As we near towards August, the festival of Lammas is almost upon us. Lammas celebrates the abundance of the harvest. As our harvest trugs begin to feel heavy and our heads are dizzy with ideas on how to preserve the gluts and glory of summer, it's a wonderful reminder of the resiliency and richness that the natural world has to offer.

The field here at Vital Seeds is looking full and abundant with blooms bursting into colour in every direction and seed heads forming and ripening. We've begun to harvest the first of our seed crops including cornflowers, peas, cauliflower, cima de rapa, wild rocket, wasabi rocket and coriander. We also processed our first batch of tomatoes last week.

Wondering what to sow in July?

There's still plenty of seeds that can be sown now.

Keep sowing your lettuce, parsley, coriander and asian greens for sucessional harvests. Remember to keep lettuce seed trays somewhere cool and out of intense sunlight while they're germinating.

​Turnips, daikon and radish can still be sown this month and it's your last chance for direct sowings of carrots.

​Calendula, cosmos and nasturtiums can still be sown now for late autumn blooms.

​Baby choi, salad rocket, mizuna, purple frills and spring cabbages are ideal to sow at the end of this month.

For a full list of seeds that can be sown in July, please follow the link below.

Fred chats through our 'Second Spring' seed collection

Wondered how we choose which goes into our seed collections each year? We got Fred in front of the camera to chat through the 10 varieties in this year's 'Second Spring' seed collection and why they are our favourites.

Germination testing

As our seed harvests ramp up, our annual germination-testing marathon gets underway.

We use vigorous techniques to germ test, counting how many seeds successfully germinate either on top of paper, between corrugated paper or in soil in seed trays. Each species has different requirements (e.g. temperature) and specific germination rates that we're looking to surpass, making it quite the undertaking.

Our internal standards are set far higher than the minimum legal requirements, ensuring our seeds are of the highest possible quality when they land on your doorstep.

Thinking about saving your own seed this summer? Check out our easy guide for DIY germination testing at home or enrol on our seed saving course.

Happy sowing, growing and seed saving!

Chloe and the rest of the team

P.S. There's still time to grab one of our 'Second Spring' seed collections - get your winter veg sown now!