HELP a Newbie.....

Okay so I have friends and these friends and aquaintances on forums keep making me read and listen to "buying Seeds"?
So here I sit knowing that this year I'm going to making my garden boxes. Getting my green house and doing up my flower beds. But having learnt so much on these forums I am starting to question where I buy my seeds from.
What am I buying?
Why am I pondering this?
What is the difference between where I buy my seeds(canadian tire ) and where you buy yours?

Should I be ashamed of my self?

I think it just depends on what you are looking for -- some seeds only are available at some of the niche market type seed houses --you won't find some heritage seeds being available at the places that just sell the bigger name distributors.

We buy, not seeds, but garlic from a folks in central BC who only grow garlic, like they have 20 or 30 varieties. It is because they are the only place we found that had the type we were looking for (plus a whole lot more)

I don't think you should be 'ashamed' ... you are growing your own food, all good!!!

I agree, it all depends on what your goals are. My base goal with growing things from seeds is to save money. There are lots of other perks that go along with it, like knowing where your food comes from, whats in/on it, ect. But I grow veggies so I dont have to buy store bought. I get "organic" veggitables, and all I pay is my time (which sometimes I have surplus of, sometimes not!) I dont buy transplants because again, seeds are cheaper, even with purchasing pots ect.

As to the seeds themselves, well, I just bought a majority of my seeds out of an early "Home Hardware" generic seed box. The "Home Hardware" brand was on sale for .65 cents a package. Experience tells me that the $1.89 seeds in the other box from Ontario Seed Company are a better quality (better germination) so I made sure the seeds I consider really important, or that I absolutely wanted, came from them. I do have...6 or 7 seed catalouges sitting here, uncommon seeds will come from them as nessisary.

Are either one of those seed brands collected from Organic seed farms? No. But currently I cant afford to buy all organic seeds. So I make my peace with that by trying to be sustainable with my own little peice of land. Which in turn means my entire family is a little less reliant on the unsustainable "global food chain."

So I guess what it boils down to is, what are your priorities? Live in a difficult climate? You might want to buy from a local seed farm who's plants are better able to handle your area. Have a disease problem? Maybe resistant hybrids are the only thing that will survive. Organic Warrior? Well, then buy only organic.

My two (or .65) cents.

I'm not much of a gardener but we try LOL The seeds we found to have the best results with were from Art Knapps and its a local seed company unfortunately my brain has failed me on the name. They have lots to choose from and they're all seeds from veggies, flowers grown in (kelowna or vernon again brain not remembering) so are varieties that should grow well for you as well

Last year I found a local gem of a greenhouse and if you head up this way this growing season I'll give you directions or we can head over together. They plant their own seeds, have wonderful started plants at very reasonable prices and I just can't say enough good things about them oh and it's huge! And filled with varieties that grow up here We are black thumbs and didn't get our garden set up until second weekend in June then had mice eat half our squash and pumpkins and nearly all our carrots but still we ended up with a decent haul

one of the many Romaine heads we got we'll defiantely grow more this year
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Some of our end of season pick last year. We only planted 4 Broccoli but wasn't close to enough kids were fighting over it and eating it off the plants it was sooooo yummy but we'd never tried growing it before
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and then the fall picking of zucchini and pumpkins
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Hi I grow alot of things every year. Over the years I have found that
it is better to get from a seed house rather than a grocery store. As
stated before germiation is better and the selection can put you in the
poor house . I want to grow it all lololololo. Most catalogues
have a great selection of heritage and organic seeds. Here is a list of
seed companies you can google and order a catalogue. I have them all..
Sand Hill Preservation center
Lindenberg seeds
West Coast seeds (organic)
Thompson and Morgan
OSC Seeds
Halifax Seed
Johnnys Select seeds
T & T seeds
Stokes Seeds (my bible because of the growing guides for each seed)
Veseys seeds and bulbs (also have a great fundraiser)
William Dam Seeds
Dominion Seed house
McFayden
All but Johnnys and Sand hill are canadian companies. Most if not all
state they do not carry GMO seeds. Each catalogue has new information .
I spend a great deal of time pouring over them . I am expecting one
more . The Burpee seed catalogue. They won't send one to Canada so had
to get a freind to send me one. Can't wait . Happy planting everyone.
Geri

Oh SerJay, those were absolutely lovely pictures of your children with all the garden produce. They look very happy and lively. Little kids are such gems, they always make you smile and these little fellows really brought that smile to my face. Lovely.

Now onto gardening. Don't we all love to get down and dirty with the dirt and then bring the stuff that comes from this dirt into our homes to eat! So cool.

