Nearly everyone you talk to expresses a desire to shop locally and support small businesses rather than buying things from Amazon and Wal-Mart. Magz and I are no different. We enjoy buying things in person and from a store in our town and try to use Amazon Prime if we strike out elsewhere. An issue we’ve been encountering is that our local stores rarely have what we need in stock, and nowhere has this been more of a reality than with garden supplies.
Our Local Stores
We live in a small town of about 8,000 people. The population has stayed almost the same since 1990. We are surrounded by towns with even smaller populations – 3,500, 800, 1,900, and 2,000. To get to a town with more than 15,000 people, you need to drive about 30 minutes. Our town isn’t void of stores, though. We have an Ace Hardware, a Tractor Supply, an Agway Feed Store, and a small Wal-Mart that doesn’t have a grocery section. Those stores all carry some gardening supplies, but because we are in the center of many small towns, as well as three colleges within a 10-mile radius, these stores have to cater to a large area and a wide array of shoppers.
Photo by Tem Rysh on Unsplash
Ace Hardware has a small selection of seed-starting items, a great selection of hand tools, and a small offering of engine-driven equipment, with most of the in-stock items being fairly pricey STIHL products. Tractor Supply has more power tools, including affordable options, but our local store wasn’t going to have any in stock until April. We could have ordered the tiller we bought at a higher price and shipped it to our local store for free or paid to have it shipped to our house. Either way, it was going to be more expensive than what we got from Amazon.
Agway has a lot of gardening items but few tools. It’s a great store for buying top soil and mulch in bulk, soil implements like diatomaceous earth and fertilizers, and seed-starting cells, but our local store doesn’t carry any tools. Finally, we get to Wal-Mart. We generally don’t like our Wal-Mart. Because it’s a small store without a grocery section, it is limited in the items it carries, and to maximize the number of aisles, there is a less-than-average amount of walkway space between aisles. They have a gardening section with some seed-starting stuff, but ours doesn’t carry cultivators or tillers nor does it keep soil additives in stock. You can buy everything online through Wal-Mart, but that’s no better than purchasing from Amazon.
Moving outside of our town, you need to drive about 30 minutes to shop at a Lowe’s or Home Depot. When we were at Lowe’s a couple of weeks ago, we were pleased with the gardening section they had but didn’t see any gas-powered tillers. We also recently learned that some Tractor Supply stores have a garden center. The ones closest to us don’t have garden centers, but there are a few within 45 minutes that do. In the future, we’ll check one out and see how much more it carries compared to our local store. There’s another feed store about 20 minutes north of us that we want to visit this year to see if they have a better selection than our local Agway.
What to Do When You Want to Shop Local But Can’t
This was a dilemma we found ourselves in. Since we started planning this year’s garden, we’ve looked for local options when making purchases. We did end up buying our starting tray, starting mix, and gloves at our closest Lowe’s. That wasn’t in our town, but it was in person and regional. The frustration has come when looking for larger tools, such as a tiller or cultivator. The tiller we bought, an Earthquake model with a 43 cc, 4-cycle engine, is sold at a lot of stores, including Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, and Wal-Mart, but none of the stores in our town had them in stock. Menards actually had the best sale, but the closest store is about 50 minutes away, and we were unsure if we’d be able to get there before the sale expired. The only other place we looked into was Family Farm & Home, with the closest location about 45 minutes away. We love the drive, but there was no way to check the store’s stock without doing so in person, and driving that far only to learn it wasn’t in stock seemed like a bad gamble.
It’s a very frustrating spot to be in: wanting to shop locally and in person but being unable to. You don’t want to give in to online shopping for everything, even when it’s cheaper and you’re already paying for an Amazon Prime membership, but we have found ourselves with no alternatives recently. Sure, we could have paid $100 to have a tiller shipped to us from another store or waited for it to be shipped to the local store. We also could have driven to Menards or Family Farm & Home, but at that point, we’re not shopping locally. Family Farm & Home is in a different county, while Menards is in another state. In all these situations, we’d either be paying more money, waiting longer, or taking a chance on it not being in stock. Amazon was simply the best option, and I think that’s okay.
We should be allowed to give ourselves a pass when Amazon is the best option. We also shouldn’t be forced to feel bad because we don’t want to overspend, drive long distances, or buy an inferior product. I think we should look for a local option first, but if the stores in your town won’t carry what you need, it’s not your fault. We ended up buying the tiller that best fits our needs and budget, and we’re happy with it, which is the most important thing.
I try not to complain about things in my writing and won’t make a habit of this, but I’ve been processing these thoughts for quite a while now, and it’s not just with gardening supplies. Do you struggle with the pressure of buying locally or the guilt of shopping online? If so, I hope you can get some reprieve from it and feel confident when you make the best decision for your needs. Happy gardening!
This week’s garden update will be brief, as we haven’t started any more seeds and are in a holding pattern as we wait for the ground to dry out. All of the snow has melted and has been followed by some rain, so our soil is quite saturated.
In last week’s update, I mentioned that we may be starting eggplant seeds this week, but after consulting the seeding starting spreadsheet, we realized that this weekend was a bit too early. We’ll actually be starting them this week, likely Thursday. Instead, the big thing that happened this week was that we bought our rototiller.
Which Tiller Did We Buy?
Buying a tiller or cultivator is a big decision; much bigger than I thought it would be. In the future, I’ll likely write a standalone article that discusses what went into the decision we made, but for now, we bought this tiller:
It is an Earthquake 40 cc 4-cycle tiller (technically, it’s a mini cultivator) that can till up to a 10-inch wide path at one time. Two of the tines can be removed to till a narrower path, and it has a working depth of 8 inches. We bought ours from Amazon, although it is also available at Tractor Supply, Lowe’s, and Ace Hardware. We wanted to buy locally, but the Tractor Supply in our town didn’t have it in stock, Ace was far more expensive than Amazon, and the closest Lowe’s to us is about 30 minutes away. Meanwhile, Amazon was able to deliver it the next day.
It arrived on Thursday afternoon, and it only took about half an hour to put together. Afterward, I had to give it a go and see how it worked. The engine fired right away, and we did a quick trial run in the mulch bed by our back porch and in our yard. It worked extremely well in the mulch bed, which was expected, and did pretty well in the yard, which has never been tilled. We weren’t expecting it to have much success in the yard since the ground was very wet and we hadn’t set the depth on the tiller yet. We’re very excited to have a tiller and can’t wait to get our garden laid out. The plan is to till the garden later this month, but if it dries out before then, we’ll likely start sooner.
What’s Next?
As mentioned in the intro, we were originally planning to start our eggplant seeds this weekend but realized it was too early. Instead, that will happen this week. Those will be the only other seeds we’ll be starting in March. Everything else will be started in April or May. Happy gardening!
After writing about starting our first seeds for the season, I thought it’d be helpful to discuss our seed-starting setup. Although everyone will have a unique set of equipment, the basic items will generally be the same for everyone. The equipment I discuss below is what Magz and I bought, but you’ll want to determine what best fits your needs. That can be based on how much you want to invest in seed starting at this time, how many seeds you want to start, and how large your seed-starting space is.
Necessary Equipment
Regardless of how big or small of a garden you’re planning, these are the essentials you’ll need.
Heat Mat
Although many people will first think of a grow light when buying seed-starting supplies, a heat mat is equally as important. A heat mat warms the soil to the appropriate temperature for seeds to germinate. They are great because they maintain a temperature of about 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit. They are also waterproof and can be wiped clean, so you don’t have to worry about getting wet soil on them.
Our seed starting equipment for the 2025 garden.
They’re very easy to operate since the ones we have don’t have a temperature controller. Rather, you simply set them and forget them. Once you plug them in, they stay on 24/7 until you begin seeing your plants poking through the soil. We bought ours on Amazon in Feb. 2022. They are 10 inches by 20 inches, came in a 2-pack, and cost $27.99 at the time. They’re actually cheaper now than they were in 2022 at $23.99. Here is a link to them.
