A difficult decision when planning our garden for this year was which seed companies to purchase from. There are so many of them. Companies like Burpee, Ferry-Morse, Gurney’s, and Livingston have been around for over 100 years and have displays in Wal-Mart, Tractor Supply, Agway, and many other stores. They’re the companies that my dad and grandparents bought from and still do a very good job.
There are also many smaller companies that have popped up in the past 50 years that are focused on offering organic and non-GMO seeds. Some of the more well-known ones are Fedco, Territorial, and Baker Creek. These companies also usually focus on seed-saving and heirloom varieties. These companies tend to have a more local following but have grown in popularity thanks to YouTube gardening videos and blogs. With so many options, who do you choose?
Requesting Catalogs
When we gardened in the past, we ordered from Territorial, Fedco, and Baker Creek and bought Burpee, Livingston, and Ferry-Morse in person. We had successes and failures with all of them and don’t have an issue with any of the companies. Once we decided to grow a garden this year, we started casually talking about what we wanted to grow and what a garden could look like. Things didn’t get serious until November when I remembered that we needed to request catalogs. Maggie and I are both visual people who prefer the older system of looking at physical catalogs. I began by searching for companies that send free seed catalogs.
Side note: I’m never looking to take advantage of these companies. We won’t request catalogs from companies next year that we didn’t purchase seeds from this year. At the same time, though, we don’t want to pay for a catalog unless we’re certain to purchase from the company. I like when companies are willing to print and send their catalogs for free.
A Google search led me to a Farmer’s Almanac page that listed over 40 companies with free catalogs. Some of the listings were outdated, while other companies focused solely on flowers and trees. After filtering it down, we had a list of 10 companies:
- Baker Creek
- Fedco
- High Mowing Seeds
- NE Seed
- Pinetree Gardens
- Rohrer
- Sow True Seeds
- Territorial
- Southern Exposure
- Seed Savers Exchange
I requested a catalog from each and waited. If you’ve requested seed catalogs in the past, you’ll know that the time period between American Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is amazing because that’s when the majority of catalogs arrive. The first to arrive this year was Fedco, which was in our mailbox in late November, and the last was Territorial, which arrived after New Year’s Day. It got to the point where we were receiving catalogs that I forgot I requested.
The Joy of Seed Catalogs
Flipping through seed catalogs is one of the most enjoyable experiences of gardening. Maggie and I love the joy of having something on the television for background noise (nothing too engaging), each grabbing a catalog and a pen, and marking off seeds we’re interested in. I recommend using a pen to initialize any seeds you’re interested in. It’s a great way to not forget the ones you see, which is easy to do when looking at multiple catalogs or browsing a website.
When looking at multiple seed catalogs, you’ll find a lot of the same varieties. Almost every company sells California Wonder Bell Peppers, Amish Paste Tomatoes, and Provider Bush Beans. Those are all common and productive seeds that have been around for decades. Companies sell them because they have high success rates and good disease/pest resistance. What you’ll learn is that different companies have different niches. For example, High Mowing Seeds, which is based in Vermont, sells only organic seeds. Meanwhile, Baker Creek only sells heirloom varieties. Also, the company’s location plays a part in its offerings. Fedco and Pinetree Gardens, both based in Maine, sell a lot of root crops and cool weather vegetables (lettuce, spinach, turnips, greens), while Sow True Seeds (North Carolina) and Southern Exposure (Virginia) sell a lot of okra, melons, and southern peas.
Then there is the catalog’s design. Seed catalogs are great because each is unique. Does the company focus on the growing information, such as germination time, thinning distance, sowing depth, etc. or does it tell a story with each seed? Does each seed have an image of the grown vegetable? Does the company include all seeds in its catalog or do you need to visit their website to see everything? Do they include educational information like seed starting charts, isolation distances, or plant disease information? Finally, do they sell gardening tools, starting equipment, and soil amendments?
