One can count the seeds in an apple etc etc...

Part Deux

 

Seeds worth trading for...

The seed swap site we used the most was The Garden Web  They have a forum section with seed and plant swaps, even a specific area for Canucks. However I found most from the USA were more then happy to trade with us and shipping/customs was no problem at all. This is where the diversity of our seeds really went haywire. People are posting all the time things they are looking for or have to trade. The key is to have one or two seeds people will find unique, luckily I grew and harvested seeds from last years patio garden, the Chinese 5 Colour Pepper and an heirloom tomato seed. I put up my list and then went hunting for others who had long lists of interesting seeds. Struck up a friendly conversation via email and a trade was established. I then sit back and wait to see what they send, and those in the garden world are definitely happy to share. Ultimately they don't want to see the seeds go to waste, but the fact we are just starting out and included our personal story info in our bio and emails certainly helped with the generosity factor. I'd set up a trade for 3 kinds of seeds and sometimes people send like 6 or even 10 kinds. It was great, like a mini Christmas every day the mail arrived.

There were two people specifically who were generous above and beyond. One was a guy who grows tomatoes. I read a few blogs about certain kinds of tomatoes and starting a hunt to find some seeds. I sent and email to a guy who seemed to be a guru in the field and he was more than happy to help us out. He ended up sending us like 10 varieties, all with nothing from us in terms of a trade or postage and more importantly, he sent us two strains which he himself created and named just this year. One named for his wife which I cant wait to check out. Doubt I'll tell D about that one or I'll be knee deep in veggie genes trying to make a Danni Squash.

5 Colour Twilight Zone

The next guy, we'll call him Greg. I think he took it on himself to get us in the right direction with a head start many may be envious of. All with barely more then a couple emails with our story and a request for a few top bean choices. This guy was the bean guru as far as I could tell and after we chatted a little he told me to hang tight and he'd send up a little package. Couple weeks later a bubble envelop arrives the size of a grapefruit. When I opened the package it literally burst out onto the table and we both actually said a vulgar version of "WOW!!" In the package was 83 different kinds of snap and dry beans, 8 kinds of tomatoes and probably 20 kinds of watermelon, squash or pumkins. With 5-10 seeds of each variety, all labeled and many with his personal notes pointing out his favs, or little tips. It was amazing really, and a moment that at some point in the future I may Pay it Forward to someone else deserving.

By the way, one of the bean seeds was suppose to be on the Mayflower back in the day and the strain has been kept 'pure' since then.  If nothing else, we can grow one or two plants of the most rare or desirable plants and sell/trade the seeds in the future years. We do value the benefit of heritage seed saving and being anti GMO, so we will do our part.

Something of note to keep your eye out for when checking the seed swapping sites are either;

1. 'Round Robin Exchange' where you mail in 10 packs each of 1 - 5 kinds of seeds to a 'Host', the Host takes your seeds and 10 or 20 other people's who have done the same, then splits them up for all those who participated. You wait patiently and they send you back a package with an interesting mix of seeds. We've joined two so far and just got one back which was exclusively peppers. The number of seeds you get back is usually a direct correlation to how many you send in.  
2. 'Seed Trains' this is where one person takes a box and starts with a few varieties of seeds. People sign up to be a stop on the train and you mail the package to the next person on the list. When it stops at you, you sort through what you want, add a little to replenish your bounty and mail it on to the next person. We are just waiting for now coming from out west. We found this one on The Hot Pepper , again in the forums section. Wish I liked hot peppers more... 

Small portion of the bible...

Keep in mind, when you get seeds from a swap or train, technically you never know what your getting. Might be old, cross pollinated or just the wrong seed. So as they said in the 70's, swapper beware.

I won't bother to get specific with what seeds we have moving into this year, but I will share some overall numbers. Most likely a majority, if not all, will have at least 1 seed planted to test and preserve, but as usual the reality may be different. Some of course will have multiple planted.

