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As our climate changes and growing conditions become more challenging, seed diversity and seed saving are becoming increasingly vital to our future. Put bluntly, without seeds, we can’t grow food.

So I was delighted to be joined by Catherine Howell, from the Seed Sovereignty Programme, to learn more about how those of us who grow in small spaces can support seed diversity - and even save some of our own seeds (timecodes below).

I was particularly struck by the joy Catherine has witnessed when people discover the extraordinary abundance of seeds that plants produce, with a single lettuce plant giving thousands of seeds. Sharing those seeds doesn’t just distribute a useful resource - it can also help to bind communities together.

I also loved Catherine’s encouragement to have a go at seed saving without worrying about doing everything perfectly.

Timecodes

Here are the main topics we discussed, with timecodes if you’d like to skip to a particular part:

00:00 Introduction

00:56 How Catherine became a seed saver

03:54 Why seed saving feels different: wellbeing, abundance and sharing

08:34 Why home-saved seed can perform better

13:14 Commercial hybrids versus heritage varieties

18:54 Favourite heritage tomato varieties

20:52 The best crops for saving seed in containers

23:47 Do you need several plants to save good seed?

27:36 How seed saving can bring communities together

28:48 Why it matters where you buy seed

34:20 Seed swaps and the Heritage Seed Library

37:08 Other easy seeds to save - chillies and peppers

40:28 The best resources for learning seed saving

44:07 Drying and storing seed: common mistakes

48:04 Seed resilience in a changing climate

51:34 Reasons for optimism - and causes for concern

54:44 If you save one seed next year, make it peas

Useful links

To learn more about the practicalities of seed saving, here are a few of the resources recommended in the podcast. I’ll share more links - including all the seed companies Catherine mentions - in a separate seed-saving post shortly.

* Vertical Veg: How to Save Tomato Seeds - an easy one to start with - my short step-by-step video with seed expert Peter Brinch.

* Back Garden Seed Saving by Sue Stickland - Catherine's seed-saving 'bible', with accessible crop-by-crop guidance.

* Real Seeds: How to Save Your Own Seed - free instructions for individual vegetables, including isolation and crossing.

* Seed Sovereignty Programme - Catherine's programme, with events and information about training.

More about Catherine and the Seed Sovereignty Programme

Catherine Howell is England Lead and Northern Region Coordinator for the Seed Sovereignty Programme -“A food revolution starts with seed”- a project of the wonderful Gaia Foundation, which also supports creative communications such as Wake Up Call.

Catherine supports seed-sovereignty work - including training, celebration and advocacy - from the Scottish Borders to Birmingham. She works with farmers and growers across community and commercial settings to restore power, control and agency over the seeds they need to grow food, while advocating for agroecological growing and biodiverse food-production systems.

I’ve long believed that worm farming is one of the best ways to grow stronger, healthier plants in containers. When I first started growing food on a small balcony in London, a wormery also transformed how I viewed food waste. Banana skins, tea bags and vegetable peelings stopped being rubbish and became a valuable resource that could be turned into rich compost and healthy plants.

In this episode, I speak with Anna de la Vega, founder of the Urban Worm, who has spent more than a decade helping people across the UK set up wormeries in homes, schools, workplaces and community projects. Together we explore everything from getting started with worms to the role they could play in tackling waste, improving soils and building more sustainable communities.

Listen here on Substack, or on Spotify or YouTube.

Some of the things we discuss

Start small and keep it simple

One of Anna's strongest messages is that worm farming doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. A few buckets, a storage box or even an old recycling bin can work perfectly well.

Worm farming is animal husbandry—and the secret is learning how to keep the worms happy. Their key needs are simple: organic kitchen waste, carbon (cardboard or woodchip), moisture, ventilation, drainage, and protection from direct sunlight.

Choosing the right wormery

Anna is not particularly enthusiastic about some of the more expensive commercial wormeries available today and often prefers simple DIY systems. Many of the stacking wormeries on the market are also heavy and the worms can be slow to migrate between layers.

For larger-scale or family use, more surface area increases the amount of food waste the worms can process - and makes them more forgiving and easier to look after. A larger surface area also allows worms to move away from disliked food and adjust to new diets. Good examples include old baths, large storage boxes, and old recycling bins.

The secret is balance

Many wormery failures happen because people give worms too much of one thing. Anna shared how she once killed a colony by feeding them too many apples, while others overload wormeries with coffee grounds. Worms thrive on a varied diet and a balance of food scraps and carbon-rich materials such as cardboard.

