SACG Has Been Blessed With Seeds and Seeks to Share Good Fortune

Four days before we broke ground for the 2010 season, I attended my monthly Knitwits meeting at Church. I was running late because I had been soliciting gardeners and volunteers for the weekend. When I arrived, the table which is usually filled with yummy goodies was instead overflowing with packages of seeds. I was speechless. Linda, one of my fellow knitters, had mentioned about six weeks ago that her cousin sold seeds and she could get some from last season for me for free for the SACG. They are organic seeds from the Botanical Interests Seed Company in Colorado (which has a very nice website). A huge number of them are heirloom varieties. She asked what I wanted: anything and everything. Boy oh boy. She and her parents took a stab at organizing them and banding them. For the edibles, I then put like things together in bags.

BISC has a great website. For example, it has lots of great tips about planting and saving seeds, etc., like this:

Can I use seeds leftover from last year?

The life span of seeds varies by variety and storage conditions. Some seeds like beets, swiss chard,gourds, squash, and tomatoes can keep for several years. Others, like onions, chives, shiso, edamame, and fennel may lose viability in less than a year. For best results in your garden, we recommend buying fresh seed every year. We pretest all of our seeds at an independent laboratory and only accept seeds from our suppliers that exceed federal standards for germination, so you can be sure that you are purchasing high quality seeds from us each season. If you do have leftover seed after planting or are unable to plant seeds that you purchased during that season, the best method for storing is to put them in an airtight container (such as a sealed Ziploc bag) in your refrigerator or a cool basement. Cool, dry air prolongs the life of seeds and hot, humid air can kill them quickly.

So we at the SACG are overflowing with blessings: two garbage bags filled with more seeds than we could plant in three years. So, with giving the SACG gardeners their first choice of the goodies this weekend and last weekend, I am opening up our good fortune to other community gardens which want to share in our bounty for the greater good of the community. I don’t want to lug these around in the hot trunk of my car indefinitely or let them go to waste in my basement. Contact me next week if you’d like to share some of our seeds.

I’ve already planted chamomile and it’s already sprouted. Here’s what else we have:

• Peas: Oregon Sugar Pod II, Green Arrow dwarf shelling pea heirloom, Wando shelling pea heirloom, Snap Pea Cascadia
• Broccoli: Di Cicco heirloom
• Cauliflower: Chef’s Choice Blend heirloom,
• Onion: Ringmaster, Flat of Italy heirloom (red),
• Beet: Gourmet Blend, Early Wonder heirloom,
• Parsnip: all American heirloom,
• Kohlrabi: purple & white Vienna blend
• Lettuce/Greens: Nero Toscana Kale heirloom, Gef’s Gourmet Spicy Mix lettuce, mustard heirloom greens, arugula roquette heirloom, Big Seeded mache corn salad heirloom, Red Giant mustard, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard heirloom, Olesh Tres Fine Endive, Palla Rossa Shalim Radicchio, Asian Salad Mix Mesclun, Lolla Rossa lettuce heirloom, Tom Thumb lettuce butterhead heirloom, Little Gem Romaine lettuce heirloom, Rouge d’Hiver romaine lettuce heirloom (red), Broadleaf Batavian Escarole heirloom, Oak Leaf Blend lettuce heirloom, Red Sails lettuce, Great Lakes lettuce heirloom, Farmer’s Market mesclun blend, Gourmet baby greens mesclun mix heirloom, Salad Bowl blend heirloom lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce,
• Cabbage: Copenhage Market heirloom, Wong Bok Chinese cabbage heirloom,
• Bok Choy: White Stem heirloom, Rosette heirloom,
• Turnip: Purple Top White Globe heirloom,
• BEANS, BEANS AND MORE BEANS: White Dixie Butter baby lima heirloom, Windsor broad fava heirloom, Scarlet Emperor pole heirloom, Liana Yard Long pole, Romano pole heirloom, Blue Lake pole, Contender bush heirloom (my most reliable), Royal Burgundy heirloom (i.e., purple beans), Pencil Pod bush heirloom (yellow), Kentucky Wonder pole heirloom, Buttterbean (edamame/soybean), Purple Queen heirloom, Tavera bush, Blue Lake 274 bush,
• Pumpkins: Big Max, Jack O’Lantern, Howden, Moon & Stars Heirloom, Sugar Pie Heirloom,
• Melon: Mickylee watermelon, Melon charentais heirloom
• Peppers: Cayenne Blend heirloom, Yolo Wonder heirloom, Early Jalapeno heirloom, Ancho/Poblano heirloom, Canary Bell, California Wonder heirloom, purple beauty,
• Tomatoes: Celebrity, Silvery Fir Tree heirloom, San Marzano heirloom, Jelly bean red & yellow, Italian Roma heirloom, Gardener’s Delight heirloom, Rainbow blend, yellow pear, Cherry heirloom, Speckled roman heirloom, Sun Gold, Brandywine heirloom, Black Krim (Russian heirloom), Aunt Ruby’s German Green heirloom,
• Corn: Spring Treat (hybrid), Delectible (hybrid), (white) Agent (hybrid), Bodacious (hybrid)
• Carrots: Carnival blend, little finger heirloom, purple haze, scarlet nantes heirloom, Tonda di Parigi heirloom, Royal Chantenay heirloom,
• Cucumber: Japanese Soyu Burpless heirloom, Armenian burpless, Spacemaster
• Eggplant: Black beauty heirloom, Long purple – Japanese/Chinese
• Squash: Vegetable Spaghetti heirloom, summer cocozelle heirloom, Early Yellow Crookneck heirloom, Early Prolific Straightneck heirloom, Burgess Buttercup heirloom, Dlicata Honey Boat winter squash, Waltham Butternut heirloom,
• Herbs: Florence Finocchio Fennel heirloom, Common English Thyme heirloom, Rosemary heirloom, Broadleaf Garden Sage heirloom, Bouquet Dill heirloom, German Chamomile heirloom, Spearmint, Common Chives, and several varieties of basil (including Genovese Italian, Dolce Vita Blend, Purple Petra, Italian Large Leaf & Napoletano).

Flowers. And that’s just the edibles. Then there’s an equal amount of flowers, including sweet peas, zinnias, morning glories (which you must plant far, far away from the SACG, daisies, candytuft, nicotina, cardinal climber, cosmos, penstemon, lupines, poppies, coleus, forget-me-nots, hyacinth bean, nasturtium, black-eyed susan vine, butterf]y flower, celosia, jupiter’s beard, statice, columbine, moon flower, snapdragon, lobelia, hollyhock, four o’clock, vebascum mullein, Chinese lantern, money plant, and more!

Miscellaneous: Corsican hard-shelled gourd, Broom Corn heirloom (for those of you wanting to make your own brooms from scratch), Cat Grass, Liquid Sunshine Wheatgrass heirloom, Goblin Eggs ornamental gourds, ornamental eggplant, etc.