Seeds Have Gone Places!!

This is done! All seeds have gone places!
I'll leave this thread open for comments, but there are no more free seeds.

Seeds want to go places!
Winter Squash seeds want to go places!
(Can only ship to the US, sorry, international shipping is a problem.)

Landrace seeds are seeds that came from plants that had several parents, it's never certain what exactly you will get. Permies tend to landrace things by letting them breed, so we end up with a type that works well in our area, under our conditions.

TJ Jefferson has landrace winter squash going, a mix of Cucurbita moschata varieties that have been interbreeding in a Virginia garden.
From Wikipedia:
Cucurbita moschata is a species originating in either Central America or northern South America. It includes cultivars known as squash or pumpkin. C. moschata cultivars are generally more tolerant of hot, humid weather than cultivars of C. maxima or C. pepo. They also generally display a greater resistance to disease and insects, especially to the squash vine borer.

Varieties of C Moschata you may have heard of include: Butternut, Calabaza, Crookneck, Dickinson pumpkin, Golden Cushaw, Long Island cheese pumpkin, Moscata di Provenza, Seminole pumpkin,  and Tromboncino.

These have been known to climb trees! Check this post in What squash climb the best? for pictures and what TJ said about them.

I have on my desk a BUNCH of seeds from TJ!! What will grow from them? Who knows? Want to find out?

So, what I am looking for if you'd like some free seeds compliments of TJ and permies, is post in this thread, and either show pictures of where you'd plant them, or tell us! If you get a PM that says "address please!" reply to the PM with your mailing address, it means you will be getting seeds in the mail! (Sorry, US only, shipping seeds internationally is problematic.) Best posts are most likely to get seeds, make them good and interesting! If you want to play but don't want seeds, put "No seeds" at the bottom of the post.

This free seed offer is brought to you by Permies dot com, TJ Jefferson (who grew the plants!) Greg Martin (who is an evil plant pusher who wants you to grow things SO BAD he'll pay shipping for you to get seeds!) Carla Burke (who has dogs, goats and chickens helping lick stamps!) and me, Pearl Sutton (who has a big bag of seeds on her desk!)  

What will come up? We don't know!
Where will you put them? Tell us, and you just may get some free seeds! 25 seeds per pack, enough to share!

I have a 6" raised bed in my backyard, about 8x6, that needs squash in it! It's connected to another identical bed with an arbor with grapes growing on it. In that other identical bed is asparagus. Asparagus and squash will be happy together!

Moving to some land with lots of trees, a pond and a stream in Zone 7. Plenty of places for squash to climb. I wish I could figure out how to attach a picture for you.  Thanks for the chance to join in the give-a-way!

I just began my "Plant-Based - Whole Foods way of living" so I welcome your seed forum. And hey, if I get a few seeds that will only save my life, just saying . . .

Since I'm in Europe this one is not for me, but I still wanted to say how awsome this is :-). And it would be really interesting if people who get the seeds and grow them come back and share their experience so we could compare how that same landrace behaved in various climates and conditions. Cheers!

Omg! What a generous offer! More genes for me to play with!  I’m trialing a bunch of curcubita seeds this year on my .22 acre suburban forest garden. It’s only year 2, so I’ve been busy building soil, creating beds, and infrastructure. The winter squash will be part of a three sisters garden (with bonus sunflowers and amaranth) Landrace development is my primary goal. NC summers are hot, humid, droughty and full of disease and pest pressure. Will be exciting to see what comes out! Pretty sure my neighbors will want to kill me in November when everything starts dying in my front yard 😂 but this is the least developed area on the property with full sun.

Seeds Want to Go Places

World Domination:
Nope just this little patch...
Love to get seed without any catch.

Seeds want to go places
And grow gratitude...

For just like all gardeners
I like to share too.

Lori
March 2021

I have raised beds and am trying to develop sustainable agriculture.  Several of them are mini-Hugelkultur beds (i.e.  I buried wood in them).  Every year, the beds become more productive.
Always interested in trying new seeds!

We have a 5-1/2 acre former horse farm where we are raising our 2 children.  The land is bordered by 2 streams and is adjacent to Nature Conservancy property.  The garden area has been getting larger every year as we learn what grows well for our location.  In the photo is the one who will assist with watering the garden.  She did a good job last year making sure that the cabbage was well watered.  We would like to try the seeds if they are good for Zone 6a.

I just installed a wavy fence a la Mike Haasl (https://permies.com/t/140079/Wavy-Deer-Fence) and I'd be keen to let some climbing squash habitate its curvaceous verticality.

I'm so completely new to the whole landrace concept and permaculture in general. I've been lurking in various forums here at permies for maybe a month, so this is my first ever comment. If I were lucky enough to get some of your seeds, we'll find out how they fare in Alabama heat. Looking forward to eating the results!