Grow Light
The grow light works hand-in-hand with the heat mat. You don’t need to turn on your grow light when you first start your seeds. That’s because its purpose is to help the plants grow through photosynthesis, and until the seeds germinate and poke through the soil, the grow light has no job. Instead, you wait for germination and see green through the brown soil. At that point, you can begin using the grow light, which you want to mimic the sun by not having it on 24/7. Ours is set to be on 12 hours and off 12 hours. The grow light will be used until you transplant the plants into your garden. Like the heat mats, our grow light also came from Amazon. It was $25.99 when we bought it in Feb. 2022. The exact light we got is no longer sold; however, here is one very similar and is only $23.99. There are different styles of grow lights, but I prefer the ones that clip on tables to the ones that hang. Hanging ones are great because their light is spread across a larger area, but you have to have the right setup to hang them. Meanwhile, the clip-on ones can be attached nearly anywhere and you can angle the lights to fit your needs.
Dome & Tray
You’ll almost always find these sold together as a set. The tray holds your seed-starting cells and will prevent excess water from running onto the table or surface you’re growing them on. The dome, or lid, works like a greenhouse and keeps moisture inside. This is essential during the germination process as the seeds need consistent moisture. The dome can only be used until the plants reach a height where they are pushing up against it. You’ll also want to be careful when using the lid. Keeping the lid on can lead to mildew or mold problems if your soil is too wet. Mini greenhouses are the perfect environment for mold to grow because the soil is warm and wet, and until the grow light is turned on, there are no UV rays to kill said mildew and mold. So, just be sure to monitor your cells each day. The underside of the lid should have condensation on it and the soil should be damp but not soaking wet. If you notice that the soil isn’t drying out within a few days of watering, adjust the lid a bit to allow some airflow. That will dry it out. Seed trays and domes are very easy to find. Your big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot will have them, and you can also find them at feed or farm stores, such as Tractor Supply and Agway. They’re very affordable. Here’s one from Tractor Supply for $12.69 that holds 72 cells and includes the compacted soil pellets, so a seed-starting mix isn’t even needed.
Seed-Starting Mix
It’s important to have the right soil mix when starting seeds. It may be tempting to use soil from outside or regular garden soil when starting seeds, but you should resist that temptation. MI Gardener explains it very well in a YouTube video, but the gist is that outside soil and compost will have microorganisms, bacteria, fungus, and bugs in them that can lead to damping off and other diseases in your seedlings. Not to mention, you probably don’t want bugs in your house. Instead, you should use a dedicated seed-starting mix that has things like peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and coconut coir in it. These give the starting mix a light and airy texture that allows seeds to germinate and grow while also draining well. We look for organic bags of starting mix. Is it necessary? Probably not, but starting mix is so affordable that there isn’t a good reason not to. We bought two bags of Jiffy organic starting mix at Lowe’s. Each was $7.28 for 12 quarts of soil. We’ve used several different starting mixes in our gardens and haven’t found one to be better than the others.
Water Source
This is pretty self-explanatory, but you’ll need a vessel for watering your seeds. In the past, we used small cups to pour the water. This year, we changed to spray bottles and have enjoyed it more. We find the bottles to be better because they don’t spill or flood the seed cells. You don’t want to overwater your seeds, so spraying is a more controlled method. We bought a 2-pack on Amazon that is currently $7.56. Any spray bottle is work, though.
Surface to Set Everything
I’m including this because it can be easy to forget, but you’ll need a good place to set all your supplies. This can be a table, counter, desk, or shelf, but keep in mind that you’ll need to have everything out for several months and there will be UV lights that can be a bit annoying after a while. In the past, we have used a dining table and a collapsible hard plastic table that is nice because it can easily be cleaned. This year, we switched it up and are using a piece of plywood that was left in our basement by the previous owners and a set of sawhorses. It’s working well because the sawhorses keep the seed trays at a nice height and the plywood was free, so it’s not a big deal if it gets dirty. I’d recommend using something you already have. I don’t think you need to buy something new for this purpose.
What Is in Your Seed-Starting Kit?
In addition to everything I discussed in this post, you’ll need to determine the best way to get power to your equipment. That’s going to be unique to your situation. We bought a 50-foot 12-gauge extension cord and a 3-prong adaptor to make sure we had enough length to reach the closest outlet. Keep in mind that the heat mats and grow lights can draw a decent amount of power, so go overboard when using an extension cord just to be safe.
What do you use to start seeds? Is there any overlap with the items we use? We’d love to hear from you and see if we can improve our kit for next year’s garden. Happy gardening.
Throughout this year, I am going to publish a weekly blog post with updates from our garden. It will include progress pictures and anything we learned over the past week and will serve as a general update since a lot can change in a week’s time when gardening. I wanted to wait until we started our first seeds, and guess what? We did!
Peppers Have Been Started
I don’t believe that each year’s garden has started until your hands first touch soil in the spring. Buying seeds and purchasing supplies is wonderful, but it’s all still part of the planning process. Getting your hands dirty for the first time moves everything from a concept to a reality. And that’s the step we took Saturday evening.
Seed Starting
Earlier in the day on Saturday, we made a trip to the nearest Lowes to pick up a downspout extension and grabbed a couple of bags of seed starting mix, another seed starting tray and flat of cells, and gardening gloves. Brief side story: Neither of us could remember if we needed extra seed starting cells. I would have bet a dollar that we had enough to get us started for the year and only bought the new cells as extra. Boy, am I glad we got them. When we came home, I checked our gardening tote, and the starting tray that I thought had cells in it was empty. It’s funny how taking a two-year absence from gardening and moving can make you forget stuff.
That evening, we unpacked our heat mats and glow light, set up the table we’re using, and ran an extension cord from the nearest outlet. First up on our seed-starting schedule is peppers. (Technically, our mustard greens should already be in the ground, but because they will be directly sown, we have to wait until the ground is tilled). We found our 3 varieties of peppers (California Wonder bells, Scotch Bonnets, and Hungarian Waxes, which I discussed in this post), grabbed our seed-starting mix, and filled a spray bottle with water.
Starting pepper seeds
We decided to grow 3 cells each of Scott Bonnets and Hungarian Wax peppers and 6 cells of the California Wonders. With 2 seeds in each cell, we’re confident we’ll get strong seedlings to transplant later in the spring. Determining how many cells of each variety to start is always a fun process. You want enough to guarantee good germination but not so many that you feel overwhelmed if all of them succeed. Hot peppers are particularly difficult for us because we don’t eat a lot of them and will mostly use the Scotch Bonnets for jerk marinade. We went with 3 cells with the goal of transplanting 2 of them, and if all 3 succeed, we’ll give the third plant away. For the California Wonder bell peppers, we’ll probably transplant as many as we can.
What’s Next?
Next week, we will be starting our eggplant seeds. I’ve been using the seed starting spreadsheet that I created to organize everything and started another page to track the dates and expected germination times for each seed. That will allow us to know if a seed is taking longer than expected to germinate.
We’re also going to be buying our rototiller sometime over the next week. We’re big fans of no-till gardening, but our yard is currently all grass, so we have to break ground. We were originally going to buy an electric tiller since they are cheaper than gas models and we won’t need to use it much after the first year. However, after realizing how expensive 100-foot heavy-gauge extension cords are, we have pivoted to a gas model. We’re still narrowing down the exact one, but I’ll write a blog post about it and how we reached that decision when we get it. I’ll also write a follow-up post reviewing the tiller once we use it. Spring weather is finally starting to arrive after a harsh winter, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Growing up, I spent many spring Saturdays taking trips with my mom, dad, or grandparents to the greenhouses and garden centers in our area. We would walk around the tables that were full of flats holding vegetable starts and flower transplants. That was how my family typically began each year’s garden. It was wonderful to take in the greenhouse smells of damp soil, fertilizer, and new plants. You’d run your fingers over the leaves and quickly learn to identify the differences between peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Seedlings in a greenhouse (Photo by Zoe Richardson on Unsplash)
Fast-forward to today and seeds seem to be all the rage. There are dozens of seed companies I hadn’t heard of until about a decade ago selling heirloom varieties of seeds that I didn’t know existed until recently. I’m not sure if that’s simply the result of the internet raising awareness for seed loss and advertising for these companies or because people in my circle didn’t talk about heirlooms. Either way, it does seem as though there has been a shift in attitude and approach toward starting a garden.
