Do you have an apple tree in your garden? The Apple Mach Register is a record of apple varieties growing in the Dyfi Valley. It tells us which grow and fruit well in our climate and gives local people the opportunity to propagate their own trees from proven varieties.

Do you own an orchard or grow fruit in Powys?

We would like the people and wildlife of Powys to benefit from the planting of more orchards. But successful fruit growing takes careful planning and it seems that more advice is needed. This need has inspired the “The Powys Orchard Project; Fruit trees for people and biodiversity", funded by Glasu and organised by the Dyfi Valley Seed Savers.

We are interested to know how you are getting on with fruit growing in our beautiful, but damp land. Do you get regular crops of rosy sweet apples and baskets full of blackcurrants, or do you suffer from irregular crops of scabby fruit? Do you enjoy your orchard? Is it a rewarding activity for you, or a drain on your resources? A guilt inducing bramble patch, best not looked at? Or a sanctuary for yourself and the bees, butterflies and birds? Whether you have a few bushes in your garden, or a whole orchard, we’d love to hear your experiences.

Click here to take the survey online now! >>

The Welsh Seed Search 2010

Several years ago the Heritage Seed Library did a UK wide call for seed so that they could store and give seeds to preserve our diversity of vegetables. At the time of appeal, they did not have many seeds donated in from Wales.

We are now continuing that search for Seeds that are special to Wales, they could be seeds that have been saved for many years on an allotment or it may even be a variety that someone has bred themselves in their back garden.

We are hoping to bring together a collection of varieties with a Welsh history or connection so that we can keep those varieties going by sharing them with local gardeners to preserve them for others to enjoy.

If you have a special vegetable you'd like to tell us about...  please get in touch with Claire ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Trialling them with growers in Powys

This year we are going to be trialling varieties that we have had donated to us.

Thanks to grant funding by Glasu, we are able to run the 'Welsh Vegetable Project. We will be getting growers to trial them at 10 selected sites throughout Powys and are hoping for a range of different growers to try them, describe them and record their characteristics. We hope people will enjoy them and of course return some seed to us to keep them going.

So far, we're very excited to have 3 things to offer for trial this year:

1.The 'Melbourne Mini' a Climbing French Bean, described as "tasty tender, stringless"

2.The 'Llanover Pea' a tall pea with "large incredibly sweet peas"

3.Ben & Kate's tomato - 3 years into development, described as "early with a delicious flavour" - to be grown and the best plants to be selected for seed saving next year - your own variety in development!

We kicked off with our First workshop which was held at our  fun Seedy Sunday event (see website) on Sunday 28th February at y Plas in Machynlleth. It was a great opportunity for us all to meet up and hear all about how Ben & Kate's baby tomato was born and other exciting information about plant breeding.