I am trying to get all my seed organic, one day will get there. But really...there are a few hybrid varieties that I just love -- and that is corn, in particular. I love the variety called a supersweet, sh2. This type holds on the stalk and after picking much longer than a sugary enhanced se2 or other sugar enhanced corn varieties. Just a personal preference. And I always get my corn seed from stokes. I am going to show a picture of the stupidist corn that I had ever grown. It was last year and I did not get my seed order going properly as I should have. This was nasty corn. And it grew weird and it tasted OK, but it was dreadful.

I will make a narration as I do each picture, cause I need to.

Ya, so I get most of my seeds from West Coast Seeds. I have ordered for many, many years, most of my seeds from them. Tried and true, and the seeds grow well up here. I believe West Coast Seeds trial gardens are in southwestern BC, I think in Delta, if memory serves me well.

I have ordered a few seeds from an Alberta native plants seed company, Wild about Flowers. Ordered only black eyed Susan and a wild onion, a nodding onion, called Allium Cernuum, makes a pretty flower and it is also used as a green onion for eating. I will gather seed from both this year, they will sow true to parent.

I have also ordered a few seeds through Heritage Harvest. Believe their trial gardens are up in northern Alberta, near Beaverdale, I think. Seeds geared to short season climates. Although I think ours is not really considered very short. I can begin to plant in May, with tenders, like squash plants sown in June and peppers not out until then too.

I wonder if anything I am saying has helped to address some of your queries. Hope so. This is a good thread by the way, have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Many of the corn cobs had a second corn growing off the side of it, a good size, but not developed with ripe corn, the main cob was developed. It was annoying...the corn was called Canadian Early Supersweet hybrid F1 – would never in a million years get that corn variety again. The seed was McKenzie. A last minute purchase cause I was just well, too late to order seed and thought this one looked good. Right.

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The corn also had horrible tip cover problems. Never have I encountered a problem with the husk not covering the tip 100%....bad

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There is always some form of weirdness that will show up in the garden harvest, smiling

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The buff orpingtons loved to hang out in the corn patch

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Yep, and if you spill walnuts, there is only one way that they should be picked up, with a snow shovel. Yep. Always trying to find the most efficient way to do things, that is my Husband. I would have just knelt down and picked them all up. We had a friend of our Daughter’s that offered us as many walnuts as we would like to pick. So we did. And we dehydrated them. And they were stored nicely, dried.

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I was a CT and Knapps seed buyer until 2 years ago. I ordered from Veseys. I have tough growing conditions up here and I had trouble finding seeds to suit the cold nights, even in the summer. I find the catalogues have more variety and more specialised seeds. I have to say I get better germination and growth in my tough conditions than the seeds from the local stores.

I am embarrassed to say I have become a bit of a seed catalogue junkie too. Once I get into one an hour often goes by before I realise I have been pouring over the catalogue and taking notes......sigh.......I need to get a life some days!

[quote=

I am embarrassed to say I have become a bit of a seed
catalogue junkie too. Once I get into one an hour often goes by before
I realise I have been pouring over the catalogue and taking
notes......sigh.......I need to get a life some days! [/quote]

I printed off a catalogue from Upper Canada Seeds. loads of heirloom
tomatoes. While working at Canadian tire a customer told me the best
place to get tomato seeds is TomatoGrowers.com so I jst requested
a catalogue.. I forgot one that I had it is local to the prairies,
Heritage Harvest Seeds. Exciting timeof year for sure
Geri

I only buy seeds from seed companies taht make the "safe seed pledge" google it for more info. It is a reasonable way of ensuring that a company owned by Monsanto, Dow or some other giant agri-business I don't much like didn't make any money off me. I also only grow from seeds that haven't been treated with fungicide, as I'm a crazy person that thinks the seed treatments are bad for me and the soil.

Rasilon wrote:Hi I grow alot of things every year. Over the years I have found that
it is better to get from a seed house rather than a grocery store. As
stated before germiation is better and the selection can put you in the
poor house . I want to grow it all lololololo. Most catalogues
have a great selection of heritage and organic seeds. Here is a list of
seed companies you can google and order a catalogue. I have them all..
Sand Hill Preservation center
Lindenberg seeds
West Coast seeds (organic)
Thompson and Morgan
OSC Seeds
Halifax Seed
Johnnys Select seeds
T & T seeds
Stokes Seeds (my bible because of the growing guides for each seed)
Veseys seeds and bulbs (also have a great fundraiser)
William Dam Seeds
Dominion Seed house
McFayden
All but Johnnys and Sand hill are canadian companies. Most if not all
state they do not carry GMO seeds. Each catalogue has new information .
I spend a great deal of time pouring over them . I am expecting one
more . The Burpee seed catalogue. They won't send one to Canada so had
to get a freind to send me one. Can't wait . Happy planting everyone.
Geri

