2021 seed orders

alice's picture

Thinking ahead and starting to order seeds for starting indoors and in the cold frame over winter (mild winters here). Is anyone else buying their seed early this year? Just thinking about how it was hard to get some kinds of seed in the spring what with covid lockdowns etc and lots more people taking up gardening.

ClareBroommaker's picture

I have been thinking about it. I think we are mostly well set, but I should think about whether there are some more herbs I'd like to start.

Yes indeed. My garden partner and I saw lots of weird shortages for seed this year.

When do fresh seed get harvested and processed? The catalogs come around mid December, if I remember right. I was planning to order then.

alice's picture

My favourite seed company are processing and prepping seed all year round so I check in throughout the year when I am thinking about the next few month's planting. In August I did a round of buying for winter greens, some of those are in other people's gardens to stand over the colder months, some in other people's greenhouses, some in my cold frame and indoors here, just easy things like mustard cress, leaf coriander, winter lettuces, claytonia, lamb's lettuce, oriental leaves (mizuna, mibuna).

Then I have just done another small order now (October) for things I will be starting over the winter proper -- I am going to try growing onions and shallots from seed this year for the first time and several of those are best started indoors so they are ready to plant out when the light gets up again in the spring.

I guess it depends where you live, if it's three feet of snow until spring then it makes sense that the seed orders get done once in the year. Here in the UK growth is mainly light-limited in winter by our high latitude and hence short day length rather than cold. I will do another order in December when the seeds are ready for the tender crops - I hope to grow some of those like Uchiki Kuri japanese squash and other keeping squashes like Acorn, and leeks, will start a few of those kind of thing and offer to people with larger growing spaces.