The Trusty Gardener-My Garden Seeds Are Ordered!
This Year I Ordered From Pinetree Garden Seeds
Welcome back. Have you had a chance to browse through your 2023 seed catalogs yet? I must say have been through most of mine. Still a few left however to peruse. It’s a fun time of the year; a time to plan ahead for the new growing season while taking into account your experiences of this past season and prior seasons. The hope is that, based on what we have learned, we will be able to make good decisions going forward.
It’s always fun to look at the new seed catalogs. Every year they always feature new varieties, usually on the first few pages. Sometimes on the cover. Always some “new and improved” veggies and/or flowers to try. And then there are the old tried and true varieties, including the heirlooms. If you follow my articles and gardening stories, you know I love heirloom varieties, especially tomatoes. You can’t go wrong. Tried and true over the years.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about receiving seed catalogs and the yearly process of sorting through the seed container.
In this article, I stated:
For this growing season, I will keep all seeds dated 2022 but discard any dated 2021 or older. I do make exceptions on occasion, especially with tomatoes.
So the bottom line is that it’s a good idea to throw out old seeds, older than 1 year. This will help in several ways. First, it will help you sort and organize your seeds; second, it should prevent disappointing germination rates.
As I mentioned above, this year I ordered my seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds. This is a new catalog I received this year that I have never heard of. I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
From their website:
Located in rural Maine, we are a family-owned and operated business. Operating since 1979, Pinetree Garden Seeds was founded with the simple mission of offering low prices on quality seeds to the home gardener.
First of all, their catalog is big, 120 pages packed with goodies. I was impressed by how comprehensive the catalog is in terms of quality vegetable and flower varieties including heirlooms and hybrids. They also feature live plants, tubers, garden supplies, and even soap-making supplies.
What caught my eye also is their prices. Many of the seed packets are $1.95, with many at $2.25 and $2.50 also. There are some more expensive but overall I found this catalog very reasonable. I have noticed a sharp increase in seed prices this year in most of the catalogs I received. Of course with the high rate of inflation this year, it’s not surprising. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Pinetree.
I will highlight a few of the varieties I chose. I hope to highlight more of them in future articles:
From the catalog:
Our lettuce mix includes over a half dozen varieties that we offer. A couple of each loose Leaf, butterhead, and romaine types with a variety of colors, textures, tastes, and maturation times.
Japanese Black Trifele Heirloom Tomato
From the Catalog:
Highly productive Russian heirloom. Brick-red, 4–6 oz pear-shaped fruit rarely seen in other potato leaf varieties. Every summer we share our tomato trials with the staff for a taste test, this one was the favorite for 2019.
From the catalog:
This recent All-America Selections winner produces 4” stringless pods that are straight and slender, resembling the appearance of a green bean. The flavor, however, is scrumptiously sweet with the juicy, crisp texture typical of snap peas. Vines are compact, reaching 18–24”.
In all, I ordered 26 seed packets. I will still buy a few things locally if I need to. For some veggies, I also buy some vegetables as plants, such as peppers, cucumbers, squash, etc. I will again start tomatoes from seed this year in mid-March. In February, I will plant some onions, leeks, lettuce, kale, Pac Choi, etc. using the Winter Sowing technique. More on that to come.
Stay tuned.
