Anne Fletcher

This is a really great pamphlet!  If you are doing another version, you can use this graphic I made for beginner seed savers:


It's from a 4-part series I did on my blog a few years ago.  I took the perspective that beginner seed starters shouldn't try and save seed from F1's right off the bat.  So I didn't even suggest that as a possibility.  I've found, in teaching about seed saving, most beginners have a hard time grasping open-pollinated vs. F1.  Going much deeper into genetics and breeding tends to turn them off entirely.  Your information is more complete, however, and I appreciate that!

The blog series is probably more information than you want - you were going for brief, after all! -  but feel free to borrow if you like.

We had a hard summer, with too much going on and some family stuff, which meant I didn't get all my seeds started and transplanted out in time for a good winter garden this year.  

Here's what's working anyway, that have been thriving despite more neglect than usual:

- Chard, Bietola a costa fine, an Italian heirloom that has more or less become perennial in my garden.  (Berkeley hills, very mild winters.)

- a pretty purple kale (I think it's this one from Wild Garden Seed) that's still going strong about 18 months after being planted out.

- Mizspoona, originally from Adaptive seed, but I've been saving seed of my own for a few years now, always saving from the plants that are last to bolt.  Now, many of my mizspoona plants last around a year or so before bolting.  It's by far the easiest green I've ever grown.

- Lamb's lettuce / corn salad / mache, which has been self-seeding for a few years now, and always appears just after the rains start.  It's not much in terms of volume, but it's tasty!

- Alexander's, which I'm trying harder to like.  I love it as a plant - so productive and beautiful, but I haven't warmed up to the flavor yet.  Anyone have any recommendations for how to prepare it?

- Parsley

- Perennial herbs that are pretty much always available for harvest year round, and find their way into cooking most days: winter savory, Syrian oregano, marjoram, bay leaves - which we have by the armload because the bay trees are borderline pests, mint

- beets

- lemons

- lettuce

So many varieties already sold out!  Will mark my calendar next year to be an early bird.  Thank you all for posting about this resource!

I've purchased excellent seed in the past from Giving ground seed who carries and grows out some of the Lofthouse landraces -- if it's sold out above, maybe Giving ground still has the one you're after?  Of course it's not free this way, but maybe better to support a seed farmer and save yourself a year's wait!

I'm doing lettuces right now, and getting ready for tomatoes, probably next weekend.  I also just sowed seeds from a Persian sweet lemon from fruit from a friend's tree.

Last year I grew some tomatoes bred by Kanti Agarwal and Steve Peters of Seed Revolution Now - you can get a few of their varieties via Adaptive seed in Oregon - and they were super successful.

Bred specifically for California with our dry climate and wide temperature swings from day to night (both things that tomatoes generally don't like), they're the best tomatoes I've grown here in the Bay Area.

I've also got rhubarb going!  Mine have about 4 or 5 true leaves already.  They're  "success"and "ebony" from French Harvest Rhubarb Seed in Australia.  Germination was fast and easy.  "Success" is the one Californians rave about - it can take more heat than typical for rhubarb and seems to be very vigorous.  "Ebony" has beautiful dark stalks, and may or may not like my climate.  But it was so pretty I decided to take a risk!

People often ask me about whether to raise monarch caterpillars indoors, and if so, how

According to Xerces, it's not a great idea to raise them indoors in large numbers because that interferes with natural breeding.  However, they make an exception for education and children.  It's very worthwhile to raise one or two caterpillars indoors to show kids the magic, and hopefully raise future butterfly enthusiasts!

Here's a blog post I wrote showing how to raise a monarch caterpillar indoors.

Distilling 12 years of my failures into a blueprint for your success.

I killed seedlings so you don’t have to. 🤣


Seriously though, I've been running a company helping gardeners start seeds for 12 years, and have put all the basics into one, easy-to-read resource.

You can click here to enter your email address and have the ebook sent to you.  (I'd love it if you sign up for my newsletter while you're at it, but it's not required to receive the pdf!)

❤️❤️❤️

I get around everywhere by bicycle, and can always find the chipper trucks easily.  When you're on a bike, you can hear them from a long way away!  Then I follow the sound, meet the guys, make friends and get the business cards.  Now I've got tons of buddies who are happy to bring chips.

My uncle, who lives in a more rural area, does the same thing, but in a truck.  He's been on his property for about 20 years now, and I think is on a first-name basis with every tree crew in his county.  They know they can always drop chips at his property - he keeps a spot open for them!

Yes!!

We do the same thing, minus the dolly though, because we have to take the mulch up stairs -- No other access to the yard!  Garbage cans all the way!

Jay Angler wrote:For those of you who get chips, I'll offer a little tip:
I use the Rubbermaid garbage cans to move them. I put the can on it's side to start and use a garden fork to push chips from the edge of the pile into the can, tipping it up periodically to get more room at the opening.  

I like to use a recipe that's approximately:

- 1/3 fine-textured moisture retentive filler, without nutrition.  You can use your leaf mold for this. Also coconut coir.  Peat is the traditional ingredient used for this purpose in seed-starting mixes, but is SUPER unsustainable.  I avoid peat completely.

- 1/3 something with nutrition and microbes like compost.  Because my native soil is so heavy, and also has lots of unwanted seeds in it, I just use a small amount -- enough to inoculate the mix with native microbes, but not so much as to affect the texture.  If your "nutrition" element is concentrated, like manure or worm castings, reduce the amount relative to the low-nutrient filler.  Homemade compost has both nutrition and fibrous filler.  I like to sieve my homemade compost so I only have the fine-textured good stuff.

- 1/3 drainage, like sand, pumice, perlite, etc. to make sure the mix doesn't get water-logged.

Seeds carry their own nutrition for the first couple pairs of leaves.  Giving them lots of fertilizers is unnecessary, at least at first.  

They DO absolutely need moisture (but not too much!) and air (but not too much!) and fine textures so that the baby plants and new roots can easily find their way.