Seeds - It’s that time of year again
tyler | December 20, 2007I don’t know if I’m getting anxious or what, but I have this feeling I should have received my seed catalogs by now. I thought for sure Seeds of Change would have sent them by now, but it doesn’t look like they are out yet. And my Park Seeds catalog just arrived a few days ago. I have to say I’m deeply disappointed in the organic selection from Park Seeds. It takes up a total of 2 pages this year. *sigh* I try and spread the money around to as many seed companies as I can so at least one more nut job gets added into the accounting when they consider stopping selling organic seeds.
Last year Seeds of Change ran out of the seeds I wanted (my fault, I waited too long to order) and I was scrambling to find alternative suppliers. If anybody has a recommendation or two for companies providing heirloom and/or organic seeds please drop me an email or post a comment. I know about most of the seed swapping groups, but right now I’m looking for the easy route. I have more money than time these days, but not by much, so if they have a catalog and I send them $5 and they send me a packet of seeds back I’ll be thrilled.
Time to start researching my seed orders and updating the diary.
Fedco seeds is a great place for all sorts of
eric : Gardenfork.tvFedco seeds is a great place for all sorts of seeds, tubers, bulbs, and trees. It is a seed coop run by farmers in Maine. They specialize in non-GMO and organic seeds and plants.
they also sell some great supplies and fertilizers you wont find in regular seed catalogs, rock minerals like Azomite for example.
plus, their catalogs are a great read. http://fedcoseeds.com/
Thanks! I'll give them a try this year. Looks like
tylerThanks! I’ll give them a try this year. Looks like they have 50% of what I want.
Hey Tyler, I was thinking that I was ahead
Mike Sz.Hey Tyler, I was thinking that I was ahead of the game by ordering my seed catalogs last week. Now you’ve got me worried!!
Are you going to be starting your seeds indoors? When will you do that? We live in the same zone so I need to follow your lead.
Also, I’m going to be bulding a couple of raised beds this year. I know you sued the square foot meathod. Did you use the “perfect mix”? Where did you find the vermiculite if you did?
Don't be worried. Just don't wait to order your seeds.
tylerDon’t be worried. Just don’t wait to order your seeds. Once you know what you want, order it.
I will be starting seeds indoors. There’s no particular start date really. The best way is to figure out roughly when you want to start planting outdoors. I use the average last frost date for our area of April 15th. So I find the nearest weekend past that date and pick that as my goal. I then look at the particular seeds I want to plant that weekend and subtract the number of days for germination of each plus a week or two to let them get growing.
Looking back at last years posts/podcasts I did my first seed starting around April 4th in my garage under some home made grow lights (check gardenfork.tv for his episode..I built those)
I did use the “perfect mix” and got the vermiculite from Midwest Trading in St. Charles (see link to the right under ‘Companies’). You’ll need to park and go to their commercial office and pay for it and then you can drive back into the yard and pick up the bag or two. I’ll be building two or three more raised beds as well, so a trip to Midwest Trading is in order as well. They didn’t have the coarse grade kind when I went last time and I didn’t want to wait for them to ship some more so I went with the medium grade I think. Worked just fine.
One other thing. I just purchased 2 1/2 pounds (smallest I could order) of potatoes to try growing some this year. I don’t need/want them all and I’d be happy to toss some your way if you want to give them a try. Drop me an email.