Choosing Seeds for the Year Ahead
Happy New Year, fellow planters! These days of resting soil, blanketed by snow offer a perfect opportunity for selecting seeds for your 2026 garden. The Growing Collective, a volunteer powered group who grow plant starts for ourselves and our annual plant sale in May, recently met to choose the varieties and amounts of plants we will grow for 2026. We enjoy ordering from a variety of catalogs as each one offers a unique assortment of seeds. We look for organic and sustainably grown selections. Open pollinated types are helpful for folks who wish to save their own seeds. Hybrids can offer disease resistance and higher productivity so we choose some of these as well. You can’t save seeds from hybrids as they will revert to their genetic origins. Heirloom seeds are old plant varieties that have been passed down through the generations. They are all open pollinated. I like thinking about past generations carrying seeds in pockets, pouches and sewed into hemlines as a promise for abundant food in a new home. Or as currency to use in bartering.
This year alone the Growing Collective will grow 65 types of peppers, 56 varieties of tomatoes, 17 unique squash and pumpkins, 11 different basils, 21 types of edible flowers and 87 native plant types. And let’s not forget the brassica family, the onions, celery, greens of all manner, various herbs and vining crops. And eggplant! Who could forget the eggplant?! This, my friends, is a lot of seeds!
Fedco is a cooperatively owned company based in Maine. They offer a large selection of seeds, trees, potatoes, cover crops and equipment. The Fedco catalog is a treasure trove of gardening tips and whimsical line drawn art. They support small farmers with an emphasis in organic and sustainable practices.
Baker Creek resides in Missouri. Their company boasts a whopping 1,200 varieties of rare seeds (which is also what their website is called). Their catalog is astoundingly beautiful.
High Mowing seeds are 100% certified organic. The company started in 1996 with only 28 varieties. Take a moment to read why they are called High Mowing. It’s a fun slice of Vermont history with geography mixed in.
Seed Savors has been saving and sharing seeds with gardeners for 50 years. They have saved countless varieties from disappearing. They proudly house the nation’s largest nongovernmental seed bank with some 20,000 varieties!
Johnny’s Seeds is based in Maine and employee owned with 53 years of growing experience. Their seed packets contain useful growing information right at your fingertips.
Other companies that are worth a look include Pinetree Garden Seeds and MIgardener.
There are many more great seed companies to investigate so gather with your gardening friends over a beverage of choice and share your knowledge. It’ll be spring before you know it.