That raises the question: Which is better between seeds and starts? Based on my previous posts about seeds and catalogs, you can guess which camp I’m in, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t merits for buying transplants from your local greenhouse. Let’s dive into the advantages and disadvantages of both and help you make a decision on which is best for you.
Cost
There is a wide range of costs when choosing how to start your garden. The cheapest we found seeds in our catalogs was $1.95, which was a broccoli packet from Pinetree Gardens.
Fun fact: That price is actually lower than our local Wal-Mart sells Burpee seeds for. Another reminder to buy directly from the seed company if you can. There typically isn’t much difference in price, you’ll find a larger variety, and you’re guaranteed that the seeds were recently packed.
On average, the lowest price in our catalogs was $1.99 per packet. That was the case for most vegetables. The highest price was $15.00 for a packet of pumpkin seeds from NE Seed. Calculate the per-seed price and you’ll get a range of less than $.01 for some beet and carrot varieties up to $1.00 per seed for heirloom cantaloupe and tomato varieties.
Let’s compare that to the price of starts. I’m not 100 percent sure what starts cost at greenhouses in our area since it’s still too early, but a quick search online showed tomato plants in the $3-4 range from Home Depot. That price is comparable to a packet of seeds. However, when you consider that a start produces one mature plant in the best-case scenario, seeds are far more economical. I know that more than one seed is generally used when starting them, but it’s still cheaper to purchase seeds.
Seeds 1, Starts 0
Variety
When you are shopping for starts, you’ll likely find the most popular varieties for your region at a greenhouse. These tend to be successful, are adapted to your area, and are relatively easy to grow. Some examples you’ll find in Pennsylvania are Amish paste and Brandywine tomatoes, Straight 8 cucumbers, and California Wonder bell peppers. Most greenhouses will have these varieties available as starts. You may find some more “exotic” varieties, such as habanero peppers or a non-red variety of tomato, but greenhouses will stock the varieties that sell. 3-4 varieties per vegetable are typically the upper end of what you’ll find.
When you buy seeds, there are many varieties to consider. Even displays in stores like Lowes will have up to 10 varieties per vegetable. For tomatoes, you’ll find several varieties of cherry, beefsteak, and paste tomatoes. For cucumbers, you’ll typically find a few different pickling and slicing varieties. Just today, the display in Lowes had ornamental corn seeds, something I’ve never seen in a store before. You have a lot of options to find the seed that best fits your needs. Then, when you expand to purchasing seeds online or from catalogs, you’ll have dozens of varieties to pick from for each vegetable, including organic and heirloom.
Seed Starting
That many choices can be both positive and negative. If you want the chance to buy heirloom varieties that you’re unlikely to find starts for, it’s a positive. But if you’re just starting out and can become overwhelmed by how many options there are, it’s a negative. Ultimately, I think having more options is a good thing, so I’m going to give this one to seeds as well, but there’s an argument for starts.
Seeds 2, Starts 0
Necessary Equipment
When you buy starts, you don’t really need anything else assuming you have a garden or container. You’ll also need soil, fertilizer, and tools for transplanting and watering. Those are all items that you’ll also need for seeds, though, so I don’t count them for the purposes of this post. So, like I said, once you buy the starts, you have everything you need.
Seeds, meanwhile, need a bit of equipment. You’ll have to have seed-starting cells and a starting mix of soil or compressed and dehydrated soil pods that expand when water is added. This is where the seeds will go. In some cases, you’ll need multiple cell sizes for different plants and to transplant them as needed when growing. Those cells need a tray and potentially a dome to sit in. The cells are placed on top of the tray, which provides a place for water to drain, and under the dome, which holds in moisture, creating a greenhouse effect.
You then need a heat mat and grow light to help with germination. The heat mat is used at the beginning to heat the soil so the seeds can germinate, while the grow light helps the young plants grow through photosynthesis. Neither item has to be expensive: You can get a 10″ x 20″ heat mat for $12 and a grow light for $14, both on Amazon. Finally, you’ll need a surface to set everything on, an extension cord and power supply, and the room for all the seed-starting supplies for several months. None of the items are expensive, but more is needed to start seeds than transplanting starts. In this case, starts require far less equipment.
Seeds 2, Starts 1
How Easy Is It?
Which one is more complicated? This category is an easy win for starts. With them, you purchase them, bring them home, and when the soil and weather are right, plant them in your garden. Once they’re in the ground, it’s the same as starting from seed. You do need to be careful when picking your starts, but most of the hard work has already been done when you buy the start.
Seeds, meanwhile, can be complicated. You have to track a lot of information, including how long each seed takes to germinate, how resistant to frost each is, and whether a seed can be directly sown or needs to be started indoors. This information helps you know when the seeds should be started. With that information, you then need to go through the process of actually starting the seeds. You have to prep your starting cells, choose the proper starting mix, and sow the seeds at the proper depth. After the seeds have germinated, the seedlings will need to be thinned so that plants aren’t competing for nutrients in the same space. A lot of the seedlings will also need to be transplanted into a larger cell before eventually being moved into your garden. It is quite a bit of work and typically requires daily monitoring. As you can tell, starts are much easier.
Seeds 2, Starts 2
Time Commitment
This is connected to how easy each is, but I wanted to touch on how much of a time commitment they are. We’ll go over starts first. The most time-consuming part of transplanting starts is going to the greenhouse and buying them. Traveling to the greenhouse and walking around all the tables is a time commitment, but it is nothing compared to seed-starting.
Starting seeds can take months when you factor in the time it takes to look through catalogs and wait for the seeds to arrive. Peppers are a perfect example of how long seed-starting can take. Because they take a long time to grow, need hot weather to mature, and won’t survive a frost, they should be started up to 10 weeks before the last frost. Around here, that date is May 15, so they can be started now. That is a major time investment and requires a lot of planning.
Starts will win this category, but to be honest, a time aspect of transplants that I’m not a fan of is how long you have to wait to buy them. A pepper start shouldn’t be purchased until after the last frost, and waiting that long makes me nervous. What if the greenhouse doesn’t have the variety you want?
Seeds 2, Starts 3
Control
This category is a bit weird, but I like knowing everything I can about the plants I’m growing. With starts, you don’t have control over how they were started as seeds. That means not having knowledge of the starting mix that was used or if the plant was transplanted before, and if it was, did it experience any root shock? If you’re interested in seed-saving, has the plant been isolated to avoid cross-pollination? That level of control may not be important to some, but I value it.
I like the peace of mind that comes with knowing that our starting mix has proper drainage, that the seedlings are always in the proper cells, and that the strongest plants are kept when thinning them out. I also like being able to transplant the young plants into the garden after a hardening-off process and when they’re smaller than you find at a greenhouse. When plants are younger, there is a reduced risk of root shock when transplanting. Therefore, I’m giving this category to seeds.
Seeds 3, Starts 3
Do What Is Best for You
I have to admit, I was surprised by how this post progressed. I fully anticipated at the start that this would be an easy win for seeds and that I’d be looking for ways to make it more even. Instead, it ended in a draw based on the number of categories each won. I still give seeds the edge because I place more value on the categories they won, though. I think cost, variety, and the peace of mind that comes with seeing the process through from sowing to harvesting are more important than how easy it is to buy starts.
Choosing between seeds and starts is a personal preference. If you’re just starting out and unsure if you want to invest in seed-starting equipment, transplants are a great option. However, if you want to grow heirloom varieties and are confident you’ll want to garden on an annual basis, seeds are the best bet. You can also buy a combination of seeds and starts. My dad has done that for years. Do you have a preference between seeds and starts? I’d love to hear from you.
Confession time: I love spreadsheets. Dating back to middle school when I first took a Microsoft Excel class, I’ve enjoyed using spreadsheets to organize things, including addresses, finances, birthdays, and more. I love being organized but don’t always take the time to be organized. Thus, I’m very thankful that spreadsheets exist because they help with sorting, filtering, and searching through information much faster than we can do ourselves.
