Online Mail Order

[cookiesdaddy]

Hello everyone - what a great forum. I'm a 2nd year chickens' daddy and 1st year gardener. Found BYC to be the friendliest community on the net and hope EasyGarden to be the same.

Question: can you recommend a good online mail order for seeds? I live in California and would like to order from suppliers that have products suitable for California weather.

I stumbled on Nichols Garden Nursery in Oregon and found it to be pretty comprehensive. Any feedback about this store?

Thanks!

 

[henrietta23]

Welcome! I'm on BYC and here as well. I ordered seeds on line but used CT or New England companies because that's where I am. Made sense to me to do it that way too!

 

[digitS']

You know, you really got me thinking, CD. What would it be - about half the fresh produce grown in the US comes from CA so who is a local seed retailer??

First off, I don't think there's a state in the union with a more varied climate. Certainly, if you live on the northern coast, anything that does well in western Oregon should do well for you. But, down in the desert it may be another story.

Probably, most anything that can be planted will grow in California's Central Valley - hoe handles, jelly beans, etc.

I order Asian veggie seed from Kitazawa and Evergreen and they are in CA. I have gotten seed from J.L. Hudson but that company is more for the unusual or even, really strange .

Swallowtail Garden Seed and Bountiful Gardens are in California. The Redwood City Seed Co. sells lots of pepper varieties and I'm interested in all 3 of these companies' offerings but have never ordered from them .

Also, haven't ordered from Nichols in a good number of years. They didn't do anything wrong for me but I drifted off to other sources. You probably couldn't go wrong going with Nichols. Territorial is also in Oregon and has a good selection of seed even if they are a bit pricey. I appreciate their wide selection and that they provide maturity dates based on their own test gardens.

I order most of my seed from Johnny's and Stokes and don't think you should shy away from those companies just because they are in the opposite corner of the US from you (actually, Stokes is in Canada . But, it would really help for you to know the varieties best suited for your particular area especially if its location isn't a #10 in "garden perfect." California Cooperative Extension gives recommended varieties for quite a few vegetables.

Steve
who's not sure if any of this helped or not . . .

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Thank you Steve. Very helpful. The UC website is very informative.

It seems gardening is a lot more complicated than I've thought. So much to learn - types, seasons, sun, shade, space, trellises, etc. It'll take me years to be good at it. One thing I'm happy about is my soil seems so much better now, after having 4 chickens for a year. And I have an awesome compost pile ready to go, plus the "black gold" available from the chicken run. I'm just too busy to clear an area to make garden bed. Water piping is halfway done.

Some questions: I have 2 areas available - one at the side of the house (more convenient, but only have 1-2 hours of sun) and the far corner (a good 5-6 hours of sun). I want to grow something easy the first year as I learn. What I want to grow are: some leafy vegetables (love them arugula, some lettuces), snap peas, snow peas, zuchini, herbs, eggplant, tomato, etc.

The questions are: are these easy to grow? Any other recommendation? And which one will do well in the shade and which one will need maximum sun?

THANKS for helping out a newbie!

 

[Reinbeau]

Cookiesdaddy, to answer your first question, Nichols Gardens is a wonderful source of some unusual (and typical) veggies and herbs, I've enjoyed dealing with them.

 

[digitS']

There's always the risk of over-complicating things, especially with me . . . .

Any chance that the "convenient" bed gets some more filtered sunlight? Four hours of sun every day is usually considered a minimum for a garden.

Let me tell you about my shady corner in the little veggie garden: It gets direct sunlight only during early morning so that is only about 3 hours of sun and not very intense light, at that. Tall evergreen trees grow close to the garden on the south. There's a little sunlight that slips between the trunks and branches but not much. With attention to keep the tree roots out of the top foot of soil - this has made a fairly good salad garden for me. Besides the leafy greens, I also have a lot of onions in that ground every year.

Your 5 to 6 hours of sun area should be adequate for plants like tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini. I don't think that any of your choices should be especially difficult for a beginning gardener.

Here's a 4-page pdf "Beginning Vegetable Gardening" guide from Cornell University which is fairly easy to read and offers some good help.

Steve

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Hello from another California gardener! Like you, I raise chickens on my small lot and also garden. Although I've gardened for years, I do have to say that the chickens help out quite a bit with all of the wonderful compost that I make with their help.

Don't shy away from your side lot garden. On a weekend when you're home, make note of how the sun filters through that area. It'll give you an idea of exactly where you can grow.

I have a side yard on the north side of my house. For years, I never planted anything there because I assumed it wasn't enough sunlight. But, last spring I started paying real attention to that area and found that it got far more light than I thought. I planted only two things back there - watermelon and a stray tomato plant. Both did well and I plan on putting a whole row of tomato plants back there this year. With my small garden, it's hard to find places to rotate the tomatoes so as to refresh the soil.

But, I agree with DigitS' that if it receives very little sunlight, a salad garden may do well. Don't know where you are, but I can't grow salad any time but the dead of winter because it gets too warm and the lettuce bolts. A cooler side yard may help you work through that little problem.