About Dave's Seed - Vegetable Gardening

Hi I am Dave and you will most likely have met me at my Dave’s Seedling stall at the Cygnet Market. I have been often asked why don’t I also sell my vegetables seeds and, after hearing this often, I have decided to do so. I germinate over 100,000 vegetable, herb and flower seeds a year so I know the pain of poor quality seeds or varieties not suited to the Tasmanian cool climate. Vegetable gardening has been a passion since I was a child.

My seeds are either home grown, sourced from quality market gardeners or from whoslesalers around the world. If you ever look at seed catalogues from Europe and America, they have so many quality options compared to Australia due to quarantine rules. Thus I have seed import approvals and aim to bring in the best varieties for the Tasmanian climate I can. Mainland Suppliers are not really that interested in bringing in seed for the Tassie climate.

Vegetable gardening is a journey. I first gained an interest when sowing Cosmos when I was about 12 living in Brisbane. I then moved to planting lettuce and tomato in pots on the deck. Then my wife and I moved to Toowoomba and I watched Peter Cundall’s ‘Patch from Scratch’ and I was hooked.

These days I have moved to the Charles Dowding ‘No Dig’ method as I am not a fan of weeding. My initial in ground garden bed in Tasmania was great for the first year, but after rotary hoeing the area, seeds germinated like mad and I did not enjoy an hour or two after a 9 hour work day of weeding. Gardening is like a personality. There is no one way to do it, you try what works for you and over time you learn and adapt.

I hope to add another option for the cool climate gardener to obtain vegetable, herb and flower seeds. After years of growing veg for the family, I have many favourite varieties but each year I find more and as time goes on I will continue to add to the seed I have available. I will be aiming to save the majority of seed for many vegetables, but some I will buy in such as Brassicas.

You will also find me at the local Cygnet Markets between August and April of each growing season.