How To Find Seeds For Your Garden

Locally large retailers have been banned from selling seeds to the public. This lasts until the first week of planting has passed here in Michigan. This can but a real damper on things when you consider that we only have 182 days to grow this year with the last frost here in Detroit expected April 23rd.

Where to find seeds for your garden

Most seed suppliers are not shipping right now. A pause to help them handle the crazy demand that has come from an entire world realizing that they need to be self-sustainable for basic survival. The good news is there are several great places you can still get seeds.

Mary’s Heirloom Seeds jumped in and is making sure anyone that orders from areas that can not buy seeds gets their seeds as quickly as possible. She says she currently has a 10 day turn around time but is pushing things out as fast as possible. If you are looking to support a small business this is a great option.

ETSY is another great way to support small businesses. Many ETSY sellers are offering seeds and gardening supplies you can order online even if the local stores are bare.

Check your local small farms and nurseries. Many are planning on opening up with social distancing including online sales in the coming weeks. Check-in with your favorites and see what their plan is.

Connect with local gardeners. Join online gardening groups in your area and work as a team to share seeds with porch drops.

Check smaller hardware stores and dollar stores. While the selection is well picked over with so many people starting gardens this year you may get lucky and find what you need.

Regrow food instead of using seeds

If you can’t find seeds you can regrow many foods to produce more food for your family. This includes common vegetables like carrots, celery, potatoes, and onions. When regrowing food opt to use organic produce that has not been treated to prevent growth. Check out these 25 foods you can regrow.

Use cuttings to grow food.

If you are blessed to have friends and neighbors with fruit bushes or the opportunity to forage for fruit you can grow your own food. Root cuttings from berry bushes, grapevines and other perennials to grow your own food that will reproduce year after year.

Where we got our seeds this year?

We started to buy seeds in the early part of the month while doing our other shipping in our usual leisurely way. Not a big deal until suddenly we were limited to the tiny selection at places like dollar general and the local hardware store with the same small picked over boxes of seeds.

Lucky me a friend from out of state found the spinach seeds I needed to keep our family in salads for the season leaving more room in my grocery budget for adding to our winter stockpile.

A small business owner on my Facebook who I used to order my Everglades Tomato seeds from when we lived in Florida offered to make sure my seeds made it out fast if I ordered from her site Mary’s Heirloom Seeds. She has made an effort to ensure several gardeners from states with limitations receive their seeds in time for early planting. I love supporting a small business and I love it when the same business is willing to support the community in our time of need.

Some of our seeds came from walking past small displays at the local dollar store when grabbing odds and ends. These selections are small and picked over but you never know what you will find.