  
Final Seed Tally 

 

• Tomatoes: 55 varieties - small to beefsteak, yellow to black
• Beets: 7 varieties - Striped, yellow and a few variations on the standard red
• Peas: 12 varieties - Not much to say about peas frankly
• Broccoli: 5 varieties - Purple heads, some Italian that branches out and an early sprouter 
• Cauliflower: 3 varieties - Super white, a purple and one which is suppose to taste like heaven
• Cucumbers: 10 varieties - Pickling, slicing and a few which may question my manhood
• Lettuce: 15 varieties - These include spinach, romaines, various heads and loose leafs
• Peppers: 45 varieties - Uber spicy, super sweet with every colour and size known
• Carrots: 9 varieties - Rainbow of colours but mainly on the larger size. No minis here
• Beans: 115 varieties - Snaps, dry, rare and some worth 2$/seed. We'll focus on the larger ones 
• Melons: 35 varieties - Pumpkins, squash, melons & watermelons. Anything you could ask for
• Potatoes: 10 varieties - Early, mid and late season, mostly large with focus on long storage
• Sweet potatoes: 6 varieties - Testing the waters, most are early season varieties for our climate
• Asparagus: 4 varieties - Green and purple with half being a male only high producing strains
• Garlic: 7 varieties - From all over the world, mild to pungent. Looking forward to this one.
• Misc: 29 varieties: Corn, celery, onions, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, radish etc etc

What do you mean that's too many? D wanted me to try mushrooms too... Anyway, I have everything laid out in a computer file and with the help of the software mentioned previously, it should be smooth sailing. This is one of those examples, I hope, where spending some extra time now will make future years less stressful and productive. I'll let you know... 

Finally, what we did with the seeds was to preserve them not only for safety from natural disasters but also for ease of identification. When the seeds first started coming in I knew the small envelopes they usually come in would be hard to maintain, difficult to sort through and ultimately a recipe for mix-ups and seed errors. To eliminate these pesky issues I went to a friend who has a company shipping Chia Seeds coast to coast. If you don't know Chia seeds, I'll give him a free plug: Chia Seeds

The Larry, Moe and Curly of seed safety

Anyway, to carry the seeds around they have a small hinge top air tight container and I grabbed a hundred of these and proceeded to place each type of seed in one. If the seed was bought commercially I'd actually tape the label or pertinent information on it, to the container. If it was a swap or direct trade seeds I make a label myself or tape the label they included to it.  I recently found mini versions of these at the dollar store, 6 or 8 in a pack and perfect for small seeds, or those of only a few. They can seem to get lost when you only have 5 tomato seeds in a 'large' container. After buying a cheap tool box, the Seed Bank Project is in full effect and frankly I enjoy bringing it out to bore people with. Most people's eyes haze over if I do, but we'll see this fall what they think...       

Seed Bank vault rare opening...

All in all I am happy with the overall outlook. Total cost to us so far is about $500 which includes the seeds, the potatoes, asparagus crowns and a few different trees and fruit bearing bushes. In the next month or two we will buy a bunch more fruit trees for the back plot and then that's it for this year. If we can grow some good seeds worth saving and selling, next year will be much easier. Worse case scenario, we can always eat Cooper...

I'll see you sooner then you think...

Life Lesson # 559b - People, like seeds, need good companionship. Be near those who will help you flourish and bloom. Otherwise you might as well plant yourself under a black walnut tree, alone...
   

One can count the seeds in an apple, but only Mother Nature can count the number of apples in a seed...

Part 1

(This ones was a doozy but we split it into a two parter)

Do birds have snow shovels?...

At last, spring is upon us and honestly it couldn't come quick enough. Now however, is when we have to put up or shut up. It's coming at us like a boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but we knew what we were signing up for, and in many ways I look forward to days of true progress. I'm pretty much planned out.

The last month or so I have been spending a chunk of my spare time gathering seeds for the coming year. They ended up coming from an interesting mix of places and if you get anything from this specific episode it would be about the seeds.