How does this apply to our garden? When we started looking through catalogs and initialing the seeds each of us wanted to grow, I quickly realized that we needed to figure out a way to keep track of everything. In a previous post, I mentioned that we looked at over 5,800 seeds and probably initialed over 1,000. Because of that, it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed by an abundance of choices. I’d like to share the system I came up with to help you if you too have felt overwhelmed by garden planning.
Initial Marking of Seeds
I’ll keep this section brief because I’ve touched on it in other posts, but our planning process started with both of us flipping through the catalogs and marking the seeds we were interested in. We went through all sections in every catalog and marked any seeds we even had the slightest bit of interest in, flowers included. Some of the choices weren’t all that realistic because they don’t grow well in our area or are above our gardening ability at this time, but we didn’t want to miss anything.
A helpful note: Use a pen rather than a pencil and choose one with an ink color that will stand out from the text and page color of the catalog. I made the mistake of using black ink on the Fedco catalog, which is all black and white, and it was easy to overlook some of our marks. I also recommend giving each person a different color of pen. That will make tracking everything even easier.
From Catalog to Notebook
The next step in the process was figuring out what seeds we initialed the most. A lot of the seeds were found in multiple catalogs, so it was important to know which ones we marked more than once, which would indicate the varieties we were most interested in. Eventually, the goal was to track this information in a spreadsheet, but I started with a notebook so that I didn’t have my laptop and all the catalogs in front of me at one time.
I devoted a page in the notebook to each vegetable and went in alphabetical order, beginning with beans and ending with tomatoes. I combined some together on one page to make it easier:
Watermelons, canteloupe, muskmelons, and honeydew
Radishes, turnips, and parsnips
Cabbages, mustards, Asian greens, spinach, and bunching onions
From there, I looked at all the varieties of one vegetable in each catalog, taking note of the ones we initialed. I wrote down the seed name and what catalog we found it in, using an abbreviation for each company. Using beans as an example, it looked something like this:
Blue Lake 274 – RS (Rohrer), PG (Pinetree Gardens), NE (NE Seed), BC (Baker Creek)
Provider – FS (Fedco), HMS (High Mowing Seeds), PG
Here is the corn page from the notebook I kept. My handwriting isn’t the best, but as you can see, all the varieties are written on the left and the seed companies to the right.
I did this for every vegetable/fruit. And by tracking how many catalogs we found the seed in, I could see how interested we were in that seed. So, if a seed was marked in 7 of the 10 catalogs we looked at, it indicated we were more interested in that seed than one we only marked in 3 of the 10 catalogs. That didn’t mean we always purchased the most popular seeds, though. Some seeds were only found in 1 or 2 catalogs, but we were so interested in them that we were going to buy them anyway. Finally, being able to look at a notebook page and see trends across the most popular seeds (such as picking a lot of bush beans, pickling cucumbers, or paste tomatoes) would give us an idea of what we were most interested in even if it wasn’t always the same specific seed.
After I wrapped up tracking everything in the notebook, I moved everything to a spreadsheet.
Building the Spreadsheet
Figuring out all the columns to include in the spreadsheet was the most difficult part of this process. I started by determining the goals of the spreadsheet. I knew that I wanted to be able to visually see which seeds we picked the most from the catalogs, compare the price of the same seed in different catalogs, and have links to quickly access the seeds’ pages on the companies’ sites. With those goals in mind, I set out to create columns that would include the most important information. I created columns for the following:
Seed Name
Variety/Type – This column wasn’t used for all vegetables. I used it for beans (bush/drying, long beans, edamame), corn (flint/dent, popcorn, sweet, ornamental), cucumbers (pickling, slicing, specialty), husk tomatoes (ground cherries, tomatillos), other greens (cabbage, onion, mustard, spinach), melons (cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, specialty), peas (snap, shelling, snow), peppers (sweet, hot), potatoes (early, mid, late, fingerling), squash (winter, eggplant, specialty, kabocha, yellow, zucchini), and tomatoes (beefsteak, cherry, paste, pear, plum, slicing)
Organic? – This was a drop-down with “Yes” and “No”
Seed Company – This also was a drop-down with an option for each of the seed companies we were considering.
Page Number – The number in the catalog where the seed is found. The goal here was to make it easy to find the seeds again.
URL – The link to the seed’s page on each site.
Price – How much does the seed packet cost?
Quantity – How many seeds do you get in a packet?
Special Notes – This was the place to add a note if the seed is an heirloom, if it’s sold out or is back-ordered, or is a pollinator in the case of flowers.
This is the Husk Tomatoes page of the seed information spreadsheet. This is one of the smaller pages, so everything can be viewed.
After that, I started filling everything in. If figuring out what to include in the spreadsheet was the most difficult part of the process, filling it out was the most time-consuming. I tried to get through one vegetable per day, but the whole process took roughly 10 days. Once I was done, though, I was able to quickly access any seed, either its webpage or in the catalog, and I could sort by seed name, variety or type of vegetable/fruit, and price, among others. Being able to do that when it was time to make final decisions was priceless.
Lessons Learned/What Did & Didn’t Work?
There were a few things that ended up not being ideal even though there was no way to plan for it or nothing that could be done about it. One was receiving two seed catalogs in the mail after I started filling out the spreadsheet. This meant that the drop-down menus were missing the two catalogs, and I didn’t want to change the drop-down rules and potentially mess up the entire column. Instead, I manually entered the seed company’s name, overriding the drop-down menu entirely.
The second not-so-ideal thing is how big the spreadsheets got. Before starting, my plan was to use the drop-down menu for the seed companies and select all the companies where a seed was available. That wouldn’t have been an issue. The issue would have been adding the URL, page number, price, and quantity for every seed since they all would have had their own line. So, if we found the seed in 8 catalogs, each cell would have been 8 rows tall. It also would have been difficult to compare across the columns.
Now on to some things that I didn’t think about including or messed up and will fix for next year’s spreadsheet. The biggest oversight on my part was not including the price per seed when I originally built the spreadsheet. I only included the price of the packet and the seed quantity, not realizing that it’s more important to know the price per seed since there were large quantity differences. For example, consider the Ping Tung eggplant. We found it at 3 companies. NE Seed sold 750 seeds for $8.95, MI Gardener sold 30 seeds for $2.00, and Baker Creek sold 25 seeds for $3.00. Given the difference in price and seed quantity, it was hard to figure out what was the most cost-effective. I eventually used a blank column to the right of everything to calculate the price-per-seed cost. In this case, NE Seed was the cheapest at $.01/seed. MI Gardener was $.07/seed, while Baker Creek was $.12. Funny enough, we actually bought the seeds from Baker Creek because we weren’t buying anything else from MI Gardener and we didn’t need 750 eggplant seeds from NE Seed.
Similarly, I wish I had created distinct columns with yes/no drop-down menus for heirloom, if flowers are pollinators, how much sun a flower requires, and a separate special notes column where I could write if a seed was out of stock. In general, it was a great first edition of the spreadsheet, but there is always room for improvement.
Bonus: Tracking Growing Information
After we ordered our seeds, I created two more spreadsheets. The first is a general growing guide with information that serves as a guide that we can quickly access, sort, and search. Initially, it was just to track the start dates of everything so we could sort and know the order of when each seed needs to be sowed. It expanded to also include columns for germination time, distance between seeds, soil PH, fertilizer needs, watering information, and any other helpful notes. I want to keep much of this content in a field notebook that we can carry out to the garden with us, but this is helpful because it can all be viewed on one screen.
Seed starting information currently sorted by direct vs. indirect start.
The second spreadsheet I created was a companion growing guide. Companion planting is when you grow plants close to each other that benefit one another. The plants can be all vegetables or a mixture of vegetables and herbs or flowers. The idea behind companion planting is that some plants are natural pest or animal deterrents that reduce the need for pesticides or barriers and keep said pests or animals away from plants that normally attract them. Companion planting also works to put certain nutrients (such as nitrogen) back into the soil so that heavy feeders (like corn) will have quality soil throughout the growing season. This can reduce the need to fertilize as often or as much. In the future, I will likely write a standalone post about companion planting, so I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but it’s something Magz and I are interested in. So, I created a spreadsheet to track what plants should be grown in close proximity and which ones should be kept far apart.
