Addiction
- Thread starter ChickenMomma91
- Start date
Chickie'sMomaInNH
Garden Master
i hesitated on getting stuff from Johnny's. if their shipping for seeds alone was much cheaper i would be happier. i can understand if you get live plants or things other than seeds paying based off the dollar amounts. but, come on, seeds aren't heavy enough to warrant $12.25 when you get over $50 in seeds alone! if i spent over $200 i could have gotten free shipping. (probably have spent this between all sources this year!) that piddly 5% discount they sent at least took a couple dollars off the order but not much to make it worth it.
i've been in the habit of buying the larger packets from Johnny's since it is better value/quantity.
i've been in the habit of buying the larger packets from Johnny's since it is better value/quantity.
baymule
Garden Master
Welcome to the forum! I see you are from southeast Texas. We moved to the Tyler area 3 years ago from Livingston. Where in southeast Texas are you? You will have a good growing season, I used to raise a garden even in the winter. Why don't you mosey on over to the new member forum and introduce yourself, tell us a little about you and post pictures of your garden!
Chickie'sMomaInNH
Garden Master
considering i'm just the next state over from where Johnny's is located. if i drove there to pick seeds up it would take me at least 3 hours to get there. then 3 hours to get back.
someday i will just take a trip up to both Johnny's & FedCo since they are quite close in the area to each other. someday i will get up to that area for one of their seed swap & scion exchange too!
Zeedman
Garden Master
Given a choice between driving for seed (within decent range) and mailing, I would choose driving. The returns are less of a hassle... if it don't look good, it don't get bought. 
The majority of the vegetables I grow now were a result of my annual trips to Heritage Farm in Iowa (SSE's headquarters). They are 200 miles away, and their climate is nearly identical to my own... so what does well there, usually does well here. It is really great to be able to observe 20 okra varieties, or 100 tomatoes, side-by-side in the same place. You can directly compare yield, size/color, plant size & vigor, etc. The observations are particularly useful in a bad year. There is no cost to roam the gardens, so it is, for all intents & purposes, the largest publicly-accessible test garden. My trades & trials are built around observations made on those visits... since I can only observe, not taste.
@digitS' I share your concerns about Jungs & their corporatization. They are in my home state, and when I was young, they were the "go to" seed company. Not so much now; had a bad experience with dead nursery stock, and was very dissatisfied with their handling of the issue. Wouldn't order from them now if they were the only source for something I wanted. I was sorry to see them gobble up Vermont Bean, a company I had been happy with.
The majority of the vegetables I grow now were a result of my annual trips to Heritage Farm in Iowa (SSE's headquarters). They are 200 miles away, and their climate is nearly identical to my own... so what does well there, usually does well here. It is really great to be able to observe 20 okra varieties, or 100 tomatoes, side-by-side in the same place. You can directly compare yield, size/color, plant size & vigor, etc. The observations are particularly useful in a bad year. There is no cost to roam the gardens, so it is, for all intents & purposes, the largest publicly-accessible test garden. My trades & trials are built around observations made on those visits... since I can only observe, not taste.
@digitS' I share your concerns about Jungs & their corporatization. They are in my home state, and when I was young, they were the "go to" seed company. Not so much now; had a bad experience with dead nursery stock, and was very dissatisfied with their handling of the issue. Wouldn't order from them now if they were the only source for something I wanted. I was sorry to see them gobble up Vermont Bean, a company I had been happy with.
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digitS'
Garden Master
@Zeedman , I think that the first seed catalog I saw was Shumway's. It was the first one I studied .
If the youngsters think Shumway's looks old-fashioned, it looked old-fashioned to me 50+ years ago! But, I studied it. It was a relief that there weren't rapid changes in some of these outfits.
I think I remember the first ads for Johnny's in the Organic Gardening magazine ! Oh @Chickie'sMomaInNH ! Don't forget Pinetree if you take that drive. I am waiting for Pinetree to have some larger package sizes. Maybe ... they never will.
Steve
.If the youngsters think Shumway's looks old-fashioned, it looked old-fashioned to me 50+ years ago! But, I studied it. It was a relief that there weren't rapid changes in some of these outfits.
I think I remember the first ads for Johnny's in the Organic Gardening magazine ! Oh @Chickie'sMomaInNH ! Don't forget Pinetree if you take that drive. I am waiting for Pinetree to have some larger package sizes. Maybe ... they never will.
Steve
flowerbug
Garden Master
ordering from large corporations kinda destroys what i'm interested in supporting. small growers who do unique things.
my one adventure was ordering from Vermont and that went ok. i'm not sure when they were bought by the larger company? anyways, only issue i had was that they described and had a picture of a bean of a certain type and i thought the entire package was going to be that bean and not a blend. when i asked them about this they promptly sent me another package of the same thing so i had way more than i could ever use.
the blend was called Peregion and was well worth the smaller sized beans, they're pretty firm when cooked. i like them in chili. i cook them a while before i add them to the chili to make sure they'll get done all the way.
one selection from that blend is a light tan striped goats eye type bean which turns a dark coffee brown color when aged, very beautiful. some others too which i haven't done pictures of yet... the tan one i have a pre-aged picture of in the bean page you've already seen.
anyways, the blend has been a good source of diversity here because those smaller beans do better when the weather is iffy or difficult. i have a few dozen crosses by now that come from those parents. i'm always trying to encourage more.
my one adventure was ordering from Vermont and that went ok. i'm not sure when they were bought by the larger company? anyways, only issue i had was that they described and had a picture of a bean of a certain type and i thought the entire package was going to be that bean and not a blend. when i asked them about this they promptly sent me another package of the same thing so i had way more than i could ever use.
the blend was called Peregion and was well worth the smaller sized beans, they're pretty firm when cooked. i like them in chili. i cook them a while before i add them to the chili to make sure they'll get done all the way.
one selection from that blend is a light tan striped goats eye type bean which turns a dark coffee brown color when aged, very beautiful. some others too which i haven't done pictures of yet... the tan one i have a pre-aged picture of in the bean page you've already seen.
anyways, the blend has been a good source of diversity here because those smaller beans do better when the weather is iffy or difficult. i have a few dozen crosses by now that come from those parents. i'm always trying to encourage more.