• First of all, we decided to not focus on one specific fruit or veggie in any category. This year we will grow as many different varieties of fruits/veggies as we can. Not only to judge what we'd like to focus on, but also to save the seeds moving forward so we won't have to buy many commercially. 
• Next, I decided to organize and safely preserve all the seeds we got to ensure longevity and protection in case of natural disaster or Cooper attack. Our own Seed Bank Project.
• Finally, where we got our seeds from varied more than we thought it would. I always assumed you look seeds up in a catalog, order them and wait patiently in the bushes while the postal worker does their business with the snail mail.          

Now that the dust has settled, I think, as usual, my tunnel vision got me a little crazy with the seed collecting. Why? While D and I were attending a seed saving show last month, I pulled out my list to ensure we didn't duplicate and the person behind the counter yelped "Woah!! Are those all your seeds?!?!" D cleared her throat subtly. When you know nothing about seeds and growing, every description you read seems like one you'd like to try. Yesterday at a seed place we were getting herb seeds for her garden and she actually said in a firm tone, "OK, enough with the bean seeds".

We bought almost exclusively from Canadian retailers with a few packs coming from companies in the USA I couldn't resist. A minor deciding factor was any coupon code I could locate online at that time, usually free shipping or $X off $XX worth of order. Overall everything came in swiftly, except for the living plants, bulbs and tubers (potatoes) which ship once frost has passed. The final retailer tally and my 2 cents worth are as follows:

1. Veseys Seeds  A Canadian company with a good reputation and decent prices. Bought seeds, a few potatoes and sweet potatoes to test them out.
2. TT Seeds  Canadian, good prices and quick shipping. Bought seeds, asparagus and a few small tools.
3. Mapple Farm   Canadian and mostly known for their sweet potatoes. I actually had these guys on my hotbar watching and waiting for their 2013 to go on sale. We weren't missing out on our choices. Also bought asparagus, and a unique kind of tomato which is suppose to store over winter.
4. Eagle Creek Farms East Coast Canadian and exclusively sells seed potatoes. Good variety and decent customer service. We ended up getting 7 different kinds to test the waters.
5. Park Seeds - The only USA company we ordered from, they had great prices on a couple specific seeds I couldn't resist. Fast shipping and good selection. Minus 1 point for being Yankees tho... 
6. Henry Fields Canadian website I found out later they may ship from the USA. Not sure I like the rouse but we'll see. Initially I wanted to order one type of potato D was on me about and ended getting sucked into a bunch of fruit and nut trees. Good prices, good selection and decent coupon codes floating around.
7. Seeds of Diversity Canadian seed preservation 'charity' organization. Pay a membership fee and get access to heirloom seed growers. Bought some seeds more to test it out and support the cause than anything. Overall not sure how I feel about the seeds received, they sure dont kill themselves with the quantities.
8. Ontario Seed Company (OSC)  Local seed company with good variety, good prices, fast shipping and they have the option for larger quantity discounts. IE 1 pak or 1/4 oz or 1/2 oz etc. 
9. Richters Herbs Local seed company known mostly for their herbs and medicinal plants. Large greenhouse and friendly staff. Seed prices aren't cheap but the variety is pretty overwhelming.    

Now that I see this list it's a little much, but the buying was peppered over a month or so if that means anything. In the end, one was just as good as another for different reasons. No one stiffed us in any major way, many of the retailers have some sort of guarantee which is reassuring. (We cancelled an order from West Coast Seeds due to slow order shipping and substandard customer service.) We'll monitor how the seeds turn out and that will narrow our choices down for next year if we choose to buy again.

Nice to look at but hard to conquer... 

An alternate source for seeds for you to consider, which we stumbled on, is now your new favourite term: Seed Swap. No, not a fertility clinic after hours party, but a place where gardeners hook up to exchange their seeds. Actually not that different when you think about it. The beauty of the internet is you can do it from your couch while eating licorice. You can find swaps at brick and mortar events, but there are a couple websites out there that I have found very useful. Obviously there are more, but most seem to have 4 posts since 2007, or require me to crack my college botany book in order to list the seeds by genus and phylum. I have zero patience and like to get in and out quick. (insert joke here)

Life Lesson #559a - Patience comes to those who wait...


                                                                To Be Continued.....