Where are you US gardeners buying your vegetable seeds?
In the past, I’ve bought from Baker’s Creek, Burpee, and MI Gardener, but I have been very displeased the last two years.
I’m mostly looking for cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers this year.
Where are you US gardeners buying your vegetable seeds?
In the past, I’ve bought from Baker’s Creek, Burpee, and MI Gardener, but I have been very displeased the last two years.
I’m mostly looking for cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers this year.
Fedco Seeds is great for variety and affordability.
Territorial Seeds and Adaptive Seeds for PNW-adapted seeds and some specific heirloom varieties I like to grow!
I like Territorial Seeds too!
I’m pretty loyal to Jung’s. They are local to me so they offer varieties suitable for here. Plus I can go into their very nice store.
But I do enjoy leafing through Johnny’s catalog.
I have been pretty loyal to Territorial for many years, despite never having lived in the PNW, but I’ve bought seeds from all over, sporadically: Botanical Interests and Renee’s Garden are two they carry in local nurseries. But lately I’ve moved to Seed Savers Exchange and Fedco, and three more local companies: High Mowing (VT), Hart’s (CT), and Hudson Valley Seeds (NY). High Mowing I think may be bigger, but the other two are small producers. The heirloom Riesentraube grape tomatoes I got from Hart’s were the most productive small tomatoes I’ve ever grown! I recommend seeking out hyper local companies (and then sharing the info with us!) I also got Shintokiwa cucumbers from Turtle Tree Seeds (NY) last year and they also did very well (although expensive).
Oh also Experimental Farm Network has some cool stuff! It’s sort of a seed breeding project as well so some of the seeds are not tested for germination, but are considered botanical samples. I got a lettuce variety from them last year that did great.
the scabiosa is still flowering. and it’s sending out runners. we’re getting the first frost tonight, so we’ll see how it holds up through winter!
my snaps are still snapping! the lisianthus are also somehow not quite dead yet! i planted ranunculus corms last week and covered them with tons of straw and frost cloth — and next week i’ll set up the greenhouse cover for the elevated raised bed that all these beauties live in, to see if that helps them make it through the winter. i think it will!
i dug my dahlias a few days ago and set them on my porch for a few days to dry out. today i put them into pots and covered them with soil and put them in my garage, which is unheated but is mostly underground so they should be fine down there. while i was down there, i also checked on the boston ferns and bougainvillea that i put down there a few weeks ago — everyone still looks great and it is much warmer in the garage than it is outside so fingies crossed, everyone makes it through the winter!
i know it’s still technically fall but it is hella cold out there so it’s winter to me which is depressing. BUT i realized it’s only about 6 weeks until it’s time to do my winter sowing and start some lisianthus seeds. that will be fun and i have plenty of stuff to do inside to keep me busy until then. including lots of planning to do ![]()
six weeks! it’s practically spring already!
this is what I tell myself at solstice to get through winter because I hate it too.
It’s 6 weeks until the big garden show here. We just wrote it on the calendar. Lol
I got some of my winter sowing done, until I ran out of gallon jugs. I do have a bunch of 4" pots with domes that I will also plant in the next couple of days. I recycled a bunch of jugs last fall because I wasn’t planning to do it this year, so I will save more for next year. I did not have the best luck last year, fingers crossed this time is better.
WHY do I keep buying more seeds?!?! Granted they are new things I haven’t seen before, but geez have a little self control. ![]()
I also bought a bunch more seeds that I probably don’t need. I also get to buy a ton of plants because I got a native plant grant for $400!
I know I’m not allowed to look at a seed catalog. I know me.
as far as vices go, it’s a pretty harmless one
i say enjoy!!
I need to start some early seeds in my garage that is basically the same temperature as outside. They will be started on a heat mat, with lights and a humidity dome.
My question is will they continue to grow once they germinate and are removed from the heat mat? Is light enough when they will be cold? They’re not cool weather flowers. It’s going to be 50 early next week but be back down to mid 30’s after that. Attempting inside growing would not go well with my cat.
hmm, i’d be loath to start warm weather stuff this early when it’s still this cold. something like sweet peas or snapdragons, sure, but zinnias / cosmos / etc. no way.
what are you wanting to start? maybe with humidity domes your cat would stay off them?
Not much, really. I think just Eucalyptus, Salvia, and Dahlias. I think they all want 10-12 weeks before planting out? That’s been around May 20 for me the last few years. I think I could wait a couple more weeks to start things but it’s going to be like 40 here through the end of the month.
I don’t have a way to set up grow lights inside. Even if I bought the Vego Garden rack I still don’t know how I’d keep the cat out of it. She’s a very determined girl.
I’ve been starting all of my seeds at the same time around the end of March when it’s a tiny bit warmer, giving them 6ish weeks which is fine for most things, but I’ve read that certain things need more time.
I suppose it won’t hurt to try, but I’d still rather not just waste materials and have stuff not grow.
i havent grown eucalyptus or salvia from seed, but is the salvia a perennial? if so, it’s more likely to work.
you could just keep stuff on heat mats, or you could even get one of those cheapy plastic greenhouses and put your grow lights in there — that would keep it about 10 degrees warmer.
Could you just keep them on the seed mats? That in theory should keep things warm enough until it warms up outside.