I received my Pinetree catalog last week and was inspired to put together my next years seed wish list. The thing I discovered was I had a total of less than $50 worth seed where I normally would spend a hundred or more. Although there were a few seed selections which I will need to order from other sources I was amaized at the savings. Their packages were about half the quantity of other comapanies, but the pricing was also half...or less. Seed prices have been escalating at ten percent or more each year and I expect to see the same again. Although I garden more than 5,000 squaree feet of space, there were enough seed in a single package to take care of most of my plantings. I am curious to hear what the rest of you think about this. I have not purchased seed from Pinetree Gardens before but I am leaning towards using them for the bulk of my seed purchases for this next season.
Planning 2011's garden
gymgirl, thanks! I have bookmarked it. I know that with a lot of containers, watering can be difficult. This would help a lot.
Mraider, sometimes I have trouble with germination with Pinetree seeds. Check them out and see if you have any problems; it may just be my techniques. I love the fact that the packages contain a sensible number of seeds and at the same are less expensive, but I'm just not sure of their quality.
Mraider - For a second opinion, I have not had trouble with germination with Pintree. I use a heat mat and covered trays to start my main crop of veggies - although this year I will be winter sowing about 25% to see how things go.
400 garlic cloves sleeping in the recent snow...
I can tell I'm improving my sand - I now have weeds where before, nothing would grow!
kmom246 - Someone once told me that any ground that grows a good crop of weeds will also grow a good crop of vegetables. I don't think he meant both at the same time :)
I am somewhat tempted to give Pinetree a shot, but I would like to hear more from DGers. I know in the past there has been much discussion on various seed sources starting around the time catalogs come out. I did get a chuckle though, in the back part of their catalog they offered free shipping with any $75 order placed between April 2011 and Sept. 2011. Why be the among the first catalogs out and make an offer like this so late in the season?
When I started my garden five years ago there was only one other garden in the neighborhood. Each year new gardens began cropping up and now approximately one in four homes has a garden. In the past two years I have attempted to order seed from two major seed companies in April only to find out they were out of the particular seed I wanted. If what I am seeing here is typical of the rest of the country, we may well be seeing more garden seed shortages. There is no way I'm, waiting until April to oder my garden seed for next season.
I have a policy on fishing line, and that is only to buy the best and change it frequently. I believe the same holds true with garden seed. I would prefer to pay more to get quality seed than to purchase only the minimum and find out later that germination percentages were less than expected. I too start many of my seeds in peat pots and have four large heat mats to aid in germination. Typically I grow more seed than I actually use when it comes to tomatoes, peppers, and onions. I select what I want and give the rest away. So, I guess that's one valid argument for buying the larger seed packets from companies with good reputations.
JoParrott, thanks for the info on cutting celery. I went ahead and ordered some seed.