That's a great list of seed company catalogues. Thanks! Should have all of them! lol I mostly order from Veseys Seeds in PEI. Partly because it is fairly local for me but also because we have had good success with their seeds. Love spending hours looking through seed catalogues as well

happychicks wrote:

Rasilon wrote:Hi I grow alot of things every year. Over the years I have found that
it is better to get from a seed house rather than a grocery store. As
stated before germiation is better and the selection can put you in the
poor house . I want to grow it all lololololo. Most catalogues
have a great selection of heritage and organic seeds. Here is a list of
seed companies you can google and order a catalogue. I have them all..
Sand Hill Preservation center
Lindenberg seeds
West Coast seeds (organic)
Thompson and Morgan
OSC Seeds
Halifax Seed
Johnnys Select seeds
T & T seeds
Stokes Seeds (my bible because of the growing guides for each seed)
Veseys seeds and bulbs (also have a great fundraiser)
William Dam Seeds
Dominion Seed house
McFayden
All but Johnnys and Sand hill are canadian companies. Most if not all
state they do not carry GMO seeds. Each catalogue has new information .
I spend a great deal of time pouring over them . I am expecting one
more . The Burpee seed catalogue. They won't send one to Canada so had
to get a freind to send me one. Can't wait . Happy planting everyone.
Geri

That's
a great list of seed company catalogues. Thanks! Should have all of
them! lol I mostly order from Veseys Seeds in PEI. Partly because it is
fairly local for me but also because we have had good success with
their seeds. Love spending hours looking through seed catalogues as
well [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I just thought of one more that I got years ago . JUst requested one.
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Holy smokes thats great info guys I have some reading to do .

I have gone crazy and bought seeds from all over and then realize i have seeds that are years old and really don't germinate that well. So until I get my garden deer fenced I have sworn off buying seeds except herbs for the pots (actually usually buy them as plants anyway) and a few flower seeds for the pots around the door.

When I was planting I liked to get a few different types of each vegetable. They were all quite different and then I could tell if there was a type that did better or I was just a hopeless gardener and nothing would grow.

The deer are really destructive.

I like to order Heritage varieties of seeds from small seed companies. I am trying to avoid GMO's, which I believe will be our civilizations downfall.

SucellusFarms wrote:I like to order Heritage varieties of seeds from
small seed companies. I am trying to avoid GMO's, which I believe will
be our civilizations downfall.

All the catalogues I listed except Halifax sseeds and Lindenberg state
they are GMO free or will not knowingly sell GMO seeds and have signed
the safe seed pledge.
Geri

Must add that I agree heritage is the way to go.

I thought this said, "Help! a Newfie!" One should not fear the Newfies, they are hard to understand but essentaially harmless.

Deer on the other hand, they are despicable in the garden!

Oh Uno your are priceless.

I loved the pics in everybodies posts its almost maddening because I just want spring to be here so I can get my planters and rows done up and get going.

YES I too have to fence! I went and got 10ft fence posts and found some 56" stucco mesh to put around it. So with that I'm hoping I will only have to weed inbetween

This year I have the task of expanding my flower bed in front of the house. Last year I put way to many flowers in a small space and then when the grew it was huge so huge that I homed mice!! So out came the flowers which were dying anyways cause it was Oct. anyways and they weren't annuals? or was that other kind of flower thats not annual. Oh see I'm terrible at this flower thing I only just started last year and was soo impressed that I figured I would do more this year.

So my goal is to try to get something happening by May 24th this year. I can only hope that the weather works with us and its a good growing season . Gordon only knows that I have enough snow pack this year so I will not be running out of water

Ruffledfeathers wrote:This year I have the task of expanding my flower bed in front of the house. Last year I put way to many flowers in a small space and then when the grew it was huge so huge that I homed mice!! So out came the flowers which were dying anyways cause it was Oct. anyways and they weren't annuals? or was that other kind of flower thats not annual. Oh see I'm terrible at this flower thing I only just started last year and was soo impressed that I figured I would do more this year.

Annuals have to be planted annually from seed or bought seedlings. Perennials come back every year from the root.

We use alot of stucco mesh fences around her for goats and chickens, because father-in-law owns a manufacturing plant. They do the job.

Came across this safe seed Resource List. U.S. is at the top and Canada is further down the page.

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SucellusFarms wrote:Came across this safe seed Resource List. U.S. is at the top and Canada is further down the page.

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Hi Thank you for the list, Just what I need the more seed catalogues to order... and I will order lolol

Geri