We have just purchased a piece of heavily wooded sloped south facing land. It’s my plan to put in raised beds on the one slope we have that isn’t currently covered with trees. I’m also hoping to experiment with a few beds inside the forest clearings. We are mew to Idaho (zone 6a) and new to being homesteaders! We moved from suburbia and are heading towards sustainability! Id love some seeds and have attached a picture of our property when the snow was there... thankfully it’s melted now and is ready to be planted!

Hello there,

I just installed five new garden beds in my backyard after converting my lawn to soil. I am so excited to fill these beds with seeds to grow great produce for my daughter, boyfriend and me this year!!

https://share.icloud.com/photos/09pDQFCHOWiEzZImto5nMUb4A#Napa_-_Salvador

My son has been reworking the backyard landscape, so we have some space for veggies this year. We would enjoy some fun seeds and we'd be sure to share with some plant swap friends. Thanks!

Two issues here on Northwest Montana, ninety days growing period and ground squirrels that eat everything they can reach. I would like to see if I can grow winter squash in my raised, out of rodent reach, beds. I added branches a down woody to them last year and am about to plant spring kale and spinach (well protected).

I have a couple of friends who successfully grow winter squash with whom I would like to share seed, and who can give me advice about this. It's all about continuous learning and friendship, right?

The picture is of my roof top garden. Curses, you ground squirrels!

I love this cartoon, it is SO me

I have used bath tubs and they worked great. This year I am using old refrigerators, freezers and dish washers. They are a little higher and easier for me. I have a hard time bending. The old lady garden I guess. I take the door off and lay them on their backs. Drill holes in what is now the side, about 3 inches from the bottom to make a saucer and fill with dirt. If you put a layer of cardboard on top and cut holes for the plants you have virtually no weeds. I'm lazy.

Riiiight THERE!

Taking command of a wild plot I just purchased next to my home, need to break ground and get started!

I have fencing for squash to climb on (also many trees) and goats, chickens and dogs to help eat them. I am in zone 7b in north east Arkansas.

Our 2 catalpas would love to be hugged!
The 1 catalpa stays on the property for its trunk beauty.
Also, the wood pile behind the other catalpa will be there till winter, so it could use some divine Vine intervention 😁

Pearl Sutton wrote:Winter Squash seeds want to go places!
(Can only ship to the US, sorry, international shipping is a problem.)

Landrace seeds are seeds that came from plants that had several parents, it's never certain what exactly you will get. Permies tend to landrace things by letting them breed, so we end up with a type that works well in our area, under our conditions.

TJ Jefferson has landrace winter squash going, a mix of Cucurbita moschata varieties that have been interbreeding in a Virginia garden.

I am so very excited to see this post this morning! I've got a ton of winter squash seeds (including the Seminole pumpkin seeds I ordered when I found out they climb trees), and I've been trying to decide which ones I could plant to keep them from crossing. I didn't realize a landrace actually is seeds that have crossed! LOL! So I'll be starting my own landrace breeding experiments this year. I can plant ALL of them! This post has made me very, very happy!

Now I'm going to start looking more into the other threads on squashes.

No seeds...thank you, but do let someone closer to Virginia have them.

Built two of these 4'x8'x2'-6" raised beds so far, have supplies and plans for two more. Filled with dead, decaying tree parts; wood chips, compost from stable (mixed with wood chips). Not seen is the cattle fence panel for climbing plants. Need climbing plants! [No idea how to add photo - Img doesn't work for me.]

we have sloping 9/10 acre, taking our lawn with violets out and planting since bushes. and small trees, squash will go into several round spaces where lawn was,
we love winter squashes, especially cinderella pumpkins, banana, etc
zone 5 utah foothills.

We've been at this for 2 years.  Turned the soil and are now trying to amend it the best we can.  Love to try different veggies.  Just got done freeze drying the remainder of last year's butternut squash.  On to 2021!  Will take any and all suggestions.  Our garden gets full sun. Is as organic as we can make it.  Has a new bee house (in the foreground).  Is definitely a work in progress!  

Right now we have about 2000ft of garden space, but there's 5 acres around the house and we keep chipping away at lawn adding more garden and orchard space. I'm starting a new orchard area and putting in a mix of fruit trees and squash will do fine there as ground cover. There's also another area of about .2 acres I'm planning to put three sisters and sunflowers and a moschata squash would be welcome as we have squash vine borer issues. We're zone 5b so as long as the squash aren't 120 days they should do fine. Sorry I don't have pictures...

We have raised beds, and we have lots of trees! It would be so cool to see the squash growing up the trees. I enjoy and appreciate the cooking and keeping qualities of squash. I also enjoy and appreciate permies and this awesome generous offer!!
Many thanks to all who are making seed gifting possible. I love the thought of goats licking the envelopes!

