buying seeds

**tbs727** · 12-28-2005, 04:49 PM

This is the first year I will be growing my garden from seeds. I always buy plants at wal-mart or lowes (yeah, i know, it defeats the money saving aspect of gardening). For obvious reasons, I want to start from seeds. Where is the best, and most economical place to purchase seeds? Also, what is the best way to get them started?

**forestdale** · 12-28-2005, 05:02 PM

Tiffany, my advice is to buy heritage or non-hybrid seeds. You'll have to look around on the web for seed catalogues for your prices.

The advantage of growing these seeds is that you'll be able to collect seeds at the end of your growing season and you won't have to buy seeds next year, or the year after. Theoretically, you'll never have to buy seeds again. There is a thread about saving seeds in the lawn and garden forum. There is also a thread on vegetable gardening in the garden forum, it contains info about starting common vegie seeds.
Vegetable Gardening 101 INCLUDES COMPOSTING

These old varieties of vegetables also have much better flavour because they haven't been modified to better suit the supermarket trade - tougher skins, uniform size and little taste. Many of the newer seeds have been modified so that even if you do save the seeds, they won't reproduce the same vegetable.

I'm sure some of our other gardeners will have tips for you about where to buy these seeds.

**owiebrain** · 12-28-2005, 11:41 PM

My favorite place to order from is Pinetree: www.superseeds.com Their seeds are excellent, as is their reputation. They are also incredibly cheap compared to other places. You can get seeds in smaller quantities which is great when you're just starting out, also great because they're mostly open-pollinated which means you can save your own seeds from there on out.

If you're interested in saving seeds, the book to have is Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. Check it out from the library but, believe me, it's worth its weight in gold so you'll end up buying it if you get into gardening from seed.

Oh, here's another site with cheap seeds that has a great reputation. http://www.valueseeds.com/ Their stock changes so check back once in a while if you don't see what you need.

To start seeds, get some soilless seed starting mix. You can buy it at WalMart or gardening centers, just about anywhere. Or, you can go to a farm and/or some garden centers and buy it much cheaper by the "bale" (not as scary big as it sounds).

What exactly is it you need to know about starting them? What do you plan to grow? I started writing a reply explaining all of it in detail but my fingers were about to fall off LOL so can you narrow it down as to your wants/needs?

I have a fairly massive seed stash so let me know what you're looking for and I can pop some in the mail to you if I have them.

**tbs727** · 12-29-2005, 12:35 PM

I appreciate the offer, Diane.

I am just interested in planting the basics this year. I want to make salsa from my garden.

Hopefully this will be the year I start canning as well.

I will plant tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, zucchini and maybe green beans.

I am interested in starting an herb garden as well.

**owiebrain** · 12-29-2005, 05:14 PM

Originally posted by tbs727
I appreciate the offer, Diane.

I am just interested in planting the basics this year. I want to make salsa from my garden. Hopefully this will be the year I start canning as well.

I will plant tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, zucchini and maybe green beans.

I am interested in starting an herb garden as well.

A fellow salsa lover! I'm a certified salsa FREAK!

I can hook you up with tomatoes, chiles, green beans, and possibly lettuce (depending on what type and how much you'd like to grow).

You can PM me what you're looking for in each or post here, either way, and I'll be more than happy to drop a garden in the mail to you. I also have plenty of walking onions (used for green onions) but not until the next time they set bulbils, probably in spring.