I’ve tried keeping lists on Word, in a spreadsheet and on paper, but I am inconsistent at best. Digital copies (Word and Excel) are only convenient if I’m on my computer. Paper lists are good if I’m at my desk. So, going forward, I’m going to try curating my seed list on my blog. I hope this will help when I’m out shopping and inevitably get ‘seed excitement’ when in a garden centre. If I can easily refer to my wish list, it ‘might’ stop overbuying or double purchases. Here’s hoping.

Updated January 2024

My Favourite Seeds Sources

• Swallowtail Garden Seeds – a great source of annual flowers. They have a large selection, and germination is very good. There is a delivery to Canada (UPS $13.99 for 2024), but since I have a fairly large order, it’s worth it.
• Veseys Seeds – I get quite a few of my vegetables from Veseys. The larger the order the more cost-effective the shipping fee so I order as much fro here as I can.
• Stokes Seeds – Another Canadian seed company. My next largest mostly flower order comes from here. Shipping costs last year were $9.95 Canadian.
• Hawthorn Farm  – Organic seeds from Ontario. I get my San Marzano from here, but I pick them up at Urban Farmer. They do have free shipping on orders over $200, but I’ve never been able to reach that as their selection is smaller than, say, Swallowtail and Veseys.
• West Coast Seeds – I’ve been weaning myself off West Coast Seeds in recent years as I’ve had some germination issues and packages are small.
• Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes – our annual seed potato order comes from this Alberta company. I’ve always been happy with the quality. They are now an organic farm.
• TomatoFest – up until now, I’ve sourced most of my heirloom tomato varieties from this US supplier. I didn’t need to order anything last year and have had good germination on three- and four-year-old seeds.  Every year, they discontinue some varieties, including a few favourites. I’m going to try The Incredible Seed company out of Nova Scotia this year.
• Moonglow Gardens – I ordered some Micro Tomato seeds from this Alberta company in the fall of 2023 to grow in the greenhouse over the winter. Seeds had great germination and the plants are healthy. I have enough seeds for next year so we’ll see how year two germination goes.
• McKenzie seeds – I mostly pick these up from garden centres or the big box stores.

ANNUAL FLOWERS

Here is a mood board of my 2024 annuals and my seed starting schedule for zone 5.

Fall Flowers

PERENNIALS

I’m trying to grow my own perennials from seed for the first time – here are my first trials:

VEGETABLES

Mostly tried before, few new ones for 2024

HERBS

Including what will overwinter that I split to control size in the herb garden