Oh! Oh! Me, choose me! : )

I just went over and reorganized my seeds the other day...

Over 100 different plants, 160 + separate envelopes... Wha...?

But sadly, only one seriously inbred variety of moschata. It needs friends. (Insert piteous plea for the benefit of the lonely moschata here).

Since I have only one variety of moschata, I could plant them ALL THE PLACES!

(All my "where I would plant them" pictures are on the other computer, which doesn't have a mouse, so maybe later I'll go to the effort of finding and posting pictures. But probably not)

Ok, so here is the imagination station of the day (I took a photo but I don't know how to attach it to this post, so...): Imagine a photo of the most fertile part of my garden, right next to the lilac bushes that are 15+ feet tall.  The rich soil that has been tended for over a decade and is more that 16" deep (I started with barely any over the top of my clay - compost - compost) has been growing squash nearly bigger than I can carry.  It helps that it grows up into the lilac bushes - at the far end of the imaginary photo.  I now reach up to harvest some of the squash while the Earth bound squash still beckon me to bend over to harvest them.  Two years ago we gave one of the Amish Pie pumpkins/squash to a friend who took it around to her social gatherings and put out a jar for donations to the food pantry and for guesses on the weight of this beauty - see imaginary photo #2 where we strapped in into her child car seat for ease of transport.  It came in at 62 lbs. but we had already canned the bigger ones.  When we carved them, they had 3.5" wide flesh and I went and got a new (clean!) Sawzall blade to cut them up for cooking.  Ok, OK, stay on topic!!

I have been landracing several varieties of vegetables, but haven't gotten to squash yet. Please, as the squash say just before the hard frost: Pick me! Pick me!

Mark Master wrote:I took a photo but I don't know how to attach it to this post, so...):

If you scroll down when writing your post, below the main screen, there are two tabs--options, and attachments. Select attachments and upload from there.

Hello!

I have not had great luck with winter squash in our cool, short summers, but I'd like to try out some mystery seeds, that sounds fun!

These are my raised beds, currently covered in snow( did I mention, the moose tend to treat them like salad bars sometimes) I can usually start planting by the 3rd week of May for most crops.

Greetings everyone,
Just moving to our 5 acre place in southern Missouri. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but have been planning and learning over the last few years about living off-grid. Its not much to look at now, but has a lot of potential. Were going to go with raised beds/no dig method using compost and mulch since our dirt has more rocks than anything. We already have a wide assortment of seeds, but realized just last week we were missing squash, so this opportunity comes at a perfect time.

Tried to upload a photo. But for some reason it won't post.

Trying to attach the photo

For those wondering how to post pictures, here's a link to a tutorial on posting pictures on permies: How to Post an Image on Permies.com

Here's probably the most helpful screenshot for you:

where to find the attachments tab and upload pictures

If you're new to permies and looking for more information on what things mean or how to do things, we have a giant list of helpful threads here: How permies.com works - links to useful threads

I hope that helps!

Jessica Mcdonald, does this mean you grow moose l toes ?

Oooh, I want to grow landrace seeds more than anything. I think the diversity is going to be key to being able to still grow crops in the future, with global warming getting worse everywhere! We are going to buy a house soon, and I will grow them in the backyard! I am also hoping to grow on land that people aren't using and want me to grow on (like Joseph Lofthouse does - one of my idols!!!). I want to begin local landrace crops for several species here soon, and longterm, want to have a plethora of them. It will really help me out to have one that is already established to work with!

I think squash is a great one to start on first, as they are so versatile in general, and make so much food! Plus my husband and I are vegan, so they're a wonderful foodstuff for us!

I grew 'Painted Mountain' corn this past year, and am going to start with that one too, adding local-thriving varieties as I find them, to make a wonderful, versatile local landrace with that as well. I love the diverse Native American history that contributed to 'Painted Mountain,' and they were the most gorgeous ears I've ever seen. My family eats a lot of corn - tortillas, tortilla chips, and fresh corn too!

Yay for landraces, and all the work people have put into creating them!

I may not get squash in our growing season but it could be fun to see them cover my front yard...  instead of snow...

I would love to experiment growing the different varieties of squash you are willing to give away. I’m in zone 9b in the San Francisco Bay Area that is known to have micro climates within the area.

I’ve tried growing pumpkins, banana squash, acorn squash, calabata, 8ball, zucchinis, and others I can’t remember, but only grew a few measly squash.

In the last two years we’ve added bales of straw that had disintegrated since and a few chickens to help in the process. I think it’s ready to be planted now and I’d put some seeds in the open area shown in this picture (between the avocado tree and the echeveria succulent).

I have some raised beds just waiting for new seeds