Seed Order: Thoughts

I finally got some seeds ordered today, from Territorial Seed Co.  I started off planning to order vegetables today, from a different source (Seeds of Change) and ended up ordering flowers from TSC. I made the switch after talking with a good friend here, who has started seeds lots of times and also purchased plants. 

The vegetables/fruits I would want to start early would be beans, cantaloupe, and possibly some others. But she pointed out that if I really only want 2-4 cantaloupe plants, for example, I might as well buy the starts. They would cost the same as the seed packet containing 100 seeds, but I wouldn't have all the work/worry of starting them myself only to have them possibly die off at some point, so all that effort wasted. Plus, if I didn't like the variety I wouldn't be stuck with 96 extra seeds.

Many of the seeds I was going to purchase can be direct-seeded here, though the growing season is shorter than Missouri, so things like the corn, cucumbers, etc., I will probably just do that way.

Things like beans, peas, beets, etc., she thought was worth it to buy the seed packets, because you plant multiples of those every year to get a good crop.  What scared me away from ordering those, though, was the flat-rate shipping fee of $8.00 for my measly 6 packet order. Not to mention that fact that I still have some half-packets left from previous years' gardening experiments. Also, a bunch of the ones I wanted most from Seeds of Change were out of stock--probably due to my late ordering.

TSC has about the same shipping fee, but I guess I ordered enough (8-10 packets) to feel okay about it. Plus, since I got all flowers, I can see myself using up the entire packet over several years, because again, you always tend to plant them in multiples.

Several of the catalogs I signed up for only ship live plants, which I decided against buying as well. For one, they are very expensive and shipping is even more. Plus there's always the chance that they get stressed or poorly handled or die en route then you're out all that money with nothing to show for it.  I would rather support my local nursery anyway, as they are likely to have the cultivars that do well in our area, and (lastly) I can wait to buy them until I'm ready to put them in the ground, rather than have a shipment come in the middle of a late snowstorm, or something.

So (phew!) $27 later, I've got a shipment of FLOWER seeds coming and a plan to go with my friend to a local nursery tomorrow to check out their selection of early spring veggies, lilac bushes, and  summer bulbs.