Heirloom Vegie Gardens
September 02, 2021
Heirlooms are a gardeners inheritance, giving us the control over the taste, quality and diversity of our food and gardens.
Heirloom seeds have been carefully selected and saved from the strongest plants each season by generations of gardeners. Exactly like family heirlooms, these seeds preserve what is worth saving for the future. Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, which means that when you collect the seeds, they will grow true to type year after year. The Diggers Club are committed to preserving heirloom seed varieties for future generations and we strive to educate and inspire others to join us on our seed saving journey.
As heirlooms have been handed down from generation to generation, they have become adapted to specific places and climates, and they can continue to adapt to different localities.
Being open pollinated means you can save your own seed and know that they will be closely identical to the mother plant. You can also choose to save those varieties that you particularly love and that grow well in your garden.
Each heirloom has a story and there are many different stories of where they came from and those you grew them. Stories like ‘Chioggia’ Beetroot that originated around 1840 in the island town of the same name, just south of Venice and ‘Amish Deer Tongue’ lettuce that the Amish people grew in 1840.
Through a tiny seed you are connecting with gardeners from long ago. These seeds provide a link to our ancestors that we can pass down to future generations.
Edible gardens can be ornamental as well. Here we have planted a mixture of sweet basil, purple basil, parsley and 5-colour silverbeet. The marigolds that we have planted here not only add colour and vibrancy - they also help attract beneficial insects to the vegetable and herb gardens!