We also discuss how worms can adapt to a surprisingly wide range of food sources. Anna explains that worms raised on one type of feed may initially be reluctant to tackle a very different diet, but over time they adjust. This helps explain why newly purchased worms can sometimes seem slow to process our kitchen scraps and why introducing new foods gradually often works best.

Worms don’t actually eat your food waste

One fascinating insight is that worms are not directly munching their way through vegetable scraps. Instead, they are feeding on the microbes that break down the waste. Chopping food into smaller pieces helps create more surface area for those microbes and speeds up the process.

Carbon matters more than many people realise

Anna has tested the biology of her compost and discovered that many wormeries are too bacteria-dominated because people don’t add enough carbon. Cardboard, egg cartons and woodchip all help create a healthier balance and support fungal life in the compost.

We also explore the value of woodchip as a carbon source. As well as helping balance food-rich wormeries, woodchip improves structure and airflow in both the wormery and the finished compost. Anna uses it extensively in her commercial systems, while I’ve found it particularly useful for improving the texture of worm compost and creating a more fungal-rich growing medium.

Horse manure is worm gold

If you have access to horse manure, Anna describes it as one of the best things you can add to a wormery. It encourages worm breeding, and helps restore struggling systems.

Be cautious about “worm wee”

Many commercial wormeries are marketed around the liquid that drains from them. Anna explains that this liquid is technically leachate rather than true worm tea, and its quality can vary considerably. Leachate can contain harmful bacteria and is not recommended for large-scale or edible crops.

Instead, Anna recommends making a simple worm compost tea. This can be as easy as steeping a handful of finished worm compost in dechlorinated water and using the resulting liquid as a soil drench or foliar feed. It's an inexpensive way to spread the biology and nutrients from a small amount of worm compost much more widely around the garden.

Worm farming is about more than compost

Throughout our conversation, we keep returning to a bigger idea: worm farming changes how we think about waste. Nature produces no waste, and wormeries allow us to mimic the natural recycling systems found in woodlands and healthy soils. They help keep organic matter out of waste streams, reduce transport, create valuable compost and reconnect us with natural cycles.

Why aren’t worms more popular?

One of the most interesting parts of the discussion is hearing how mainstream worm farming is in other parts of the world. Anna describes seeing worm composting used in prisons, schools, farms and municipalities in the United States, Cuba and the Philippines. In some regions of the Philippines, worm farming is even built into organic certification schemes.

As Anna points out, worm farming may not attract much attention because it is such a simple, low-tech solution. But perhaps that’s exactly why it deserves more attention.

I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Links and more information

The Urban Worm - Anna’s website has lots of useful information and resources -subscribe to her monthly newsletter on this page.

Ted Talk - Nick H, aka the ‘Worm Dude’, from the Monroe Correctional Complex in the USA describes the prisoners experience of worm farming.

How to make a wormery - my guide to making a simple wormery, and a basic feeding guide.

Ecothrive - for soil testing and chlorine removing solution.

One of the things I love about container gardening is how adaptable it is. In this conversation with garden designer Susannah Hall, we explored growing food in some wonderfully small and unusual spaces — including on her boat.

Listen or watch the full recording here or on your favourite podcast platform - short written summary below.

This is the first in a series of wide ranging conversations with growers and other inspiring people to explore what happens when we start growing on balconies, patios, and rooftops.

Susannah grows in a collection of planters around her boat, moving through the seasons from winter salads into summer crops like tomatoes and mini courgettes. At the moment, the stars of her garden are the violas and pansies spilling out against the blue of the boat — beautiful to look at, but also edible additions to salads.

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was hearing about the plants she relies on most in the kitchen. For Susannah, it’s Welsh onions. She finds them easier and more reliable than spring onions, especially in a small space, and loves having a strong onion flavour available throughout the year. They pair particularly well with the eggs from her quails.

We also talked about how gardening journeys often begin. Susannah started growing with her dad, later gardening in a house before eventually rediscovering her passion when she moved into a London flat with a balcony. By filling that balcony with containers, she created what she describes as a green oasis in the city.

There was lots of practical wisdom too for anyone starting out with container growing. Susannah emphasised the value of planters with water reservoirs, especially for keeping containers evenly moist during warmer weather. She also encouraged people to experiment, observe what works in their own conditions, and connect with others through community growing projects such as Permablitzes.

What came through most strongly was the idea that even the smallest growing spaces can become productive, beautiful, and deeply nourishing places — whether that’s a balcony, rooftop, patio… or even a boat.

Susannah is an experienced trainer and facilitator, running gardening and craft workshops (see: www.susannahhall.london and Instagram). She is also a director of Permablitz London, and helps run the wonderful London Permaculture Festival (Sunday 26 July this year).