Chance's Garden Everything Forum Blog

Oh the potential. Oh the power. Oh the joy.

Also, since the question was asked when I first posted the picture of the seeds, here are the seed companies represented in the picture above:

- Experimental Farm Network
- Going To Seed
- Matt's Peppers (Tiny plastic baggies)
- Small Island Seed Co (manila pouches)
- My own saved seed

And, here are the companies I intend to order with over the winter:

- Adaptive Seeds
- Grand Prismatic Seed Co
- Snake River Seed Co
- Two Seeds In A Pod
- Uprising Seeds
- Sheffield's Seed
- Wild Garden Seed
- Wild Mountain Seed
- Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds
- American Meadows

Maybe more, I usually end up ordering from Baker Creek because I'm a sucker for the pictures.

A lot of the companies I order from are small groups or individuals doing interesting and individual things. I like supporting their work.

My philosophy on seeds is complex, but here are some points:

- I try to gather as many varieties as I can, especially when I'm trialling something new
- I save seed from just about everything I eat
- I always order way more seed than I need, and I share a lot of what I order with friends and community
- I usually expose my core crops to hardship trials in order to jumpstart the selection process, because resilience is the basis for a successful landrace
- I love trying new things, whether it's new species or new varieties, and I infuse novelty into my projects every year
- I aim for naturalization with all my core crops, so I can keep a self-perpetuating genetic bank in the margins of the wilderness near me and, while the naturalized stock often aren't the most suited for culinary uses, they do produce some surprises (in a previous home, where I lived for ten years, I had a naturalized population of currant tomatoes which often crossed with my intentional tomatoes to produce tiny little hybrids, the favorite of which was a cross with a black plum tomato with green shoulders that resulted in super-tresses of dark pear shaped tomatoes about the size of the distal phalanx on my pinky finger) and I often sow seed saved from my yarden into the naturalized population, just to see what happens
- I will always save seed, and I'll likely enter the seed trade in the future, but I'll always also purchase seeds from small-time vendors because I want to support the critical work that their seeds represent

Ouch. My heart.

It's rough watching my plant buddies taking a beatdowns from the hail that's been falling for 30 minutes.

We need the moisture, and we've seen around an inch in the last two days, which is a miracle, and I'm grateful.

I'm just also suffering watching my friends take damage.

Here's a link to a cool little blackberry post I made. If you like my thread here, you'll probably enjoy the project.

https://permies.com/t/378796/berry/Preserving-Local-History-Blackberry-Form#3836990

Photos from the yarden this morning.