seeds in trays or directly into soil, about 5 mm beneath the surface. Plant out with around 10 cm spacing for salad leaves, then thin out to allow to grow on for spinach leaves. Leave to bolt and flower for beautiful, decorative additions to your garden. How to eat it: The young tender leaves are a pretty addition to salads whilst larger, red leaves can be used like spinach. A traditional Romanian recipe ‘Ciorba de loboda’ cooks red orache in a soup, with rice, vegetables and lemon juice, giving it a sour flavour and an appealing purple broth.

Other seeds to sow this month

‘Generatif’ Dwarf French Bean
Grower: Lauren

A rare drying variety grown for its white beans which have a wonderful creamy texture and are the perfect size for baked-beans. The plants are quick to mature and high yielding. If you haven’t already started them off indoors, they can be sown direct this month now that soils are warming – but pick a sunny spot!  The bushy plants grow about 25cm tall – insert a few twiggy sticks to keep the pods off the ground if needed.

‘Kew Blue ‘Climbing Bean
Grower: Chris

Originally from the collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this this is a beautiful French bean. The purple-pink flowers are complemented by purple-tinged leaves and stems, and followed by flat purple pods. These pods have excellent flavour, perfect for eating fresh or freezing. Dried beans have a rich, nutty flavour.

Dwarf vs. Climbing beans

Beans are pretty easy to grow in any garden, but it’s worth knowing what type of bean you’re growing and what it needs. There are essentially two types of beans – climbing varieties and dwarf varieties. Dwarf varieties grow up to around 45cm in height and are quick to grow. However, they only really crop for a few weeks so its best to sow in succession, or choose different varieties that have varying cropping periods. Climbing beans on the other hand, which can grow up to 2m tall, require supports and can become fairly unruly, but because they grow vertically they are good at producing a large amount of beans in a small space. They take longer to crop than dwarf varieties but produce pods over a longer period.

Little Leprechaun Cos Lettuce
Grower: Chris

An attractive cos lettuce, with savoyed purple-brown and green leaves. Keep succession sowing through to July to maintain a constant crop; harvest whole or use as cut-and-come-again. This variety does best outdoors throughout the growing season and is slow to bolt.

Blue Hubbard Squash
Grower: Peni

A popular and very reliable traditional winter squash. This old variety stores well and produces several large fruits on vigorous vines. The fine flesh is sweet and nutty and bright orange. Squash need warmth to germinate, so best to start them off in a heated propagator, or wait until later in the month to sow outdoors.

Seed Week 2026

We were proud to have joined in the celebrations for #SeedWeek at the end of April. Each year The Gaia Foundation mobilise seed producers, growers and community groups to mark International Seed Day (April 26th), sharing stories, media and videos dedicated to celebrating seed diversity and promoting seed sovereignty in the UK and Ireland. Here’s an extract from our contribution – you can see the full post here.

We were also asked to share a little bit about how the Wales Seed Hub started, and why we centre collaboration instead of competition. Here’s what one of our Directors Sue had to say:

“Wales Seed Hub emerged from the first Gaia training programme in Wales in 2018. Some growers from the course wanted to go on to produce seed for sale – partly to provide additional income, but also to make Welsh-grown seed (and varieties adapted to our harsh climate) readily available. Could growers spread throughout Wales work together to form a seed company? Could we produce high-quality seed? Could we meet all the legal requirements? Yes! Our list has grown from two varieties to over 100, with sales figures to match. And we have made many more people aware of the importance of local seed to food security and biodiversity.

Ungrudging advice from established small seed companies (especially Real Seeds) helped us start up, and now we share our successes (and mistakes!) to help similar Hubs establish elsewhere. The small seed companies are allies – with the common aim of making a diversity of locally produced seed readily available.”

You can read out more about Seed Week 2026 on The Gaia Foundation’s website here. We’d also really recommend heading over to their Instagram page to listen to different seed producers and seed sovereignty activists sharing their own ‘seed stories’ – including our very own Katie Hastings talking about the ceirch du (black oats), a story of Sardinian broad beans, and a Scottish landrace parsnip.

Lauren featured by Farming Connect

As a great example of a profitable small horticulture business!

One of our growers, Lauren Simpson (pictured above with her husband Phil), was recently featured by Farming Connect as a brilliant example of how small agroecological farms can still be profitable. Producing seed is an excellent way for our growers to complement and diversify their existing land-based businesses – we’re thrilled that they are getting the recognition they deserve!

You can read the full article on the Farming Connect website here, and learn more about Lauren and Phil’s business ‘Parc y Dderwen’ here. (Pssst… aside from producing seeds, they make seriously mouthwatering kimchi and sauerkraut using their own veg; if you haven’t tried it already, you’re missing out!)

Stalls and events in April

We’re winding down the season for stalls now that spring is here, but if you’re on Anglesey next Sunday May 17th we will have a selection of seeds for sale at Llangoed Plant sale.

Thanks for your support

The Wales Seed Hub is a cooperatively run seed company formed by a group of Welsh growers. All our seed is produced in Wales using agroecological methods, and the varieties are open-pollinated and specially selected to thrive in Welsh climates. By buying our seed you are supporting our growers and the important work they do in caring for our land and our food system in Wales and beyond. Thank you! Diolch!