Buying fall and winter garden seeds

[JuliaAnn]

Maybe this should go in the garden forum, but I thought I might put it here because I believe gardening is going to be so important this coming fall and winter and even into early spring. Maybe I am just letting my concerns about the economy get the best of me, listening to reports about what various experts predict for 2011, but I am really trying to make the most of the garden I have now and intend to do more fall/winter/early spring gardning this year than in the past. I am concerned about inflation and rising food and fuel costs (we have a small trucking company and the predicted $7 gal. gas/diesel would put us out of business) are going to reduce many of us to not being able to buy good quality food. I can control a great deal of that with my own labor.

I usually save a lot of warm season seeds like tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, peppers, kale, etc., and let some things overwinter like various onions, garlic, leeks, etc so they come back on their own. Some things I have never really done well with collecting seeds--lettuce and carrots in particular-- so I just opt to buy them. I'm going to have to learn how to save these in particular to further reduce my dependancy on bought seeds.

I bought some seeds today at a local nursery for a couple of kinds of lettuce (romaine and a buttercrunch type) and carrots. I also ordered some seeds from Territorial Seeds, and was happily surprised when I got my order today. They had included an extra pack of carrot seed that was labled to the effect of 'plant a row for the hungry', the idea being to grow and contribute them to someone who needs help. I thought that was a really nice idea.

I haven't done any real number crunching as to what these particular produce items cost. I am sure carrots are still relatively inexpensive, but I know that romaine lettuce (the only kind dh and kids will eat, and if they will eat it, then that's the one I want) is getting expensive. Heck, a bag of salad with romaine in it is way over $3, and we go through two or three of those a week. I bought two packs of seed for romaine for less than the cost of a bag of salad.

But it's not just cost-- it's supply. Sometimes even here it's hard to find decent looking produce. I have simply chosen not to buy something that is literally half rotten. Winter months produce goes sky high, and what there is comes from Peru and looks questionable at best. I think I can do better on some things.