Sepp Holzer seed mix

I was watching Raised Beds and Terraces and they mention Sepp's seed mix uses 40-50 varieties of plants, veggies and wild flowers (including rare flowers). They help exchange nutrients while providing shade and moisture. He mentions he likes to group them in plant families. I am curious if anyone knows of any of the seeds he uses. I think the only one they name is buckwheat. Anyone?

I also want to know that.. and just asked about it on the thread here on the forum; about Paul going to an event where Sepp will be..I fear I missed the thread to comment/ask in time. I think this is the burning question indeed.
Roxanne

I too would like to know the answer to this question, but I bet with a little forethought you could probably come up with your own mix of plants that do well in your climate. If you made a point of mixing root crops, flowers, leaf crops, alliums, fruit-bearing plants, etc. that were known to survive in your climate, then I think your mix would likely be every bit as successful. If I had enough space to garden in, this is what I would do, anyway.

I tried a 20 seed mix and threw it around who knew it was a perfect bird and squirrel mix too! I never get any sunflowers

I have been doing just that..my current mix is lean I'm sure, I hope to fatten it up. I just broke ground on a new spot in the last month..built a large hugelkultur bed on a virgin plot newly fenced off for a garden. Rain won't last much longer so..i plan to do much more this fall and late summer ..so far white clover, many oz's of Borage seed, carrot, Feverfew, Calendula, chia, mallow, & garlic pips ...I need buckwheat asap. Hopefully his seed mixes will be revealed, till then I just keep experimenting with known beneficial's and companion planting, along with nurturing native ground covers.
Roxanne

Saybian Morgan wrote:I tried a 20 seed mix and threw it around who knew it was a perfect bird and squirrel mix too! I never get any sunflowers

I used to dig a huge trench and go buy a 20 lb sac of regular sunflower-seed from health-food or grocery store and pour in insane amounts of the seed..cover it up and let er rip..it's great you get every size of sunflower from 5 inches tall to 8 feet and cutting flowers all season. a sac costs like 25.00 but you will never forget it. No thinning just let it go..and bugs can do their worst. I sometimes put flats w/ the huge holes pinned over rows if critters are digging seeds up just until sprouted and they have true leaves then pop them off.
Roxanne

i find that tossing seeds on the ground is quite unsucceessful here, I generally have to scratch them in at least..unless of course they are too small to scratch in...if I toss them they never do well.

Roxanne, your sunflower idea is so brilliant I bought a big bag of seeds today. I was just telling my wife this morning that I really wanted to plant some sunflowers in greater numbers this year. It never occurred to me that the seeds in those massive bags would actually germinate.

I love all these great ideas! I'm buying seeds now and I'll plant all my garden on Mother'sDay weekend.

When you are looking for sunflower seeds for planting, make sure to get raw, unsalted seeds.
About the cheapest ones that are easy to find are black oil seeds, sold as bird feed at most garden/hardware stores.

One of those big bags should cover a huge area...
...enough to attract birds and squirrels from 3 counties!

Old post with seed suggestions:- https://permies.com/t/1998/permaculture/Sepp-Holzer-seed-mix

Thank you Woz!

I read the book Permaculture from Sepp Holzer. In that book he gives various lists of seed mixes he uses for his raised beds. Not al the seed mixes are up to the 40 species he uses. But in his book he gives the suggestion that trying diferent mixtures is important, because on every terrain the circumstances are different. I have put several lists together and come up with the next mix which I am going to try next year. I am already searching for plants nearby to harvest seeds from.
I can only give you all the latin names because I read the book in dutch.
The list I put together consist of the next plants:
Melilotus officinalis, Medicago sativa, Vicia, Pisum sativum, Lupinus, Helianthus annuus, Helianthus tuberosus, Brassica napobrassica, Cannabis sativa (might be a problem in some countries), centaurea cyanus, Achilleam millefolium, Calendula officinalis, Anthemis tinctoria, Matricaria chamomilla, Campanula patule, Symphytum officinale and food crops. I have to determine which food crops I am going to use. Radish and lettuce are at least two of them.
I can really recommend the book from Sepp Holzer. It is a real practical book for the people who want to try. Almost all the tekst are practical. It contains various lists of green manures, old rases of fruit trees, vegetables, herbs et cetera.
For the people who are interested in herbs I can recommend his book Wo ein Wolle da ein Weg. It means where there is the will, there is a way.
Ik hope that the books are also translated in englisch.

I have found it you mix the seed with a medium before you put it on the ground like sand or sifted top soil it helps to disperse the seed better and does help to reduse the birds getting so much of your seeds as well. Also put some cds hanging on sticks things like that that reflect which will help to deter pests.