A small glimpse at the companion planting guide.
How Do You Plan Your Garden?
I probably overthought organizing and planning our garden, but spreadsheets greatly helped me keep track of everything. Do you use any tools to organize and plan your garden? If so, what is your go-to method? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and if you found this information helpful, please let me know.
Tomatoes, Beets, Beans Up from the ground, watch them grow Decision Fatigue
The above poem was a bit of an homage to James May who ended each episode of his Amazon series Our Man in Japan with a Haiku. I’m not overly good at them but find them a joy to write. The point of that Haiku, and this post, is to discuss the difficult decision of choosing what seeds to buy and grow.
So Many Seeds!
In our previous gardening post, I covered the seed catalogs that we requested and reviewed the ones we ordered from – 7 of them. In total, we ordered 82 seed packets and got an additional 3 for free from Baker Creek. A rough estimate shows that the companies we ordered from are offering more than 5,800 seed varieties this year. So, we ordered less than 2 percent of the seeds we looked at. It’s a lot, and toward the end, all of the seeds sound the same.
Where to Start
The first thing Magz and I did when thinking about seeds was to figure out what types of vegetables we were interested in. We knew we wanted to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, beets, potatoes, and carrots. We also have experience growing beans, corn, melons, peas, and pumpkins and wanted to give them another go. In the past, we grew all of these in containers and want the chance to grow them in a more traditional, in-ground garden.
There are also a lot of new seeds we’re going to try:
This winter, we’ve remembered how much we enjoy eating broccoli and want to have it fresh throughout the summer.
Aldi sells an avocado tomatillo green salsa that we’ve been buying for years and are going to try growing tomatillos.
Similarly, ground cherries sound very tasty and, like tomatillos, are husk tomatoes.
We love to cook Asian food and want to give different greens and cabbages a try. These include mustard greens, bok choy, and bunching onions.
At the last minute, I noticed that Baker Creek sells Scotch Bonnet pepper seeds. Scotch Bonnet peppers are used in Caribbean jerk marinade and are tough to find in our local grocery stores. We’re going to grow those to give us an authentic flavor.
Similar to Asian greens and cabbage, we’re going to give radishes and turnips a try. We have a great climate for these and both are healthy. Also, I think Animal Crossing (Stalk Market) and Stardew Valley may have influenced our decision.
Finally, we get to squash. We have been eating a lot of green and yellow zucchini this winter, and both grow very well in our region (6A). We also like eggplant and are going to give a couple of winter squash varieties a go. These are similar to pumpkins but are technically squash.
Choosing What Varieties to Grow
Once you determine what vegetables you want to grow, you have to decide what varieties to grow. I’ll go over some of the decisions for each vegetable/plant as well as what seeds we purchased. I didn’t include radishes, turnips, Asian greens, or cabbages in this list because I’m not familiar enough with growing them to discuss the decisions you need to make when picking seeds.
Beans
Decisions to Make:
Bush vs. Pole: This refers to how the bean plant grows. Bush plants have a bushy growing habit, staying compact and growing their beans in bunches. Pole beans, also known as runners, require trellising or another type of support that the plant’s vines will climb. Some varieties can climb 8-10 feet. Historically, Native Americans would grow their beans at the base of corn plants because the bean’s vines would climb the corn stalks.
Snap vs. Shelling: Snap beans are typically eaten fresh or stored via canning, freezing, or pickling. Green beans are snap beans. Shelling beans are also called drying beans and are left on the vine for the pods to dry. Once dried, they are shelled, the beans are removed, and stored. Black beans, pinto beans, and navy beans are all of the drying variety. They need to be rehydrated before cooking and consuming.
There is also edamame or soybeans. These grow similar to bush beans; however, you shouldn’t eat the shells.
What We Picked:
Provider Green Beans – A variety that’s been around for five decades and is a staple in American gardens. We got ours from Pinetree Gardens.
Red Swan Snap Bean – Another bush variety with a red pod and green beans inside. These came from Baker Creek but were bred by Robert Lobitz.
Jamapa Dry Bean – A style of black bean used as a side dish with tacos or in Frijoles Negros. This seed is similar to the popular Black Turtle Beans but originates from Veracruz, Mexico. We got our seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
Kebarika Dry Bean – Another bush variety, this bean comes from Kenya. Produces a purple and white speckled bean. Can also be consumed fresh if picked in time. These also came from Southern Exposure.
Chinese Red Noodle Long Bean – A Chinese heirloom that produces pods around 18 inches long. The plant has to be trellised as the vines can reach 8-10 feet. Bought from Baker Creek.
Beets
Decisions to Make:
Color: Red beets are the most common in the United States. They’re consumed fresh, cooked, and canned/pickled. Golden beets are typically more mild than red beets. White beets can either be albino versions of red beets or sugar beets, which are used to make beet sugar. Finally, there is a specialty beet called Chioggia, or candy striped. The root has alternating white and red stripes and is beautiful when sliced.
What We Picked:
Chioggia – As mentioned above, this variety is also known as the candy-striped beet. It’s an Italian heirloom variety that dates back to the 1840s. We got our seeds from Pinetree Gardens.
Cylindra – This variety has more of a carrot shape than the traditional globe shape of most beets. Their roots can reach 6-8 inches deep. A Danish heirloom that dates back to the late 19th century. Ours also came from Pinetree Gardens.
Detroit Red – The Detroit Red is the most popular beet grown in the United States and is considered the standard for home gardeners. It can be eaten fresh, canned, and frozen. Once again, ours came from Pinetree Gardens.
Golden – Similar to the Detroit Red but won’t stain your hands, clothing, counter, or cutting board. We bought ours from Baker Creek.
Wintersonne – Also known as Winter Sun, this variety is a Swiss heirloom. It’s sweet and earthy but extra crunchy. This seed also came from Baker Creek.
Broccoli
Decisions to Make:
Broccoli: I’m unsure if this deserves a more specific name, but by broccoli, I’m referring to the plant that produces green heads.
Broccoli Raab: Spicier than regular broccoli and doesn’t form heads. Matures much quicker.
What We Picked:
Calabrese – The Calabrese broccoli has a relatively compact plant and produces a 3-6 inch main head with multiple smaller side heads. It originates from Italy and arrived in America in the 1800s. Our seeds were purchased from Pinetree Gardens.
Carrots
Decisions to Make:
Orange vs. Specialty Colors: We typically think of carrots as orange because that’s what’s in our grocery stores, and it’s what Bugs Bunny ate (side note: rabbits shouldn’t have a lot of carrots as they’re high in sugar). However, the first carrots were actually purple. If you’re looking for the traditional carrot, you can’t go wrong with orange, but if you’re interested in experimenting, growing purple, red, or yellow carrots can be a lot of fun. Non-orange carrots even have different nutritional benefits.
Early vs. Main Season: Early season and main season correspond to how long it takes the carrot to reach maturity. Early-season carrots can take between 50 and 70 days to mature, grow fast, and tend to be shorter. These are great carrots for Northern gardens and in containers. Main-season carrots can take anywhere from 55 days all the way up to 100 days. These tend to have deep roots and store better. Grow some of both types and succession garden to have carrots all season.
What We Picked:
Black Nebula – A deep purple main-season carrot that takes 70 days to mature. The roots grow to 6-8 inches in length and the color is so rich that it can be used as a dye. We bought ours from Pinetree Gardens.
Bollin – An orange main-season carrot that takes 75 days to mature. Its roots also grow to 6-8 inches in length and have great storage properties. It matures about 20 days sooner than similar varieties. These seeds came from High Mowing Seeds.
Dragon – A beautifully colorful carrot that is reddish-purple on the outside but orange inside. It takes 85 days to mature and grows 7-inch roots. These came from Pinetree Gardens.
