[woodburner]

I want to get seeds of heritage veg, but most are not registered, so can't be sold, at least not to the general public. Hence my interest in joining the Heritage Seed library but £20 for, in effect, 6 packets of seed is more than I can justify.

[DD.]

The price also put me off, but you can swap your seeds with other members to increase your collection.

Another way round this is to become a "Seed Guardian" and you can chose up to 3 varieties to grow and save seed from. There is no membership fee involved. You send most back, but retain some for yourself to do whatever you wish with the next year.

I did this a few years ago with 3 pea types, staring with about 30 seed of each. This year I had enough to be able to share some out with some other members of this forum and to grow two of them in particular to harvest for eating next year.

It costs only the postage to send the seed back to them.

Having said that, I will get my usual moan in about them. I documented all the growth at different stages, including taking photos, put all on a CD for them and paid over £5 to send the seed back. (My fault for choosing a heavy seed I suppose!).

I didn't even get a letter of acknowledgment from them. For all I know, they never even made it back!

You could ask on the Swap Shop & Recycle forum here if anyone has heritage seed to share.

[yewtreemob]

I appreciate your comments about cost but until recently they were the only show in town.  Try www.realseeds.co.uk - they have plenty of heritage veg and the first £ of your order is for membership - thus avoiding the issues surrounding registration and current regulations.