How to Buy Seeds

Reader Contribution by Stephen Thomas
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Even for experienced gardeners, deciding where to buy seeds can be a perplexing challenge. Between the stacks of glossy catalogs and endless racks of packets at garden centers, the options can seem overwhelming. To make matters more complicated, the modern seed marketplace is loaded with ambiguous terminology and little detailed information. How does a conscientious gardener choose seeds that will grow well, look lovely and taste great, but also support sustainable seed farmers and healthy environments?

Your own saved seeds will always be the best possible choice for your next season’s garden. In essence you are taking the best from this season into the next as you learn to select for resilience, earliness and disease and insect resistance. Seed exchanges and seed libraries are also ideal choices. At the new Seed Library here in the Native Seeds/SEARCH Retail Store, you may freely “check out” seeds to return some the following season. Seed libraries are a rising trend within public book-lending libraries across the country, with dozens of new community seed reserves recently cropping up between the bookshelves. This is an inspiring movement and a path to true sustainability — locally adapted seeds, collectively cultivated and freely exchanged!

One important thing to understand when it comes to buying seeds is that most seed companies do not grow the seed they sell. (Native Seeds/SEARCH’s collection is an exception, as 99% of the seed it sells is grown locally.)The majority of seed companies are “packers” — that is to say, companies that buy seed in bulk from growers or other companies, repackage it, and sell it as their own. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, when the actual source of the seed is unknown to consumers, the advantages of buying local seed are lost.

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