Little Finger – An early-season carrot that only grows to about 3 1/2 inches long and matures in 60 days. We’re planting it because it can be grown in succession and can be planted close together. These also came from Pinetree Gardens.
Uzbek Golden – The Uzbek Golden carrot hails from Central Asia and is an important ingredient in making plov, one of the most famous dishes in the region. It’s golden in color and has a consistent shape that doesn’t taper like most carrots. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.
Corn
Decisions to Make:
Sweet vs. Popcorn vs. Milling: Most home gardeners will grow sweet corn, but there are also popcorn and milling/flint varieties. Sweet corn is eaten fresh or preserved, popcorn is dried and popped, and milling corn is dried and ground for cornmeal or flour. There are also some ornamental varieties that are dried and used as decorations during the fall. Within the family of sweet corn, there are bi-color, yellow, and white kernels as well as different levels of sweetness. Traditional sweet corn is sweet but not overpowering, but we’ve since developed hybrid varieties that are super sweet.
Stalk Height: This may seem like a weird category, but it is important depending on your garden’s location. Previously, we had some success with growing a shorter, 4-5 foot variety in containers. The roots took and the stalks grew, but they didn’t reach maximum height and the ears didn’t fill out as much as we would have liked. If you have a well-established garden with loose soil that is rich in nitrogen, you can grow corn with stalks greater than 7 feet tall. How much wind your garden receives also plays a role in how tall you want your stalks to be. If your area isn’t windy or you have a wind barrier such as sunflowers, a solid fence, or a building, you can have taller stalks than a garden with no protection.
Kernel Color: Most sweet corn varieties fall into one of three categories: yellow, white, and bi-color (yellow & white); however, some heirloom varieties will have dark, blue/black kernels. Flint, popcorn, and ornamental varieties can be a wide range of colors, including blue, red, purple, orange, black, and brown. Heirloom varieties are incredibly colorful.
What We Picked:
Hopi Blue – A flint/flour variety that is one of the oldest grown in North America. Early versions of it date back 800 years in Northern Arizona. The Hopis used it to make ceremonial bread. It has tall 9-foot stalks and grows 8-10 inch ears. We bought ours from Fedco, who pays Indigenous royalties on it.
Black Iroquois, Mexican Sweet – This is the heirloom sweet variety referenced above in the kernel color section. The kernels are white for most of the growing process and turn black/blue late in the milk stage. It’s a shorter plant at 5 1/2 feet. The seed dates back to the 1860s in Upstate New York and likely originates from the Iroquois Black Puckers. Our seeds came from Southern Exposure.
Butter and Sugar – A classic bi-color sweet corn, Butter and Sugar is one of the most popular seeds available. The stalks are 5-6 feet tall and the ears are 8 inches long. We bought ours from NE Seed.
Cucumbers
Decisions to Make:
Bush vs. Vine: As discussed with beans, this has to do with the growing habit. Bush cucumber plants stay relatively contained and compact. They can grow a couple of feet tall and may need a stake for support but don’t sprawl. Vining cucumbers, on the other hand, do. Their vines can spread 7 feet out from the hill and take over entire sections of your garden. Bush plants tend to have smaller fruit than vining plants.
Pickling vs. Slicing: This decision is pretty straightforward: Do you want your cucumbers to mostly be for fresh eating (slicing) or pickling. Pickling cukes tend to be crunchier than slicing cukes, but both types can be eaten fresh and pickled. To be safe, you should grow both and eat a lot of cucumbers.
Specialty Cucumbers: These are cucumbers that either aren’t green in color, don’t have a traditional cucumber shape, or don’t taste like most cucumbers. I recommend growing these in addition to a pickling or slicing cucumber but not as a replacement.
What We Picked:
Boston Pickling – An heirloom variety that dates back to the late 19th century. Grows on a vine and remains crunchy when pickled. Small enough to be pickled whole but can still be sliced into spears or chips. Ours came from Southern Exposure.
Tendergreen – A slicing cucumber that is nearly a century old, Tendergreen grows on a vine. It can be harvested young for pickling or left to mature to be a slicer. It’s a burpless variety that doesn’t have the aftertaste of other cucumbers that some find off-putting. Our seeds came from NE Seed.
Richmond Green Apple – A specialty that’s an heirloom from Australia. Harvested when it’s the size of a lemon and is green with white stripes like a watermelon. The texture is crispy like an apple. We’re very excited to grow this variety. Our seeds come from Baker Creek.
Melons
Decisions to Make:
Picking a Type to Grow: There are a lot of fruits within the melon family, including cantaloupes, muskmelons, honeydew, watermelons, and varieties popular around the world that I’m uncertain how to categorize. As a side note, most of the fruit we call cantaloupes in the United States aren’t actually cantaloupes. They’re muskmelons. Muskmelon refers to the larger family of fruit, while cantaloupe refers to a single variety. Within each type of melon are a seemingly-endless number of seed varieties to pick from.
Will it Grow Where You Live?: Most melons require hot temperatures and the right climate to fully mature. That’s why the majority of the watermelons we see in grocery stores are grown in Florida. The state’s climate and sandy soil make for a perfect environment. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have success in other locations. Just take note of the temperature and soil requirements of a seed before purchasing. If you live in a Northern climate, you can also give the seeds a head start by starting them indoors.
What We Picked:
Ali Baba Watermelon – This heirloom comes from the Middle East, with these seeds originally being sent from an Iraqi man over two decades ago. This seed produces fruit in the 12-30 pound range with a light green rind. They store exceptionally well and grow in a variety of conditions. Said to be one of the best-tasting watermelons. This seed came from Baker Creek.
Noir des Carmes Cantaloupe – This is a true cantaloupe that dates back to before 1787 and was named for the Carmelite monks in France. Grows 2-3 pound fruits that transform greenish-black to orange and yellow when ripe. Bred to successfully grow in Northern climates. These seeds are organic and come from Southern Exposure.
Tigger Melon – This melon doesn’t fit into a pre-existing category. It has a creamy white flesh with a fiery red and orange skin. Much smaller than other melons at only 1 pound but has high yields. It’s an Armenian heirloom that grows in mountainous valleys along the Tigris River. Our seeds were purchased from Baker Creek.
Kajari Melon – Another melon that doesn’t really fit into a category, although it does have green flesh like honeydew. This Indian heirloom comes from the Punjab region and produces an abundance of 2-pound fruits that have orange and green-striped skin. These too come from Baker Creek.
Peas
Decisions to Make:
Shell vs. Snow vs. Snap: Shelling peas should be removed from the shell prior to eating them. The shells aren’t toxic but fibrous and difficult to consume and digest. Snow peas are pods that are harvested while the peas are immature, so the pods remain flat. Snap peas have fully mature peas inside an edible pod.
What We Picked:
Avalanche Snow Pea – These pods are 4-5 inches long on 3 to 3 1/2 foot plants. A very prolific variety that doesn’t require trellising. Our seeds come from High Mowing.
Peppers
Decisions to Make:
Sweet vs. Hot: Do you like sweet or hot peppers? Sweet peppers are self-explanatory, but there are many levels of heat with hot peppers. At the low end are jalapenos that are used in salsas, eaten fresh, or stuffed, while at the upper end is Pepper X, the hottest pepper in the world. Personally, I like spicy food but want flavor, so I typically top out with habaneros or scotch bonnets. Keep in mind that peppers love hot weather, and the longer they can stay on the vine in hot weather, the sweeter or hotter they become.
Shape of the Pepper: Sweet peppers tend to have the classic “bell” shape, but there are sweet peppers that have the shape of hot peppers.
Color: Sweet bell peppers can come in a variety of colors with the most popular being green, yellow, orange, and red. There are also some exotic colors like purple, brown, and white. All bell peppers start green and mature into their final color the longer they’re on the vine. So, green bell peppers are more bitter than red ones. Even bell peppers that are bred to stay green when mature will eventually turn red if left on the plant for too long. Hot peppers also come in many colors. Jalapenos are green, wax peppers are yellow, and habaneros can be many colors.
