I am starting a new bed with about 20 curb-picked big paper leaf bags from the next town over. Reading the seed catalogs already, and have a couple of Amy Goldman’s books out from the library, one about heirloom tomatoes and the other about melons.
What catalogs do you all recommend, for good seeds cheap? I like Pinetree, and sampleseeds dot com, and cherrygal seeds, and I think I’ll splurge a little on Baker Creek. I thought food gardening was supposed to save money but I always want to try new varieties, even when I save seeds from varieties I like!
I have had sample seeds from wintersown.org that were quite reasonable. That is neither a recommendation, nor an endorsement. They do have an interesting site, and some how to articles.
I now save most of my seeds, but set a budget and order some new varieties from Baker Creek Seeds(Missouri Business Headquarters close to my home town LOL). I also like to order a few things from Bountiful Gardens. They almost always have something interesting to consider, as well as some very interesting books to read.
Neither is cheap. I have had some good deals from Burgess, but they are a pain to deal with, if you have to contact them for replacements or to straighten out an order.
Regarding cherrygal seeds—a lot of people have had problems:
www.davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/7242/
“What catalogs do you all recommend, for good seeds cheap?”
I know you asked about catalogs, but I have had great luck trading seeds with other gardeners. Join a few garden forums and participate a while, then when people get to know you, you can trade.
Yes, there’s a chance you’ll get bum seeds or people will take your seeds without sending you seeds in return. But many gardening forums have some kind of a feedback thread where members can post who is - and is not - good to trade with. Also if you are new to gardening, sometimes gardeners will send you their surplus seeds if you send them a SASE. Gardeners often save far more seeds than they need, and are happy to find people who want to grow them.
So far I’ve had excellent luck with trading, with my trade partners often sending me more than promised and throwing in “bonus” surprise seeds as well.
For trading stock, learn to save true (non-crossed) seeds from as many non-hybrid vegetables as possible. Save seeds from those non-hybrid flowers and herbs, too! You especially want to save lots of seeds from unusual and/or heirloom varieties, because you can always find folks who want those.
In addition to learning to save your own seeds, you can use extras from your commercial packs for trading stock. For example, if you buy a commercial pack of 25-50 tomato or squash seeds, will you actually grow out 25-50 plants of that variety before the seeds get old? Why not trade some of those seeds for something else you want? Just like with home-saved seeds, seeds from heirloom and/or rare varieties will be in more demand for trading.
One last thought: dollar-type stores often have seed packs for 2/$1 or even 3/$1. Don’t be shy about end-of-the-season clearance racks, either. Most of the seeds you find there will be hybrid varieties, but occasionally there are unusual open-pollinated varieties, too. Voila, more cheap seeds to grow or use for trading stock.
If you get a reputation as a good trade partner in a few garden forums, in a couple of years you’ll find yourself wanting a bigger garden to try all the cool seeds you got in your trades.