[food junkie]

In past seasons, I've exponentially increased my heirloom veggie/herb garden diversity by frequenting web-based seed swapping sites. Except for the price of postage, it's free because you're trading out of your surplus inventory. Give it a shot...it's a blast! And if you have nothing to trade, you can often times find kind-hearted individuals willing to send seeds to you if you'll just send them an envelope and postage. Here's are links to a few sites I can recommend:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/exseed/

http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/trading/

http://www.seedswappers.com/default.asp

If you start now, you'll have the kitchen garden of all kitchen gardens!

[phoebe]

Hi FoodJunkie and Welcome!

I can vouch for the good folks at GardenWeb. Several kind souls offered to send me seeds for Sophie's Choice tomato when my usual sources didn't carry it.

Do you save seeds? I've always figured that seed-swapping went on between people who did. I haven't (yet) started saving them because my plants are so close together. I never feel I could guarantee pure seed. So I just buy packets from places like TGS, Baker Creek, and Territorial.

[food junkie]

Hi Emily!

I was actually an obsessive seed saver/trader for years. A few years ago I took a "promotion" which left me with little/no time to indulge my passion for heirloom gardening, so I gave all of my seed away to folks who could use them. Like you, I often was not able to save seeds from crops I had grown due to fears of cross-pollenation issues, but over time I did a fair share of home seed production by isolating flower clusters, pollenating by hand, etc...usually I did what you did and traded away my leftovers. I often bought a little larger package of varieties that I thought might be sought after to make the trading fly. We just bought our first house and I will be planning our first kitchen garden over the next few weeks. I imagine I'll fall right back into old habits and by this time next year I'll have enough seeds to start an heirloom farm...

[phoebe]

Congrats on the new home! What are you planning to plant in the kitchen garden? Are you starting seeds indoors? When?

And how do you like Vancouver, WA? I'm asking because David (my husband) and I are planning to flee L.A. in about 2 1/2 years. We want to move where we can afford to buy a home (we rent here) and have some land (2-5 acres?). We're considering Bellingham, WA and plan to look at Olympia. Any thoughts and/or advice? And, yes, we like cold weather and rain.

[food junkie]

Originally Posted by phoebe

Congrats on the new home! What are you planning to plant in the kitchen garden? Are you starting seeds indoors? When?

And how do you like Vancouver, WA? I'm asking because David (my husband) and I are planning to flee L.A. in about 2 1/2 years. We want to move where we can afford to buy a home (we rent here) and have some land (2-5 acres?). We're considering Bellingham, WA and plan to look at Olympia. Any thoughts and/or advice? And, yes, we like cold weather and rain.

Bellingham is soooooo awesome. Darn short growing seaon up there though. We would've moved there if the employment situation had been better in that city. You should definitely vist the area and spend some time around Bellingham. Olympia is so-so. I know it's the capitol, but there just isn't anything going on there. We chose Vancouver because of the great, small town ambiance...and it's right across the river from a thriving metropolis, Portland. There is still plenty of land available in our area at a reasonable price and Clark County is still mainly an agricultural community. Plenty of cool/interesting small farms spring up all over as well. If you guys get to our neck of the woods, give me a shout and we'll show you around. Try to come in June, when the Farmer's Market is in full swing.
I haven't really given a lot of thought to our garden yet...other than I know I have to have one. We'll at least do peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, greens and some herbs this year...and yes, I start most of my seeds indoors under fluorescent lighting. I'll start some late in February and the rest in early March. The greens and peas will be directly sown next month.

[mudbug]

Originally Posted by phoebe

Hi FoodJunkie and Welcome!

I can vouch for the good folks at GardenWeb. Several kind souls offered to send me seeds for Sophie's Choice tomato when my usual sources didn't carry it.

Do you save seeds? I've always figured that seed-swapping went on between people who did. I haven't (yet) started saving them because my plants are so close together. I never feel I could guarantee pure seed. So I just buy packets from places like TGS, Baker Creek, and Territorial.

Check out the offerings from those at the gardenweb link. This has been mentioned before here long ago but is good to be re-mentioned. Specifically look at their exchange pages or do a search of exchange pages for "heirloom". You'll be surprised how many baker creek offerings there are from those who don't want to see their seed go to waste.