I decided to order from High Mowing because they are 100% organic and they also offer bulk seeds, by the ounce or even pound. Since they sell to pros, germination rates should be high. I still order from companies catering to home gardeners and/or offering rare seeds (herbs, natives, medicinals), but I wanted to make sure we have high quality seeds and LOTS of seeds to give away to our friends, neighbors and gardening club members.
Our High Mowing order:
| SKU | Product | Price | Quantity | Total
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| 2600C | Organic Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce | $9.45 | 1 | $9.45 |
| 2550D | Organic Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce | $13.30 | 1 | $13.30 |
| 2593M005 | Organic Galactic Lettuce | $5.50 | 1 | $5.50 |
| 2601C | Organic Red Sails Lettuce | $7.00 | 1 | $7.00 |
| 2570A | Organic Breen Lettuce | $6.00 | 1 | $6.00 |
| 2569A | Organic Pomegranate Crunch Lettuce| Options: | | Unit Size: 500 seeds | | | Backordered Until Nov-24-2014 |
|
| $5.95 | 1 | $5.95 |
| 2561M005 | Organic Nevada Lettuce | $8.00 | 1 | $8.00 |
| 2540D | Organic Regal Oak Lettuce | $12.60 | 1 | $12.60 |
| 2603M005 | Organic Blade Lettuce | $8.75 | 1 | $8.75 |
| 2350D | Organic Improved Rainbow Mix Chard | $19.00 | 1 | $19.00 |
| 2506C | Organic Ruby Streaks Mustard | $7.25 | 1 | $7.25 |
| 2885B | Organic Giant Winter Spinach | $5.70 | 1 | $5.70 |
| 2880B | Organic Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach | $5.70 | 1 | $5.70 |
| 2505D | Organic Red Giant Mustard | $10.00 | 1 | $10.00 |
| 2262A | Organic Shiraz Beet| Options: | | Unit Size: 1/16 OZ | | | Backordered Until Dec-01-2014 |
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| $2.75 | 1 | $2.75 |
| 2260M001 | Organic Bull’s Blood Beet | $6.40 | 1 | $6.40 |
| 2290C | Organic Early Wonder Tall Top Beet | $6.95 | 1 | $6.95 |
| Subtotal: | $140.30 |
| Shipping cost: | $0.00 |
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| Total: | $140.30 |
As you can see, I got larger quantities of the more affordable varieties, but I’m also trying some of the more pricey seeds. A couple are still on back order, including the pomegranate lettuce.
I just planted the first two trays as well as directly into the ground in the hoophouse. We had already taken out the frozen tomatoes, but it turns out that it’s still a lot of work to get rid of the “undesirables” such as the Chichiquelites (huckleberries). Amazingly, they’re still growing strong with flowers and berries, but they are no longer welcome in the hoophouse as they are invasive, but I hope the many transplants to the gardens will self seed.
It’s also time to add some amendments before planting the next crops and I’m adding 20 lbs of gypsum for about 50 sqft, as per the instructions on the bag. I mixed the gypsum with a bag of Starbucks coffee grounds and we used our first compost.
We finally have a functioning desert composting system.
We cold compost, not by choice, but because we didn’t have any manure to add (haven’t made it to the coral for cow pies in a while and I’m very picky) and it just doesn’t get hot. So I added red wigglers a couple months ago and I was thrilled to see LOTS of worms. We should have screened the compost to get the bigger pieces of wood or whatever out — next time.
I’m very happy to finally have a working desert composting system with minimal work and I’ll post details and some pics soon.
My beet trial
It got so late yesterday just prepping 50 sqft for planting, I barely had time to get some beet seeds in the ground.
I covered 13 Bulls Blood and Early Wonder beet seeds with plastic clam shells from store bought salad and I also planted 3 each without cover. I want to see which variety does better and whether pill bugs are still a problem in the hoophouse.
The soil was way too dry as we hadn’t watered in at least a week and I have to replace some of the plugged up irrigation lines, so I don’t think there are thousands of pill bugs, but we’ll see. They’re great in the compost, but I sure don’t appreciate them eating my seedlings!
In October I had started old lettuce, chard and beet seeds in trays and I got zero germination except for 1 lonely beet seedling. I’ll have to store our seeds in the fridge or freezer from now on.
If you’re one of our friends or neighbors, please contact me if you’d like some freebie seeds of the bulk varieties — they’re not getting any better!
That’s awesome, Christine! Hi… haven’t chatted with you for awhile. I haven’t purchased from High Mowing Organic Seeds before, but I do get their catalog every year. You’ll have to let me know how their seed does for you. It’s pretty chilly here, too, but not as severe. I’m finally making room for my late fall/winter veggies as most of my summer veggies are almost finished off by the cold.
Great to hear from you, April!
We’ve been in Vegas quite a bit to drop off and pick up WWOOFers and every time it’s this LOOOONG day with a gazillion stops all over Vegas.
We still plan on our bulk berry order and will post here when we get ready with our selection, probably in December or January. And we will try to propagate many blackberries and goji berries from cuttings, wish us luck! I’ve been so busy and focused on building our greenhouse carport and a rocket mass heater, I have to research for each plant when and how to take cuttings and how to plant them.
Maybe you’ll have time to visit sometime after Thanksgiving on a warm sunny afternoon? It’s quite pleasant in the greenhouse and hoophouse when the sun shines and I’d love to show you around. It’s too bad the decidious trees lost their leaves already, we definitely have a shorter growing season up here around 4000 ft elevation.