NEW FOR 2010!! Don't have access to a garden? You can still grow lots of your own food! Interest in container gardening is exploding as people realize that as long as they have a balcony or a patio, they can grow food in containers of various sizes. The plants in this collection have a small footprint and are nicely-behaved - just step out the door and harvest your meal. This collection includes: Bouquet Radish Mix, Specialty Beet Mix, Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea, Little Finger Carrot, Little Fingers Eggplant, Mesclun Mix, Tolli's Sweet Italian Pepper, Aurora Hot Pepper, Galilee Spinach, Red Burbank Tomato and our Heirloom Basil Mix. Buy it for a condo-living friend, for yourself or split it with a fellow urban gardener. (A savings of $5.50 over individually priced packets)
Cottage gardens of old (for which we named our seed company) were informal, somewhat haphard and inclusive - flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables were grown together. Flowers were allowed to self-sow and grow where they may. This large collection package has an old-fashioned look and contains five varieties of annual flowers that would have been grown in cottage gardens - Love-Lies-Bleeding, 'Sawyer's Mix' Snapdragon, 'Grandpa Ott' Morning Glory, 'Sensation Mixed' Cosmos and Sweet Sultan. Each comes in its own regular seed packet with individual descriptions and planting instructions. Save $3.00 off the cost of buying separately.
This collection contains six perennial flowers that were grown in most cottage gardens- the original 'Grandmother's Garden' Columbine, the old single-flowered Hollyhock, Cowslip, Sweet William, Rose Campion and Fringed Pink. If you let these flowers self-sow modestly, you will soon have the "cottage-garden" look in your own garden! This large collection package has an old-fashioned look and contains individual regular seed packets of each flower with their own descriptions and planting instructions. Save $3.00 off the cost of buying the seeds separately.
NEW FOR 2010!! Victorians loved their "everlastings" (so-called because they retain their vivid colours and shapes after they've been picked) for the much-needed colour they brought to drab, dark winter homes. Everlastings are easy to grow and dry. This collection of annuals will provide a colourful display of dried flowers and decorative seedpods. One packet each of : Love-Lies-Bleeding, Strawflower, Globe Amaranth, Fennel Flower, Hens & Chickens Poppy and Annual Statice. (savings of $3.00 over individually-priced packets)
NEW FOR 2010!! Enjoy your flowers and eat them, too! These flowers have been used to flavour and enhance dishes for centuries. One packet each of: Alaska nasturtium, Calendula, Heartsease viola and Borage. Save $2.00 of the cost of buying the packets individually)
SORRY, SOLD OUT FOR 2010. In the days when people accepted the existence of fairies (I still believe!), they always included in their gardens some plants known to be loved by the fairyfolk. Plant these seeds and who knows? - you could entice fairies into your garden! A wonderful present for the fairy-lover in your circle - try combining with Flower Fairy notecards for a delightful fairy gift! Each Collection package contains: Cowslip (aka "Fairy Cups" - fairies use these as cups, hide in them when frightened and the plants are said to help you find fairy treasure); Foxglove (aka "Folks-glove" – an all-around fairy plant: fairies wear the blossoms as hats and gloves, it helps you to commune with fairies, attracts fairies into your garden, and carrying a sprig brings you fairy protection); English Thyme (fairies like to make their beds in it; wearing a sprig helps you to see fairies); Heartsease (attracts fairies to your garden, used by the fairies for magic); Lavender (aka “Elf Leaf”, used in fairy magic). Each large Collection package has seeds in individual mini-packets with their own descriptions and sowing instructions. Save $3.00 off cost of buying them separately.
NEW FOR 2010!! It's difficult being a first-time gardener - there's so much to know and there are so many choices that's it's hard to know where to start. Each year, we advise many new gardeners on the best approach to starting their first gardens. So, we thought that this year we'd put together a collection that was 1) easy to grow 2) could be all sown directly in the garden (no starting indoors) 3)would provide as broad a variety of veggies to experience as possible and 4) contained no "finnicky" or "fussy" plants. So here it is: a ready-made garden that contains tried-and-true heirlooms known for their taste and hardiness: Royal Burgundy bush bean, Ireland Creek Annie's dry bean, Specialty Beet Mix, Colourful Carrot Mix, Specialty Radish Mix, Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix, Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea, Sutton's Harbinger Pea, Black Beauty zucchini, Waltham Butternut Winter Squash, White Wonder Cucumber, Russian Red Kale and Galilee Spinach. (Save $6.50 off the cost of buying the packets individually)
Gardeners of old particularly cherished scented plants, and liked to grow them along pathways, near entrances or tucked amongst other plants in the garden. I have always found Nature's fragrances far more pleasurable than any of the myriad chemical smells that inundate our lives. Here's an opportunity for you to go for the real thing! Each Collection package contains: 'Cupani's Original' Sweet Pea (said to be the most fragrant of the old Sweet Peas); Mignonette (meaning "Little Darling", named by Napoleon's Josephine for its fragrance);Nicotiana sylvestris (evening-scented flower); Violet Sweet Rocket (another evening-scented flower); Sweet Sultan (fragrant annual flower); Evening-Scented Stocks (intoxicating evening scent). Each seed variety comes in its own regular packet with individual descriptions and sowing instructions. Save $3.50 off buying these seeds separately.
