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The Vegetable Garden

Arguably one of the most important sources of heirloom/OP plant varieties now in central Europe is Frank Van Keirsbilck from Belgium.  He’s supplied plant materials to Real Seeds in the UK and other seed companies, seed exchange organizations as well as many individual gardeners.  He has some of the most interesting plants available.

I asked him for some things a little while ago, and he suggested maybe I could trade him something in return.  After a brief discussion, it was clear the most interesting things I had in my garden had come from him via other people anyway, so I had nothing to offer.  He’s done an amazing job of spreading his plants around.  If you ever have the priviledge of visiting him you’ll find walking through his garden an eye opening experience.

If you live in northern or central Europe and you’re growing something a little obscure, the chance are very good it’s from his garden.  Many of his plants have even made it to North America by now.

Until now when I’ve posted about something from him, all I could do was say it came from my friend Frank in Belgium.  Now he has his own website, with pictures and descriptions of many things he’s growing, so I can link to him!  For some of his plants he has seeds and tubers available.  Send him an email if you’re interested.

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Sustainable Seed Company

A new seed company will soon open it’s doors in Northern California, the Sustainable Seed Company.  Opening day is February 15th, but you can start placing orders now.  You might be thinking why a new seed company is such a big deal, but this one has a few interesting things going for it.

Some of you reading this will know some of the seed growers, in particular Sarah and Andrew also known as the Seed Ambassadors, who travelled through Europe recently collecting and sharing seeds.

Their philosophy is to try to source their seeds from as sustainable as possible places and to provide good information on how the seeds you buy were produced.  Of course all of their seeds are heirloom and/or open pollinated, so you can save and regrow your own seeds if you want.

One of the neat things about this seed company, is their offer for you to participate in their business:

Looking for new heirloom vegetable seed for our catalog is a passion for us. Do you have a vegetable seed that would like to see saved? Send that heirloom seed to us, with it’s complete story so that we can propagate it and share it with the world.

Products from small companies are always something to be treasured.  People who start new businesses are full of energy and motivation, and they really appreciate your patronage in order to get a good start in the world.  I think this seed company is going to be a valuable resource in the coming years, and I would really encourage anyone who is looking for garden seeds to browse through their online catalog and consider buying from them.

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Jane Perrone in New Blogging Project

Jane Perrone is one of maybe 4 or 5 garden bloggers I know who have been around longer than me, beating me out by almost 2 years!  We can all become jealous now because she’s also one of the small number of garden bloggers who are actually paid to write a blog.

Her new team blog at the Guardian newspaper can be found here, and her introduction of it together with hint of her future plans can be found here.

I hope everyone will join me in wishing her the best of luck, and don’t forget to follow along.

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Homegrown Goodness

This probably isn’t of interest if you’re a very beginning gardener, but if you’re a little more advanced and interested in growing some more adventurous things as well as rubbing shoulders with some plant breeders from North America and elsewhere, you might have a look at the following discussion forum:  Homegrown Goodness

Like I said, it’s probably not the place to ask beginning gardening questions, but anyone is welcome.  You might find some discussions on interesting plant varieties, and a number of people are offering seeds to share.  You might make a friend or two, who knows…

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Ottawa Gardener is Back

Ottawa Gardener got in touch several weeks ago to let me know she was returning to blogging, but I’ve been too distracted by other things to make a post about it until now.

For some time I’ve enjoyed reading her Ottawa Hortiphilia blog, where she’s written about seed saving and related topics, in her snowy Canadian home.  For the last several months she’s had other priorities like home schooling her kids, and her blog got put on the back burner.

Now she’s back!  She’s started a new, ‘temporary blog’ called The Veggie Patch Re-imagined.

Do any of us really have permanent blogs anyway?

For those of you who already know Ottawa Hortiphilia, it’s time to update your Blogroll with her new blog.  For everyone else I suggest stopping by, saying hello, introducing yourself and getting to know her a little better.