What We Picked:
California Wonder – A classic red bell pepper that has been bred to have strong disease resistance. Great when eaten fresh but also large enough to be stuffed. Our seeds were purchased from NE Seed.
Jamaican Scotch Bonnet – Scotch bonnet peppers and seeds are not easy to find where we live. They’re a vital ingredient in Caribbean cooking, including Jamaican jerk marinade. While habaneros are often used as a substitute, they’re not authentic to the culture and cuisine. We found our seeds at Baker Creek and are from a Jamaican farmer.
Banana – This seed was one of the free packets from Baker Creek. I love banana peppers, so we’ll definitely grow this seed. This variety of banana pepper is a sweet Hungarian wax with a pale green color that will develop into a red-orange if left on the plant. Despite its name, the Hungarian wax pepper originated in North America and was introduced to Central Europe in the 1500s.
Potatoes
Decisions to Make:
Early vs. Mid vs. Late Season: This refers to how long it takes for the potatoes to grow and when they’ll be ready for harvesting. Early-season potatoes can take between 65 and 80 days, mid-season potatoes between 80 and 90, and late-season potatoes more than 90 days. Early potatoes are great for fresh eating, midseasons have some storage properties but are generally a quality all-around potato, and late potatoes do well in long-term storage and can last through winter.
Color: Just like the potatoes you can buy in-store, you can buy seed potatoes for red-skin and yellow-skin potatoes. There are also purple-skinned potatoes, blue-skinned potatoes, and even potatoes with colorful flesh. Colorful potatoes are fun to grow, but the flavor isn’t different from white or yellow potatoes. They make for some interesting roasted potatoes or fries, but the color does leach out when placed in water.
What We Picked:
Dark Red Noland – These are our early potatoes for this year’s garden. They are a red-skinned potato with white flesh and were bred to grow well in Northern climates. They were developed by the North Dakota Agricultural College in 1957. Our seed potatoes were purchased from High Mowing.
Huckleberry Gold – A mid-season potato with a purple skin and yellow flesh, these potatoes are similar to Yukon Golds but are more resistant to tuber malfunctions and hollow heart. These seed potatoes were also bought from High Mowing.
Red Pontiac – We bought these to be our late-season potatoes. They have a red skin and white flesh and have a history of producing large yields. They store very well and will keep long into winter. They were first introduced in 1945 and are named after Chief Pontiac, an Odawa tribe war chief from the 18th century. These seed potatoes were bought from Fedco and a portion of the money is given to a Wabanaki project in Maine via Indigenous royalties.
Squash
Decisions to Make:
Summer vs. Winter: The most important decision to make when choosing squash seeds is summer vs. winter squash. Summer squash are green and yellow zucchini (yellow zucchini is often called yellow squash) and patty pans. I would also put eggplant in this category even though they aren’t technically squash. Winter squash varieties include acorn, butternut, buttercup, spaghetti, kabocha, and hubbard. Summer and winter refer to the time of the season when they’re harvested. Summer squash grow quickly (40-60 days) and are harvested before they’re fully mature, so their skin is still soft and edible. Winter squash, however, grow slower and fully ripen on the vine (80-100+ days). They develop a tough skin that is inedible but allows for the squash to store through winter in the right conditions. Pumpkins are also a type of winter squash.
Use: Summer squash is used fresh and can be consumed raw. We typically use green and yellow zucchini Asian stir-fries or rice bowls, but a lot of people will marinade and grill them or batter and fry them. Zucchini bread is also very popular and eggplant is made into eggplant parmesan. Meanwhile, winter squashes typically have to be roasted to be soft enough to eat.
What We Picked:
Ping Tung Eggplant – These eggplants are from Taiwan and have a long, cylindrical shape rather than the bell shape of most eggplants. This variety is an heirloom that was first introduced to the U.S. in the mid-1900s. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.
Zapallito Del Tronco – A green squash that has the shape of a small pumpkin (roughly 2-4 inches in diameter), this squash is also referred to as an avocado squash due to its creamy texture. It’s an Argentinian heirloom. These seeds also came from Baker Creek.
Candy Roaster Melon Winter Squash – Truly an American heirloom, this melon/squash was grown by the Cherokee people in Western North Carolina, and they shared the seeds with the Europeans who settled in the area. According to West Virginia University, there are 40 known varieties of this squash and 4 different shapes they can have. Our variety is pink and orange with some blue and green and has a pumpkin shape. The seed comes from Southern Exposure and is part of Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste.
Queensland Blue Winter Squash – A flattened round squash that can grow up to 20 pounds. A native of Australia that dates back to the 1880s, this seed arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s. The skin is a lovely blue color, but the flesh remains orange like a pumpkin. These seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Golden Glory – A classic, straight variety of yellow zucchini. It grows fast at 50 days and produces lots of fruits 7-8 inches long. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Black Beauty Zucchini – Iconic zucchini shape and color with dark green skin and firm flesh. An heirloom variety that dates back to the 1920s, Black Beauty grows fast at 55 days with 5-6 inch fruits. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
White Scallop – A scallop-shaped squash that grows fast at 50 days. A very old Native American heirloom with Europeans first depicting it as far back as the 1590s. An abundant crop that will produce a lot of fruit and has an excellent flavor profile. These seeds came from Baker Creek.
Seminole Pumpkin – An heirloom pumpkin variety that dates back to the 1500s and was grown by the Seminole tribe in Florida. Grows extremely well in hot, humid conditions and will produce 6-8 inch fruits that can store up to 1 year at room temperature. Our seeds are organic and were purchased from Southern Exposure.
Tomatoes
Decisions to Make:
What do you want to grow tomatoes for?: This question will determine what seeds you’ll want to grow. If you want to make sauce or tomato paste, you’ll want paste tomatoes. These tomatoes have fewer seeds and less water content than other tomatoes, producing a less watery sauce. If you want tomatoes for fresh eating, either as a snack or on salads, a cherry, grape, or pear tomato is your best option. These tomatoes are bite-sized and don’t need to be cut and grow abundantly. If you want a tomato that can be sliced for sandwiches, cut up for salads, or stuffed and grilled, you’ll want a larger, beefsteak tomato.
Determinate vs. Indeterminate: Determinate tomato plants have been bred to only grow to a certain height and often produce all of their fruits at one time. Often, paste tomatoes are determinates because you want as much fruit at one time as possible for sauce purposes. These plants usually don’t require support and only a stake instead of a cage when they do. Indeterminates, however, can grow very tall and need a cage or other support system to hold them up. Which style you choose will often depend on how much room you have to grow them in. If you’re growing in containers, you’ll want determinate varieties, but if you have an in-ground garden, you can grow either type.
Color: Do you like the traditional bright red tomato color do you want a rainbow of colors? Not many people are aware that they can buy yellow, orange, purple, blue, purple, and even green tomatoes. Growing a variety of colors can make for a beautiful garden.
What We Picked:
Yellow Pear – An heirloom variety that dates back to before the 18th century. An indeterminate variety that produces a lot of fruit and is resistant to heat. Our seeds are organic and were purchased from Southern Exposure.
Black Krim – An heirloom slicing tomato that originated in the Crimea region of Ukraine along the Black Sea. It’s an indeterminate variety that produces an abundance of dark purple, nearly black fruit that darken as they ripen. These seeds come from Sow True Seeds.
Queen Aliquippa – Another heirloom variety, this time from Pennsylvania. It was named after Queen Aliquippa, a leader of the Seneca tribe in the 1700s. This variety stays green even when ripe. An indeterminate variety that produces pear-shaped fruits. These seeds were also purchased from Sow True Seeds.
Indigo Pear Drop – A pear-shaped tomato with lots of orange fruit that ripen to have purple shoulders. An indeterminate variety from Pinetree Gardens.
Principe Borghese – An Italian heirloom that can be used for pastes and sauces or left out for sun-dried tomatoes. This variety dates back to the early 20th century in Southern Italy. Our seeds come from Pinetree Gardens.
Blue Beauty – A moderately-sized slicing tomato that ripens from red to dark purple. These were developed in the 1960s at Oregon State University. An indeterminate variety. These too came from Pinetree Gardens.
