My Seed Addiction

The first step in any addiction is admitting you have a problem. I think I am stabilized now, but for a while there I couldn't even enter a garden section without buying something. I took a trip down to the Territorial Seed store - did you even know they had one?? It was pretty small, but adequate. They sell all the seeds that are in the catalog, plus they have a green house. I bet they had 25 or so different tomato starts, different kinds of peppers, tomatillos, cabbage, etc. They also have a good selection of nice gardening and composting books along with some gardening supplies.


I tried to be very selective and only get what I NEEDED. I also got four red cabbage starts, which are now happily growing in the garden!


The highlight of the day by far was finding 5 color silverbeet seeds from Abundant Life (also based in Cottage Grove, their seeds were sold at Territorial and also at a nursery on Hwy 99 just south of Corvallis). Look how beautiful they are!


Territorial is my favorite seed company because of their selection, quality and because their seeds are specifically grown for this area. I have bought cheap seeds in the past only to be disappointed. Many of them don't germinate, and those that do never seem to flourish. Another brand I just stumbled upon this March when Aaron and I went to California is Renee's Garden. We were in this middle of no where town called Felton when we stopped in a natural food store to get a few things. I got some of these and some of these and when I got home I realized they are actually from Felton! Apparently my mom really likes these as well, I found a store in Corvallis that carries almost 200 different kinds of their seed packets. The really cool thing about the ones that I got is that there are 3 kinds of seed in each packet that are dyed so you can tell what you are planting. Genius!

Last spring some of my starts didn't do that well. The room that is sunny and open is also still very cold in February/March when I am starting seeds. Sooo I got this:

And it is awesome! I can heat two flats at a time and my seedlings were up in less than 3 days when it normally takes 7-10. I think my peppers might actually do something this year - if they don't I'm just going to starts next year they are so slow growing.
Happy gardening everyone!