Who Didn’t We Buy From?
There were only two catalogs from this year’s group that we were underwhelmed by. Territorial out of Oregon had most of the same offerings as the other companies but at a higher cost. The other was Rohrer from Pennsylvania, which wasn’t expensive but also didn’t wow us. Seed Savers Exchange has a beautiful catalog and their main goal is to save seeds from going extinct. However, we didn’t buy from them because they were a bit pricey and we could find the same varieties from other companies.
What Were Our Favorites?
We bought from all the other companies listed in the bulleted list above. I’ll go over what we liked about each company and their catalog.
Baker Creek
Baker Creek offers two catalogs: a free one that is 164 pages and a 532-page version that is $14.95. We got the free version and found that it had plenty of seeds. Plus, you can look at their entire offering on their website. Their catalog is beautiful. The pictures are crisp and vibrant, the descriptions are detailed, and they offer varieties that other companies don’t. Two minor improvements could be having more growing information, such as germination time, sowing depth, etc., and how they have the seeds organized.
Their catalog is alphabetized, which is great, but some of the seeds are categorized in ways that make it hard to find things. One example is melons vs. watermelons. Both have their own sections in the catalog, while other companies keep them together. We bought a lot of seeds from Baker Creek. Their prices are reasonable, shipping was free and fast, and they include a free seed packet for every 5 or so you buy. We bought 28 seeds and got 3 free packets.
Fedco
Fedco’s catalog is one of the most interesting because it’s black and white. It looks like a 19th-century Sears and Roebuck catalog and is 175 pages, which I love. There aren’t photographed images, but instead, they use beautiful illustrations to show the plants and vegetables. Some illustrations are straightforward, while others feature fantasy or humor elements, such as wings on a Speckled Swan gourd or a T-Rex biting the leaf off Dinosaur Kale. I’m always tempted to grab colored pencils and color the pictures. Plus, they provide pictures of the vegetables on their website.
Fedco provides a wonderful explanation of each seed. They include information on the seed’s history, a description of the vegetable’s physical attributes, growing tips, disease resistance, and the seed’s breeder/keeper. This is important because some give royalties back to Indigenous tribes or to black farmers if the seed originated in Africa or is a part of black foodways. Fedco’s catalog is organized well and offers a lot of seeds. Our favorites are their potatoes and corn.
High Mowing Organic Seeds
Prior to this year, I hadn’t heard of High Mowing Organic Seeds, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to purchase from them. We love organic farming, but organic seeds can be expensive, so I was unsure if it’d be possible. As mentioned above, High Mowing is a 100 percent organic seed company based in Vermont. When the catalog arrived, I was blown away. It was 117 pages and included images for every variety, which is almost unheard of. The majority of companies have images for most seeds, but you need to visit their site to see the rest. High Mowing, though, includes clear images for every seed. The best part is that they use a common background for each vegetable. For example, all the beets are photographed against the same background, which helps to see the similarities and differences between the varieties.
The information they provide is helpful and succinct. Each vegetable has an introduction that describes soil needs, disease/pests, and transplanting information. Each variety includes the growing time, if the seed is a hybrid or is open-pollinated, if it’s an heirloom variety, and a brief description of the visual and flavor profiles. They then include a chart with the cost and quantity of each variety. It makes comparison shopping easy.
NE Seed
NE Seed is another company I hadn’t heard of prior to reading the Farmer’s Almanac page. The company is based in Connecticut and mostly sells to commercial growers, so their quantities can be massive if you’re a home gardener. However, they do sell a lot of seed packets, and their prices are amazing. Still, I wasn’t sure if we would order from them because I didn’t think it’d make sense to only order 1 or 2 seed packets from a company if we had to pay for shipping.