Mushroom Basket – The only beefsteak-style tomato that we bought, the Mushroom Basket tomato originally came from Russia and was bred in the late 1800s. The Mushroom Basket has fewer seeds than most beefsteak tomatoes. Grows fast at 75 days. Indeterminate variety. These seeds came from Baker Creek.
Have you ever grown any of these seeds? If so, did you have success? We’d love to hear about the seeds you’re growing this year and what your favorites are.
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.
If you’ve ever watched the Sean Brock episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, he tells the story of his upbringing in Southwest Virginia in Coal Country. His dad passed away at a young age, which led to Sean and his mom moving in with his grandparents where they had a massive garden. He talks about spending countless hours in the garden beds and kitchen with his grandmother sowing, growing, harvesting, and preserving all the food that came out of the ground.
I didn’t grow up in Coal Country and I didn’t lose a parent at a young age, but I am from the Appalachia region of Pennsylvania, specifically Central PA in the ridge and valley geological system. I grew up in a valley that was bordered on two sides by ridges. At both ends of the valley, it narrowed, but in the middle was vast farmland full of fertile soil. That type of setting led to a very simple lifestyle, one that still exists today. Nearly everyone has a garden in their yard and there is a large Amish population, so there are produce stands that dot the landscape during the spring, summer, and fall. Like Sean Brock, I spent a lot of time in gardens growing up. Whether it was a family member’s, a friend’s, or someone from church, there was always great conversation to be had when surrounded by plants. Because of all those memories, the garden is more than a provider of food. It’s a place that holds great importance to me. It’s become a home to me.
The Garden Is Home
Some of my earliest memories happened in or around a garden. My grandparents, with whom I was extremely close, always had what felt like a huge garden. They had a big yard behind their garage (some would call it a back forty), and I remember them growing potatoes, tomatoes, and green beans. I’m sure they grew a lot more veggies than those three, but I can still feel the dirt on my hands as we pulled potatoes from the ground and brushed them clean just like I can hear the snap of beans as we broke the stems off before they were steamed or prepped for canning. And because I lived with them when I was younger and later spent my summers there, I was always with my grandma in their garden or kitchen, learning the little nuances of when a certain vegetable is ready to be picked or how moist the soil should be.
The image quality isn’t very good (it was taken on a phone in 2012), but these are my grandparents.
My dad has always had a garden too. At the house he rented when I was younger, he had a small garden across the creek in the backyard. He was always interested in growing fruits and veggies that aren’t always common in Pennsylvania. He was the first person I can remember trying to grow cantaloupes (they’re actually muskmelons, but that’s another story for another time). Here in Pennsylvania, not a lot of people try growing melons in their gardens because the growing season isn’t the longest. But he did. They produced fruit but never grew bigger than a softball, and to my knowledge, he never tried growing them again. But his willingness to try something out of the norm has stuck with me all these years and influences my approach to gardening, which you’ll learn through my writing.
He continued gardening when he bought the property and built the house where he still lives. The soil was so rocky (PA is known for its widespread shale deposits) that it took years to get it workable, but he persisted. Today, he has 3 or 4 large beds. He largely sticks to the popular crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and onions, but he is still willing to experiment. Years ago, he learned about wild asparagus that grows along the side of the road and went on a hunt to find it. He did, and since asparagus is a perennial, he’s been transplanting and harvesting from the original starts 15 years later.
My mom and stepdad kept a modest garden most summers and only stopped within the past 10 or so years. They were always interested in growing paste tomatoes for sauce and later planted strawberries. They only stopped because it became too much work, but even then my mom would grow cherry tomatoes on her back patio that our German Shorthaired Pointer, Jasper, would eat off the vine. I hope I never forget the memory of him carefully plucking a ripe tomato off the vine. My mom would feign being upset, but I know that it brought her humor and happiness. I grew up surrounded by vegetable gardens and love passing time walking through rows of crops and talking about their progress or just discussing life in general.
When I went to college in 2010, things naturally changed. I didn’t travel back to Central PA as often and my mom stopped having a garden. Looking back, I was disconnected from nature in a way that I had never been before, which greatly impacted me. It took until 2015 for me to begin finding that again. Maggie says that she doesn’t have the same connection with gardens that I do, which is true, but I’ll never forget meeting her grandparents for the first time. They lived on a property in Western PA that everyone in the family referred to as the farm. At one point before they moved there in the ’70s, it had been a working farm, but Maggie’s grandparents used it as more of a hobby farm. Over the years, they had horses and chickens. They also worked the different fields, growing corn and other commercially-grown crops. When I met them, though, they were focusing their attention on a large garden where they grew LOTS of tomatoes. That first visit to the farm was incredible. I got to know Maggie’s grandparents by walking through their garden beds and grass fields, and it was the most welcoming first meeting with a significant other’s family that I ever had. It wasn’t necessarily because they did anything different from others, but the fact that we were able to spend time in a place that was so familiar to me made all the difference. That initial meeting led to more gardening conversations in the years that followed, and even though Maggie’s grandparents have since passed away, her aunt has carried on the gardening legacy started by her parents.
This year will be the first in-ground garden Maggie and I’ve had together. In her post introducing the gardening portion of the blog, she mentioned that we’ve given the Greenstalk a go and later did an all-container garden. Both were valuable experiences. We established our all-container garden in rows, so we could walk between the plants and feel the leaves. In the quiet moments when neighbors weren’t being nosy or gossiping, dogs weren’t barking, and mowers weren’t being run, it was magical and felt like home. The garden we’re building this year will be different, though. We’re going to have the chance to put down roots (both metaphorically and literally) on this property that God placed in front of us.
Our container garden from 2022.
There are plenty of reasons to garden. I didn’t touch on the importance of knowing where your food comes from or how invaluable it is to have a pantry of food for the winter. I also didn’t touch on why we should focus on saving heirloom seeds that have been passed down through history. Those are all important reasons to garden. But for me, it all comes back to feeling at home. My senior seminar in college was on the subject of place, what it means, and its importance. I won’t bore you with what I wrote my senior thesis on, but looking back, I wish I had written about the importance of the garden in my life. Perhaps I would have been unable to write about it at that stage in my life, but I feel qualified now – it’s one of my homes.
With the increasing reliance on technology, I find myself missing simplicity more and more. My career requires me to be on my computer during the day. I love my job and am so thankful that God has me where I am. Yet, I still find myself longing to get away from technology and offline. I want to feel real tangible things, like fully ripe vegetables and properly drained soil, just as I did as a kid with my grandma. I choose to garden because it means being in touch with my roots. I’m able to feel a connection to my family members that transcends miles and years, and it takes me back to a much simpler time.
We look forward to sharing our garden with everyone, explaining our processes, and exploring the different seeds we are choosing to grow this year. We hope everything succeeds, but odds are, not everything will. So we want to share both the successes and failures and learn from what went wrong. Why do you choose to garden? Happy growing.
When my husband (Kyle) and I bought this house, we were looking for a place that would provide enough room to have a garden. We wanted it to be flat, have good sun, a little shade, and offer room to build the garden we have been planning for years. In our first apartment, we grew shamrocks and a tomato plant with varying results.
With each new place we moved the garden grew bigger. At our place in Meadville, on a steep hill of a plot of land, we bought a Green Stalk system to maximize our vertical potential. In the house before this one, we created a garden of containers utilizing totes we had from moving and five-gallon buckets. It was better but not the best it could be.
Container garden from 2022.
We craved something less plastic, more grounded. And so with 2025 spreading out before us, we have been planning a new project – an in-ground garden full of plants selected carefully, but Kyle can share more details about that in his own words.
I’m excited to read his thoughts here as a contributing writer because his passion for gardening has taught me so much in our 11 years together. As I mentioned in my very first post, this blog is a little of this and a little of that. I’m excited to share more about life beyond the yarn and the thread, it should be inspiring scenery for sketching! Which I have not done since we moved but I am craving to do once again. Here’s a snapshot of what we grew in our container garden several years ago. I hope you will join us on this adventure. 🙂
One Rabbit Riot 