SEEDS
Good morning. I’m snowed in on a windy day. It’s quite heavenly. Well… until I lose power… Haha! It always happens. There are supposed to be high winds all day.
I’ve been ordering seed which must mean I’m a little hopeful about something? (The thing that my travel day took away, perhaps?) Most seed is double the price of last year. No surprises there. Maybe it’s good that I can’t move as I have a garden here and can hopefully save some money growing this year. My neighbors, friends and I are very serious and nerdy about seeds; sharing, swapping, labeling, and my friend John just showed me his seed spreadsheet! The most Virgo move I’ve seen in a long time! Haha!
It’s very cold out so I have spent the morning working in bed, covered in animals next to my partner. ManFriendJeff sleeps like two distinct creatures; the first an alligator thrashing and rolling with its prey in its jaws to drown it, winding the sheets around himself (and off of me) like a violent spool. The second state, which is his morning one, is that of a mole paralyzed in the middle of digging as hard as it can into a bank of dirt and rocks. His forehead pushing against his pillows with his face frozen in a look of strained effort. He sleeps harder than anyone I know. He is a great heater (just ask the cats) and a calming, steady breather. It’s a good spot to work, so I set about planning the garden. I am a “map by hand drawing” person so there are no spreadsheets here, but knowing there’s one out there does make me happy. Gardening has always felt like the most punk rock thing on earth to me and I feel healthier every year I do it. I haven’t for the past couple years and I have felt a bit of a hole in my soul and body from its lack. If you are interested in gardening for the first time do a deep dive into research. It’s fun as hell! If you have never started seed inside, the time to do it is in the next couple weeks. Start small, maybe 3 tomato plants. They are giving, they smell great and it’s obvious when you are doing it right. They are great teachers :)
What are you all doing as a joyful act of resistance?
Here is a list of good seed companies, in case you want to plant something and don’t know where to start when it comes to ordering safe seed. None are sneakily owned by Monsanto/Bayer, and I have personally ordered from every single one of these companies over the years. There are always too many seeds unless you have a HUGE garden, so maybe think about trading or going in with a friend. And please, don’t hesitate to post more good seed companies in the comments!
https://www.highmowingseeds.com/ Vermont’s own!
Here are two more seed companies I forgot:
https://snakeriverseeds.com/?syclid=2cc657cb-3297-4e79-afc4-3f2330ec357c
https://mountainroseherbs.com/
Raising hand - spreedsheet gardener here, but we sort of have to. My husband and I raise and give away to our community about 500 tomato plants (~30 varieties), along with peppers, herbs, and a few species of annual flowers each year. We are gearing up in the basement now for seed starting and will raise the pop-up greenhouses in another month or so. It is a passion project. We absolutely love Rareseeds (aka Baker Creek Seeds, yes the ones with the urban telephone book sized catalog complete with photos that could be considered plant porn!) A couple of other fav seed sources are Southern Exposure https://southernexposure.com/ and Territorial Seed https://territorialseed.com/ and specifically for meadow and wildflower seed Ernst Seed https://www.ernstseed.com/. Happy gardening everyone!