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[02ebz06]

Not 2023 yet, but thought I'd get it started with a question.
I have not had a garden in many decades, but the house we just moved into has a couple planting areas.
So, I guess I am going to become a gardener (OK, not my, my wife) next year and I was wondering where people buy their seeds.
Do get them at Lowes, HD, or buy on-line ?

[hokiepop]

I have found the online vendors have a much better variety of seeds.   In the past I have purchased from Burpee and Parks as well as Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Johnny's.   I am not sure how well the varieties would do in your southwestern climate however.  I would suggest you research vendors who specialize in varieties for your particular growing zone/climate.  I do not know if the box stores would stock seeds suited for your climate/growing zone.

[Bentley]

I think it depends on how run of the mill seed or seedling you want.  Lowes will rarely have the seed or seedlings of the chili's I want, nor the variety of tomato I want.  I will usually use Burpee or Sandia...

[WiPelletHead]

A long time ago I used https://www.gurneys.com/

Always had good luck with them.

[Kristin Meredith]

I think if you are happy with just a "generic" type, HD or Lowe's is fine.  I have had good luck with them for beets, carrots, cantaloupe, watermelon and various squash. Not so great on a variety of tomatoes and chilies.

[02ebz06]

I think if you are happy with just a "generic" type, HD or Lowe's is fine.  I have had good luck with them for beets, carrots, cantaloupe, watermelon and various squash. Not so great on a variety of tomatoes and chilies.

For tomatoes, we will probably get them from local nursery.

[dk117]

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[dk117]

garden was mostly a bust this year, outside of my "giant" 57 lb pumpkin that I aggressively doused with miracle grow second half of growing season.

Anyway, I determined my soil was nutrient deficient.  I added 1 cubic foot of chicken manure to each bed and covered in leaves for the winter.  I hope to get started (outdoors anyway, I'll start earlier in the greenhouse) in May with some decent soil.    We'll keep the raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, blueberries and a few cherry tomato plants.  We've decided to forgo the rest.  it will be a pumpkin and sunflower garden next year.  The zucchini, onions, garlic, snow peas, beans, abundance of tomatoes, beets ... just easier to run to the store for produce and couldn't keep up with them all.

DK

Edit:  to stay on topic at hand, I got my pumpkin seeds via Amazon. David's Garden Seeds Pumpkin Dill's Atlantic Giant 6612 (Orange) 15 Non-GMO, Heirloom Seeds

[02ebz06]

The way things are going, there may not be any on the shelves.
Went shopping with the wife yesterday and was shocked by the number of empty spots on shelves.
Bottled water had about 75% of their space empty.

[BigDave83]

Growing up we had big gardens, some seeds where sourced locally, some were ordered from Henry Fields, not sure if they are in business any more. Gurneys was another one.

For some things we would go buy plants like tomatoes and peppers. Woman would grow some plants, she would save up the little yogurt cups over winter and use them to plant seed in to start.

[JoeGrilling]

My tomato garden pretty much shutdown in August.  This summer was bad in terms of high temperatures over 110F.  My local squirrel population decided my tomato plants were a great source of moisture.  They stripped all 36 of my vines.  They ate the stem pulp out of all 36 of my plants.  Most plants were pretty much cutoff at ground level.  All of my plants were pretty much destroyed.  We have Eastern Fox squirrels in my area.  They are horrible in terms of property damage.   

[reubenray]

Our turnip greens in our small 4'x8' garden are just about getting ready to be picked.

[hokiepop]

Am I the only one that had good luck with tomatoes this year?   Squirrels can decimate a tomato crop during dry weather for sure.  And tomatoes do not like extreme heat. Fortunately I have no large trees in my yard and the hawks make sure squirrels do not venture into my yard.

I amended my raised rows with alfalfa pellets (horse feed) and lobster compost and mulched heavily with straw (not hay).  I had 6 beefsteak plants and two cherry tomato plants.  Four of the beefsteak plants were heirloom and 2 were hybrids and they produced well over 150 tomatoes when I stopped counting.  The two salad tomatoes (Juliet and Verona) had produced over 750 tomatoes when I stopped counting in late September.  Neighbors would come over and pick because my wife and I could not keep up.

I have gardened for over 50 years in other areas of Virginia and have had much larger gardens when I was younger but I never had tomato production like this year.   I made raised rows (similar to raised beds).  Our garden soil is sandy loam and prior to this year not very healthy-no earthworms and likely no micro-organisms in the soil.  I did not have enough of my own compost so I did have to purchase the lobster compost but man oh man did that stuff along with the horse pellets work. 

Lobster compost may be hard to come by and/or expensive but alfalfa pellets are available at any farm supply store (Tractor Supply is my source)
Straw is available almost everywhere though it pains me to pay $7 a bale for it!

[Bentley]

We had good luck with tomatoes this year. Have never learned how to train them for the best production and harvest.  After 35 years of gardening I think I have it down for nest year, for the tomatoes and the berries!  I was giving away 30-40 a week at AA meeting for about 6 weeks.  You become folks best friend after they eat the 1st ones!

And I think next year, after 9 years of amending the soil in all beads, I will be close to my desired "PBS Victory Garden" type soil!

[Bentley]

Pleased with the way the compost/mulch is turning out.  A bit much dirt in it, but I am just not that good with the tractor bucket.  Not sure if you can tell in the 2nd photo, but the lighter brown is the stuff from the 3rd photo, did not have as much green matter.  Started with this, ended with that!