Sir;
I saw your post on The Memsahib’s collection of seed catalogs coming so soon. The reason for this is a simple one: to get your plants to a respectable size, and in the ground after the threat of frost has gone, they must be sent to the customers as early as possible to allow proper selection by the customer, mail processing time, order fulfillment, return processing, and in the case of some seeds, proper germination time before setting out into the garden. I know these things, because I have started a few gardens from seed before. This all plays out to the final objective, which is getting the garden to produce to it’s full capacity in the set length of your particular growing season. While a lot of people just buy their plants at garden centers and so forth to skip all this, some others go the seed route. While there is nothing wrong with this practice at this time, other than the fact that you are limited by what they produce and sell, in the case of TSHTF, this is probably not going to be an option. Everyone who visits this site to gather information to help them plan, should at least try to sprout their own seeds for some, if not all of their produce. And they should be looking at as many heirloom (or “open pollinated” seed)s to plant, so that they can re-seed the same plants the following years, in case TSHTF from the cargo bed of one of those massive dump trucks that work some of the Western open pit mines.
There are a lot of seed sources out there to choose from. Take your pick. Some preparedness sites like Emergency Essentials ( www.BePrepared.com ) sell packs of seeds for a survival garden, packed in a #10 can. I do not advertise for them or any other company, but use them as an example only. Whichever company you choose, order two or three, just to be on the safe side, in case you have a bad year in the garden that year (drought, pests, et cetera). Just like the Boy Scouts, you should always, be prepared! – Dim Tim
Jim,
I ran across a web site several years ago and thought you might be interested: Seeds Trust. I liked the fact they have varieties for high altitude gardens. Take care, – Tom
JWR Replies: Thanks for those suggestions. The non-hybrid (“heirloom”) seed vendors that we have done business with are The Ark Institute (a former SurvivalBlog advertiser), Territorial Seed (beware that they sell some hybrid seeds so read the descriptions carefully), and The Seed Savers Exchange. All are quite reputable and have mainly non-hybrid varieties.