Update

Bit busy starting seeds, 10 varieties of tomatoes, 4 trays of onions, and various brassicas are now in the greenhouse during the days.

We are trying a variety of different mediums in the seed trays; purchased topsoil, seed starting mix, plain ole homemade compost, and a blend of compost/topsoil. The thought is to lessen our dependence on purchased materials, can we start our seeds in something we can produce locally??? The straight compost gave us A LOT of weeds, it took a few days before I could tell the difference between what was wanted and what wasn't. Maybe we could 'cook' the compost prior to planting and kill the weed seeds? The growth has been good, even better than the straight purchased topsoil. Last year we tried a seed starting medium that was utterly worthless. It set us back considerably and won't be used again.

Working on the garden plan ... where am I going to stick 12+ tomato varieties, 17+ types of beans, various lettuces for seed saving AND enough vegetables to supply our eating needs for fresh, canning, freezing, not to mention cold storage??? Thank heavens for our extra land for the market garden, I plan on stealing a bit of space for seed growing and diverting some of the fresh veg to the kitchen.

Keeping records ... I am focused on maintaining good records showing the 'provenance' of our seeds, what varieties we are planning on growing out for seed, and developing seed descriptions for next year's packets. I LOVE spreadsheets.

Just put up a listing on www.localharvest.org for Itty Bitty Seeds, check it out!

Waiting impatiently for our order from the Seed Savers Exchange. Accidentally had it shipped to Canada instead of our US post box ... oops!! Could take awhile yet. All the rest of orders are in for new varieties we are trialing before saving seeds to share. I did get a few new varieties of tomatoes and beans at Seedy Saturday - Creston. Thanks Dan and Val McMurray!!

Wishing you happy growing!

2010 Seed Table

If you bought or bartered seeds from us you'll be interested in viewing our 2010 Seed Table. The descriptions for all the varieties as well as maturity dates are included.

Tips for a great gardening year:

Mulch well
Weed & water regularly
Always put your tomato cages in place the day you plant

As the year progresses we will be posting photos of our gardens, developing individual pages for each variety, and best of all sharing our favourite recipes!!!

Introducing Itty Bitty Seeds

Welcome to Itty Bitty Seeds! We're glad you are able to join us here.

About Us...

We started off as market gardeners sending off massive seed orders each year to supply our needs. We tried to find a local seed supplier, 100 mile seeds anyone?? We didn't find one so we took the plunge and started saving our own. We went from a linear year of purchase, grow, sell, and repeat to a more natural rhythm, from seed to seed and around again. Thus we are completing the natural growing cycle right at home.

We found that if you start growing enough seeds for a couple acres of market gardens it just snowballs until you are saving enough to supply others. It so very addicting!

Sustainability, genetic diversity, and natural growing practices are important to us. Gardening post-oil, skilling up for powering down, and just being self-sufficient within our community are some of our motivators. Enjoying what we do and meeting great people like you are our rewards.