Saturday, April 11, 2009

Livingston Seeds Donated By the Gazillion for Stoddart Avenue Community Garden


I had been hearing rumors that Livingston Seeds would probably donate some seeds to our cause, but I try not to count my chickens before they are hatched. Alysha called me yesterday to report that Livingston Seeds had donated a gazillion seeds. Her husband had just picked them up and she couldn't possibly list all of them for me (but she promises to try so that we can list them on this site and let Gardeners pick what they want before they buy their own). As you can see from the picture, we have enough seeds for both this year and next.

There are peas, spinach, cantalope, chard, carrots, mustard greens, beans, sweet corn, carrots, watermelon, basil, cilantro, tomatoes (cherry, yellow cherry, roma, etc.), bell peppers, habeneros peppers, celery, lettuce, pumpkins, beets, cabbage, radishes, turnips, and MORE. There are also flowers: zinnias, cosmos, straw flowers, daisies, sun flowers, morning glories, marigolds, poor man's weather glass and lots of flowers I've never heard of.

Alysha and I were laughing this morning while flipping through the seeds because it turns out that celery must be started indoors and 3-4 MONTHS BEFORE PLANTING SEASON. I apologize, but we weren't thinking about planting celery back in January or February or we would have started our seeds earlier. We'll put the celery on our calendars for 2010;)

For us, flipping through the seeds is like being two kids in a candy store. It's just so much fun. Some Stoddart Gardeners have already gotten back to me about the seeds they wanted from my already freakishly large stash, so if you see something listed here that you want (and was not already on the list I gave you), please let me know. We'll be happy to put them aside for you.

Alysha and I have both already started lots of seeds. However, we don't want to be greedy. If any of you would like to start your own seeds early, just email me or call me and I'll drop off some for you to start in your own kitchen.

A little bit about Livingston Seeds-- http://www.livingstonseed.com/-- although this description is from a different website:

Alexander W. Livingston (1821-1898) of Reynoldsburg, Ohio was a pioneering seedsman who was best known as a developer of tomato varieties in the United States in the nineteenth century.

Although tomatoes had been cultivated to various degrees throughout the world, it was Mr. Livingston and his seed company who contributed more to the development of the tomato as a commercial crop than any other. When Mr. Livingston began his attempts to develop the tomato as a commercial crop, his goal was to produce tomatoes that were smooth skinned, uniform in size and having better flavor. After many attempts at hybridization, he began instead, a process of selecting seed from tomato plants exhibiting specific characteristics. It was using this selection process that he discovered a plant that bore perfect tomatoes like its parent vine. After five years of selection, the fruit became fleshier and larger. In 1870, Alexander introduced the Paragon.

Prior to his work, tomatoes were commonly ribbed, hard cored, and generally hollow fruit. In all, A. W. Livingston and his company introduced thirty-one varieties of tomatoes.
Many tomato varieties are available on the Company's website.

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