Thompson and Morgan Seed Packs Giveaway: Greens, Herbs and Flowers

Spring garden planting has already started here in Central Florida.  Our pole beans are already sprouting along with a few other herbs and vegetables.  For most people in the US there is still plenty of time to prepare for planting.  We would love to help one of our blog followers to get a garden going with this set of 17 seed packages from Thompson and Morgan.  These seeds were packed for sale before the end of 2013, so the viability will be slightly less compared to the seeds that they are selling this year.  Thompson and Morgan provided these seed packs and many more for free distribution to our friends at the Garden Hoard seed company, who in turn shared some of them with us.  

The seed packs included in this giveaway are as follows:

Lemon Balm

Marigold

Spring Onion

Lettuce Mazur

Sweet Green Basil

Bails Classico

Rosemary

Crisp Mint Lettuce

Cilantro Calypso

Lobelia Monsoon

Mixed Salad leaves

Arugala

Alyssum Golden Queen

Dill

Spinach Medania

Parsley Giant of Italy

Niche Mixed Salad

Depending on your climate, some of these plants may be better suited for a fall garden.  Right now our Lettuce is already bolting.  We plant our greens in September and October.

Bolting Yugoslavian Heirloom Red Lettuce with Lacinato Kale Feb 28, 2014

If you would like a chance to win this seed collection, you are over 18, and you live in the USA, then you are welcome to enter to win this giveaway using the raffle copter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gardeners should also hop over to Florida Backyard Gardening who is hosting a giveaway for us which includes Aquarian Bath's Gardener's Scrubby Soap, which recently received a make over, and a garden themed Hot or Cold therapy Neck Pillow.

Grow Sustainable Quinoa for your Kitchen

Quinoa has become trendy food worldwide, but at what cost? In Bolivia where it cultivated the demand for this super food is leading growers to abandon traditional land management practices.  Crops are not being rotated, and farmers are over planting llama grazing area.  The llama manure is required to organically fertilize the quinoa.  Poorer people in Bolivia and Peru, where the Quinoa is also grown, are no longer able to afford this traditional staple grain.

I recently planted a little raised bed of Quinoa from a seed trade.  Mine were planted a couple of weeks after these flowering and seeding Quinoa plants at the Bonner Center Community Garden. They are a lot like Amaranth, but seem to be more dense with seeds. If you like eating Quinoa, you can grow your own.  Or if you know someone who loves Quinoa, let them know they can grow their own  Seeds are available from SustainableSeedco.com.  If you have never winnowed grains before I it very easy and best to do on a breezy day.  Check out this how to webpage for winnowing seeds.

Man with Winnow by Vincent van Gogh

Here are some other beautiful flowers that were blooming when I took the Quinoa photos.

Zinnia

Wild growing Phlox

Garden Start Up Giveaway - 40 seed packs

I recently hosted a seed swap here in Daytona Beach.  I have lots of seeds left over from the swap and I have put together 2 packages of 20 seed packs each to giveaway.  Twenty seed packs will go out to 2 winners.  The packs include a mix of flowers, vegetables and herbs.  Some of these seeds are from plants that I have grown including Seminole pumpkin and Lemongrass.  Others are from my friend the Wooden Bee of the Backyard Florida Gardening Blog.  Others are from seed or garden companies who donated seed packs that were too old to sell.  These companies include Green Winters of Ormond Beach Florida, Garden Hoard of Livonia, Michigan, and Moonlight Microfarm of South Florida.  Finally there are a bunch of wonderful seeds that were generously donated for the swap by WinterSown.org.  There are still a bunch of seeds here for the community garden, so I am hoping to find good homes for these seeds.  The 20 seed packs are:

Seminole Pumpkin
China Aster
Gloriosa Daisy
Thai Basil
Mini Red Turks Turban Squash
Rose Mallow
Lewis Flax
Mixed Lettuce blend
Bibb Lettuce
Marmande French Heirloom Tomato
Aurum Cherry Tomato
White Scallop Squash
Southern Giant Curled Mustard
Lemongrass
White Milan Turnip
Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato
Summer Carnival Holly Hock
Belemcanda chinensis (She Gan) Lily AKA Blackberry Lily
Rio Grande Tomato
Marigold

 You can enter to win using the raffle copter widget below.  If you don't see the form right away, try clicking to reload your page.  This contest is open to adults with US shipping addresses.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winter Sowing Container Count - 43

Moira and I scavenged the neighborhood last night.  We found all these soda and water bottles in the recycling for Winter Sowing.  

Here they are cut in half and filled with soil.  Tessa and Moira helped me plant seeds and seal them up.  We planted beans, peas, squash, various herbs, tomatoes, okra.  I can't remember everything we planted, but it is all labeled with a sharpie.