Heirloom plants often have whimsical and imaginative monikers. This delightful collection contains five flowers with love-themed names: Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate, Cupid's Dart, Love-In-A-Mist, Helen's Flower (reputed to spring from the ground where Helen of Troy's tears fell) and Love-Lies-Bleeding (okay, that's a little dark - whoever named it must have been having relationship issues at the time!). The old-fashioned collection package is decorated with a Victorian picture and contains five regular packets of seed with their own descriptions and planting instructions. Save $3.00 off the cost of purchasing these seeds separately.
Medieval gardens were sanctuaries of peace and pleasure. Their "flowery meads" were meadows of grass, cut short, dotted with natural plantings of wild flowers. The heirloom flowers in this collection (Cowslip, Primrose, Meadow Sage, Red Self-Heal and Sweet Violet) were grown in these "meads". They are all spring bloomers, so you can easily create your own flowery mead before the grass gets tall enough to need cutting. What a beautiful way to welcome spring to your garden! This attractive package (4.5 x 6.75") , with its medieval decoration and old-fashioned font, contains individual packets of five medieval flowers - each with their own description and sowing instructions. A perfect gift for gardeners and history lovers - and you save $3.00 off the cost of these seeds bought separately.
Medieval herbers were small gardens, enclosed usually with fences, with turf seats. They were planted with fragrant and useful herbs. This seed collection comes in a large, beautifully-decorated package, and contains five of those plants - Sweet Basil, Vervain, Field Poppy, Borage and Calendula. Each comes in its own regular seed packet inside the collection, with individual descriptions and planting instructions. A great gift item, and save $3.00 off the cost of buying these seeds separately.
NEW FOR 2010!! As climate change continues to wreak havoc on weather patterns and,therefore, growing conditions, many gardeners are finding that their "growing season" is getting shorter and shorter. As a result, the demand for vegetables that will mature as quickly as possible and that can tolerate cooler conditions is increasing. Our answer - for those that want a garden full of proven short-season performers - is this comprehensive collection of our shortest-season heirloom vegetable varieties, 29 packets in all: Bountiful Bush Bean; Ireland Creek Annie's Dry Bean; Early Wonder Beet; De Ciccio Broccoli; Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage; Little Finger Carrot; Scarlet Nantes Carrot; Little Fingers Eggplant, Arugula, Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix, Heirloom Romaine Lettuce Mix, Mustard Green Mix, True Siberian Kale, Minnesota Midget Melon, Mammoth Melting Sugar Pea, Sutton's Harbinger Shell Pea, Marconi Red Sweet Pepper, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot Pepper, Specialty Radish Mix, Bloomsdale Spinach, Cocozelle Zucchini, Table Queen Bush Acorn Winter Squash, Lucullus Swiss Chard, Ceylon Cherry Tomato, Glacier Tomato, Pruden's Purple Tomato, Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato, Tigerella Tomato, Purple Top White Globe Turnip. (Save $12.00 over the cost of buying the packets individually)
NEW FOR 2010!! Plant this collection and then simply go out to your garden and harvest your stir-fry ingredients for supper. We've pulled together what we consider some of the most interesting and tasty vegetables for stir-frying: Rat-Tailed Radish, Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea, White-Stemmed Pak Choy, Tendergreen Mustard Green and Russian Red Kale. (Save $3.00 off the cost of buying the packets individually)
SORRY, SOLD OUT FOR 2010. First Nations people planted our native vegetables in a companion-planting combination that worked most effectively for all three: corn was planted, beans were planted to grow up the corn and squash was planted to grow all around them. The corn provided support for the beans, the squash kept down the weeds and its prickly stems kept out the wildlife. The ancient varieties in this collection were actually grown in Three Sisters gardens of long ago - Mandan Bride corn, Hidatsa Shield Figure bean and Connecticut Field pumpkin. (save $1.50 off the cost of buying the packets individually)
