best place to get your seeds?

[CrimsonRose]

ok it's bitter cold and nasty but just a few weeks away from starting my seeds for spring... (ok well over a month and a half away but hey I can dream right!)

Anyway... I'm wanting to start planning my garden for spring... Since I can't plant a nice large garden here like I would like (they soil is crazy bad and will take years to get into any sort of decent condition for planting) I have to do things in raised beds I have 3 already and hope to get one more built as soon as spring gets here... I'm on a very small budget so I've been building them from rocks from the property and using rabbit compost to fill them.... it worked great last year!

I'm having to get creative if I want to grow more than just the tomatoes spinach and onions like I planted last year though... So I'm looking for some ideas for companion planting... ideas on how tight can I pack the plants in a small space and still get a good yield...

First I need to know where to get some good quality heirloom seeds for the cheapest price... Where do you order from?

I like unique plants but still want a high yield in a small space... so any recommendations for some new things to plant that I haven't thought of? I would love to have some corn but have no clue how to do that since it takes up such a huge amount of space... is there a decent variety of sweet corn that has several ears per stock? instead of the normal one or 2... For squash and pumpkins I thought it would be neat to grow a variety called blue hubbard? anyone her try to grow that? is it any good?

We grew several types of cherry and grape tomatoes last year... our favorite turned out to be a stupid hybrid so we couldn't save the seeds... What's a good heirloom variety that has a super sweet taste for our cherry tomatoes?

Sorry for all the questions... but with the dismal winter blowing strong outside I'm dying to talk about all the green goodness I'm so looking forward to... LOL

What's your plans for a garden this year? What seeds will you start inside as opposed to planting in the ground?

 

[freemotion]

Google three sisters gardening for instructions on planting that corn, squash, and some peas all in the same space.

I am going all heirloom next spring (have been working my way in that direction) and will be buying mostly from Baker's Creek...they have a new store in CT so I can pop in and buy a packet at a time.

I often share seed packets with family and friends so we don't have to plant 200 seeds of the same thing, and it saves money.

I'd like to do a seed share here, too, if possible. It costs so little to send a few seeds in the mail. A first class stamp should take care of a small amount of smaller seeds, right?

 

[CrimsonRose]

I would love a seed swap... I did that a few years back on BYC and loved it!

the stamp depends.... you have to make sure they don't run the envelope through the machines or it crushes the seeds... and some PO's charge extra to hand stamp the envelope... but I sent mine with like 2 stamps I think with bubble wrap around the seeds and they all got to the new homes ok... I wrote hand stamp only on the front of the envelope and it seemed to work ok...

I seen the 3 sister thing a while back and may give that a go this year... since it's planted in hills I may be able to get away with just piling up some rabbit poo with a tad sand and dirt and plant into that with little tilling (since that is impossible with all the rock we have) and not have to make "beds" for it either... hummm this really has me thinking now! Thanks for reminding me of that method!

 

[freemotion]

Why not start that say, towards the end of January? By then, most gardeners are well into the planning....but I don't care so much for the seed trains. I'd rather just send 10 tomato seeds and 6 cuke seeds to whoever, and someone else can send me 4 seeds of a special tomato, etc.

 

[i_am2bz]

I'm having to get creative if I want to grow more than just the tomatoes spinach and onions like I planted last year though... So I'm looking for some ideas for companion planting... ideas on how tight can I pack the plants in a small space and still get a good yield...

I don't know if you have access to the book "Mini-Farming: SS on 1/4 acre" but the author talks a lot about this, I think he calls it bio-intensive or square-foot gardening. Also "interplanting" (which plants to plant together, etc). Very interesting book, IMHO.

 

[BarredBuff]

Baker Creek seed, Southern Exposure, and Pinetree are good. We use mainly heirlooms except with out sweet corn. How does that taste?

 

[ORChick]

"Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew has some good ideas for getting larger yields from smaller spaces. Since you have some raised beds already this might be something for you to look into; check the library. He originally wrote the book several decades ago (I have that edition), but has recently, in the last few years, updated and re-released it. (I prefer the older edition; it is more DIY, with re-cycling stuff you might have around anyway. But the information on spacing etc. is good in either) I don't follow it to the letter, but it has some good ideas.
There is also a thing called a Hill Bed that might be of use to you; a raised bed without the (expensive) wooden or stone edging. I couldn't find anything specifically in English, but here is a link to German site, google-translated, with pictures: http://translate.google.com/transla...eete&hl=en&client=opera&hs=x9D&rls=en&prmd=iv

 

[journey11]

I always do really well at Swallowtail Seeds . They have a really nice selection of heirloom tomatoes and I am always surprised how quickly I get my order when they are all the way out in CA, so far from here.

I did the 3 sisters last year. Here's some pics of mine and directions how to do it. Some of my pumpkins died out from powdery mildew. Maybe I should have sprayed them after all. It was a bad year for squash anyway. The beans and the corn did great though. Choose a tall, sturdy variety of corn able to support the weight of the beans. And don't forget to give your corn extra fertilizer the first year with 3 sisters. It needs a lot of N. (Second year, the beans will have helped put nitrogen into the soil.)

 

[freemotion]

I got the Christmas Lima pole beans from Baker's Creek....think they'd do well in a 3-sisters?

 

[Denim Deb]

Postage Stamp Gardening and Carrots Love Tomatoes are both good books too. PSG deals w/square ft gardening, and CLT deals w/companion planting.