Their catalog is nice and easy to navigate. It’s smaller at 87 pages, but they include images for most seeds. They also organize their seeds alphabetically by vegetable and further separate them by variety. For example, in their corn section, they have bicolor, yellow, white, open-pollinated, popcorn, and ornamental. They also have a large Italian Gourmet Collection that features Italian heirloom seeds. These seeds are a bit more expensive than their regular seeds, but most companies don’t offer those varieties.
Pinetree Gardens
Pinetree Gardens is another company I hadn’t heard of before this year. Like Fedco, they’re based in Maine. For some reason, we seem to really like Maine seed companies. Pinetree is a small company that’s been around since 1979. I get the impression that it’s a family-owned company that cares about its employees, customers, and products. The catalog is 130 pages and is everything you want: quality images of every seed, good organization, simple descriptions with enough information, and clear icons for pollinators, organic, sun requirements, etc. They also offer a lot of growing supplies, teas, and bulk herbs. We were impressed and bought a lot from them. The seeds took a bit to ship, which was fine given the company’s size. They communicated with us the entire time and included personal touches in their emails.
Sow True Seeds
Another seed company we were unfamiliar with (there’s a theme here) is Sow True Seeds based in Asheville, North Carolina. Sow True is an employee-owned company that has been around since 2009. They’re devoted to only selling non-GMO seeds, offering educational opportunities, and giving back to the communities that helped to save seeds throughout history. Located in the South, they offer seed varieties that are vital to Southern cuisine and culture, including collards, okra, southern peas, and beans. They also sell varieties with interesting histories, including the Queen Aliquippa tomato, which was named for a Native American leader of the Seneca tribe who spent much of her life in Western Pennsylvania. That sold us on the company.
Their catalog is beautiful. It is shaped more like a book than a typical catalog. It is 103 pages and has lovely artwork on the cover, similar to the artwork found on some of their seed packets. The catalog is perfectly organized – everything is alphabetized and each seed type has a chart with information about planting depth, germination time, and spacing. There are descriptions of each seed and they’re clear about the number of seeds you get in each packet, which isn’t always the case. There is even a section in the middle with a planting guide for all seed types, a companion planting chart, and a seed starting guide. The only negative I have for their catalog is that they don’t include images for all seeds.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Finally, the last catalog we ordered from: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE). SESE is another wonderful seed company dedicated to preservation, education, and community improvement. They do a lot of work to help the hungry and partner with a program called Plant a Row to provide for those with food insecurities in their area. That is something important to Maggie and me. SESE’s catalog is 92 pages and has the classic newspaper page feel. Maybe I’m weird, but I like the texture of flat (unglossy) pages. Their catalog is full of seeds important to Southern foodways, and they include origin and breeder information.
Southern Exposure’s catalog is also visually stunning with lovely artwork on the cover that depicts faeries and elves (maybe gnomes) stacking stones for an exterior wall of a house. The faeries have butterfly wings on their backs, and there is a massive watermelon in front being cut with a two-person crosscut saw. It’s pretty enough that we may end up framing it. They also have lovely seed packets with colorful illustrations of the fruit on a simple white background.
We Could Never Only Choose 1 Company
Maggie and I knew that we were never only going to buy from one seed company. Going into this process, we were interested in multiple companies because we wanted to buy a wide variety of seeds that couldn’t all be purchased at one company. After looking through the catalogs, we fell in love with the companies’ missions, which we wanted to support. We are pleased with the companies we purchased from. We’re also confident that we’ll continue to purchase from them moving forward.
If you’re unsure about who to purchase seeds from, I recommend determining how many choices you want to have. If you only want to grow a few plants and have the most success you can, the seed displays in Tractor Supply or a feed store are great options. They typically carry the most popular varieties with a lengthy track record of success. However, if you want to look at as many varieties as possible or are interested in heirloom varieties, I recommend requesting a few of the catalogs in this post. You’ll be able to read about the varieties, compare them, and take notes all in one place.
Do you have a favorite seed company or any experience with the ones in this post? We’d love to hear from you. Happy growing.
One Rabbit Riot 