I'm at 43 containers and counting.  If you'd like to join me, please do.  I'm the only one participating from zone 9 in the Seed Traders Winter Sowing Zone wars event!

Celebrating World Food Day

In honor of World Food Day today, I created this Etsy collection which includes herb and vegetable growers, seed suppliers and defenders against GMOs.  I especially liked the Vote yes on 37 Label GMOs T-shirt.  I also found a gem of an Etsy shop, called TheFferyllt which consists of many many heirloom PIF listings.  PIF stands for 'pay it forward.'  These are 20 cent listings plus shipping.  The sellers asks that you pay if forward for doing something nice for someone else. Enjoy.  

In honor of World Food Day will you ask your friends and family in California to vote yes on Prop 37?  Thanks for spreading the word!

'Happy World Food Day - Say No to GMOs' by AquarianBath

Happy World Food day to you all.

Yes on 37 Label GMO... emanatevitalit... $18.00	25 variety heirloom... SurvivalSeed $8.95	Monsanto Evil No to... TheTshirtWhore $24.97	20 Organic Heirloom... TheFferyllt $0.20
Chard - Swiss Five ... HeirloomsRUsSe... $1.50	Holy Basil Tincture... AquarianBath $8.50	Soy bean,Tofu bean ... Pailanita $3.00	Ten Packets of Heir... MoonlightMicro... $25.00
Black Aztec Corn Se... DixieSalvation... $1.25	No GMO, Anti Monsan... SpencerButteIn... $18.00	Heirloom Red Elepha... FoothillsPrinc... $3.50	GMOS, Get Your Hand... MatesOfMoby $26.00
Non-GMO Turnip Seed... TheGreenRoot $2.50	Say NO To GMO's... CinderellysPri... $18.99	Okra - Clemson Spin... DJWeeks $2.99	Organic Heirloom Ka... kenyonorganics $2.50

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Photos from the Daytona Beach Seed Freedom Swap

Thank you to everyone who came out yesterday for the seed freedom swap in Daytona.  We had a lot of fun trading seeds and it was great to meet some new people.  I had a lot of help from my co-hostesses Kim from SFGGardens and Bee from FLGardening.  Good job ladies!  

Big thanks also to Dave Shroomer who helped me keep Tessa busy swinging so I could talk to all the new people and help them find seeds.

I knew that Wes from Green Winters was bringing seed, but it was a great surprise that he also brought a big bowl of garlic, shallot and onion starts.

I got some new seed that I had been wanting Kale, Collards, Cauliflower.  Most of the feedback I got was 'let's do this again soon!'  I'm all for it.  I did a little research and found that the last Saturday of January is national seed swap day.  So my hostesses and I will plan again to do a swap sometime around that day.  If you have a day and time preference for seed swapping let me know with a comment below while we are still in the planning stages.  

Also if you would like to know about upcoming seed swaps or related garden events, I just created a mailing list for up coming seed swaps.  Sign up for seed swap announcements here.
If you are already subscribed to my blog by email or to my Daytona local events and workshops newsletter, you do not need to subscribe to this new list to receive seed swap updates..

A Fun Garden Treasury and Update About Free Seeds With Purchase From My Shop

My Genovese Basil Seeds were just included in this fun garden treasury on Etsy. Be sure to click to check out your favorite items.

This is good timing, because I need to make an announcement about my Seeds section in my Etsy Shop. I recently changed the way I list the seeds for a couple of reasons. What you will find now is that the seeds are listed for 20 cents each plus shipping. This makes it more fair to Etsy (they get the 20 cent fee) and Etsy seed sellers, and it also prevents people from asking me to spend an hour or so packing every single seed type from my shop with a single soap order. Unfortunately I don't have time to do that. So now I have in my shop announcement that you can request a free seed pack with your purchase. The bottom line is you can still you just can leave a comment at check out to request free seed. That part hasn't changed. Or you can select more one package by simply adding the seeds to your shopping cart. Enjoy.

Speaking of allotments, I will post to the blog soon about my most recent adventures at Maggies Herb Farm in Saint Augustine. I just taught my first post-partum herbal class there this weekend and it was a great success. I am considering to offer the same class here in Daytona if there is demand. It is a Cold and Flu Season Herbal Class.

'Down the allotment' by LifeCovers

So much work to be done in the garden at this time of year getting it ready for winter

artyscapes $9.99	ElskeLum $30.00	KateFete $25.00	AquarianBath $0.20
carouselbelle $14.00	theweeshed $15.00	dragonhouseofy... $16.00	WorksinWood $28.00
EquilibriumDes... $16.00	aureliaLT $169.00	JoannaBoyes $30.00	VitaNostra $10.00
Numpty $10.00	abcdimages $15.00	CherryPieLane $12.50	pipistrellevin... $10.00

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