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The first seed catalog has arrived.

This is the absolutely gorgeous tome from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, full of beautiful pictures and descriptions of open-pollinated varieties, along with some helpful essays. It isn't always quite as detailed on planting info as I'd like, but it's well worth any vegetable gardener's attention.

http://rareseeds.com

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Agreed. For some reason I got three so I'm sharing two of them with other like-minded folk.

I always focus on the things they say grow well in the shorter growing seasons.

That worked well for me this year.

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

Hi- I am a really big fan of Johnny's Selected Seed, which is based out of Maine, and so has a lot of short season variates. Johnny's also does their own breeding, and carries quit a few items that they have bred. Probably a third of their variates are organic, and they carry a lot of heirloom tomato variates, as well as other heirlooms. One of my favorites that is a Johnny's exclusive is Hakurei Japanese turnips. These are by far my favorite turnips, and a lot of posters on Gardenweb love them too.

Johnny's also has fantastic customer service. The one time I ordered seed potato from them, my order never came, and I am sure the post office lost the order. I called up Johnny's and they told me they shipped out the order two weeks before, and I should have gotten it, but they sent me another bag of seed potatoes for free, even though I am sure it was not their fault. In our condo building, we had been dealing with substitute mailmen every day for at least a couple of months, and we had many problems with stuff not being delivered.

The only thing I don't order from Johnny's is seed potato, but I order everything else from them, and I have been really happy with them.


http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx

Hope this helps, Nancy

The Baker Creek catalogues are gardening porn.

I'm ordering from Victory Seeds for most things this year. I've had really good luck with them in the past, and I really like the quality of their seeds. I don't have a large garden, so even when using small seed packets it can take me a few years to use up a packet. Their seeds have kept really well for me, and even after 4 or 5 years the seeds still sprout really well. They also seem to read my mind - last year my daughter got really into Edamame and we grew a soy plant that was really excited about. This year they have a much wider variety of Japanese soybean plants, so I'm going to try some of those out. Maybe if I just grow those and some corn I can qualify for a Federal subsidy?

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It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

For those of us (me anyway ) who have already received our seed order and would like to fill in a gap or two, are there any stores in the western suburbs (near Winfield) that have a decent selection of vegetable seeds?

I originally didn't plan to grow broccoli since it's not that expensive in the store. However I'm now jonesing to get something started indoors and broccoli is one of the earliest things I can set out. I've looked around and it seems that the Burpee package the stores get includes Waltham 29 which is described as a good fall variety. I've also seen De Ciccio. That's probably a decent spring variety but I had thought that a hybrid would be better.

In the mean time, I've got some rosemary that just sprouted and I've also got chives and sage started on the thought that I can't have too much of either. Not yet anyway.

And as to the original question, I placed orders with both Jung and Johnny's this year. I see that Johnny's catalog has gotten a lot bigger than it was 20 or 30 years ago. That's kind of funny since I now order off their web site anyway.

thanks,
hank

HankB, I have heard great things about We-grow, a nursery in West Chicago on Washington St. It's near the General Mills Plant, just north of Rte. 38. Also, Ball Seed had it's headquarters in West Chicago. They used to operate at nursery and research facility on Rte. 38 but have various facilities spread around town. I know their nursery and research stock is grown west of Batavia, can't think of the road offhand but I've been past it many times. Not sure if they have a retail outlet or an occasional outlet store.

http://www.seedtoday.com/companies/Ball ... mpany.html

http://www.wegrowdreams.org/

Thanks for the tips LikestoEatout. I've driven past Ball Seed on Roosevelt and wondered if they have a retail outlet. I suppose it would cost nothing to stop and ask. I'll have to check out We-grow as well.

I don't what they have in the way of seeds but once upon a time Planter's Palette had an amazing selection of perennials, annuals, and woody plants. I would imagine they have a good selection of seeds.


http://www.planterspalette.com/

These are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Missouri

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my food shots

I would like to add that Evergreen Seeds has been a pretty good resource for quality asian herbs and vegetables. Their website sucks and sometimes, when they're out of something, they just leave it off your order without warning you, but the seeds have always been good quality.

If I may add, I really like http://www.botanicalinterests.com/

Not only do they have beautiful original art on their seed packets, but they also include an abundance of information both in and outside the packet.

They are also very tech savvy and seem to happily give advice on their facebook page if you have a question.
I used their seeds for my Jarrahdale (blue/grey) pumpkins as well as a patty pan squash mix and they're both doing pretty well!

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Models Eat too!!!
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