Seeds

This winter-hardy heirloom is a distinctive black colour on the outside with a milky white and tender interior that packs a bit of bite. Large turnip-shaped 8-10cm (3-4") diameter globes with deep black skins over solid, crisp, pungent, pure-white flesh. Black Spanish Round radish seeds have very tall tops, and are primarily grown for winter storage. They will stay fresh all winter if stored wet sand. This variety was introduced before 1824, and is listed in some old seed catalogues as Noir Gros Rond d'Hiver. Plant Black Spanish Round radish seeds in mid to late summer and eat when it is the size of a quarter. Space radishes 8-10cm (3-4") apart.

Matures in 60 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Tropaeolum minus. This sumptuous mixture includes flowers from solid blood red to cream with red flecks and edges. Bloody Mary Nasturtium seeds produce low growing, clump-forming plants with darker than average leaves. The edible flowers are typically spicy, but also have a certain sweetness. This annual works well in containers, and blooms continuously from June to August. It was a very popular hit in our summer trials, and drew a lot of attention.

Annual

This great tasting heirloom spinach has thick, succulent, dark-green savoyed or crumpled leaves that are very sweet in salads or cooked. Bloomsdale Savoy is best planted in early spring and fall. If Bloomsdale Savoy spinach seeds are fall-planted, it will overwinter and produce much earlier than if it is spring-planted. Very fast growing plants with upright growth that can be mechanically harvested when necessary. This spinach has high resistance to blight and blue mold (BM). We recommend sowing spinach seeds in the third week in August on the coast. Enjoy a fall harvest, but only cut the leaves from the ground level. The following spring, you will get a huge harvest of incredibly early, tasty spinach before there are any pests around to compete with.

Matures in 50 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Bolero carrot seeds are a great variety for home or market. Very sweet and crunchy, it is a good keeper in storage or in the ground. Roots are bright orange, up to 20cm (8") long, and slightly tapered, with the typical blunt Nantes tip. High level of resistance to Alternaria blights and powdery mildew. Very tasty! Our Bolero carrot seeds are also available as pelleted seeds for easier handling. This variety is something of an industry standard. Because of their hybrid uniformity, they are very attractive to market growers. We think the flavour is so superb that these carrots are a nice choice for the home gardener as well. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 75 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Large, fuzzy, cucumber-scented leaves and vivid blue flowers attract bees all summer long. Usually grown for the bees and flowers, young leaves can be cooked like spinach or used in salads. Also known as the star flower because of the arrangement of its petals, the flowers have a light cucumber flavour and will stun with their vivid blue petals. A dramatic use is to make ice cubes with the petals frozen into them and drop into cold drinks. Borage seeds contain oils with the highest concentration (20% to 30%) of the fatty acid GLA, even higher than Evening Primrose. Altogether a versatile, attractive and useful herb, add starry blue flowers to salads, drinks, berry desserts for visual appeal. Borage may self sow. It is attractive to bumblebees that must buzz at a certain resonance to release a jet of pollen.

Bouquet dill seeds grow into compact plants around 75-90cm (30-36") tall. Bouquet Dill is a particularly good variety to grow for nice looking bunching at the market table, and works well in containers or smaller herb gardens. This dill has fragrant, lacy foliage, large yellow flower heads, and large seeds, but the plants only grow about waist high.

The structure of dill's flowers is known as an umbel. Thus dill is considered an umbelliferous plant. Other umbellifers include carrots, cilantro, fennel, parsnips, and Ammi. All of these plants are attractive to predatory insects such as lady beetles, Syrphid flies (hover-flies), lacewings, and tiny parasitoid wasps. Organic gardeners like to grow dill precisely to attract these beneficial insects, for they will control pest insects like aphids, thrips, whitefly, and the caterpillar of the Small White Butterfly (cabbage moth).

Breen Pelleted Organic romaine lettuce seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Breen is a slow-growing miniature red romaine lettuce with an elegant, urn-shaped head. Its superb, rust coloured leaves have olive-green undertones and nicely contrasting veins. Breen is slow to bolt and looks lovely tucked in among green lettuces. The leaves are firm and crisp with excellent flavour. PELLETED SEEDS - sold by seed count. Pelleted seeds are great for precision sowing. The seed coating is certified organic and made from an inert clay mixture. Let Breen mature for harvest after most of your other lettuce has been already cut.

Recommended for hydroponic and aquaponic growing.

Matures in 45 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

The standard for rainbow chard, Bright Lights is a mix of many colours including red, pink, orange, yellow, and white. Leaf colour ranges from glossy bright green to dark green and bronze. You can choose the colours you’d like to grow out when thinning or start indoors to transplant the combination of your choosing. Suitable for growing all season long with good tolerance to bolting. Less frost hardy than other chard varieties.

Matures 55 Days

Bull's Blood beet seeds produce baby greens in 35 days, or wait 50-60 days for beetroot. This is the classic choice for salad and micro-green growers. The beautiful dark red, smooth leaves have a particularly pleasant flavour. Harvested as baby greens, they look spectacular in salad mixes. If the leaves are not harvested, the plants produce uniform, round, tasty, red beetroots. The deep red colour of both the leaves and root are thought to contain high levels of nutrients and antioxidants, which qualifies Bull's Blood organic beet seeds as a super-food.

Matures in 50-60 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

C. maxima. Burgess Buttercup squash seeds were first introduced by the Burgess Seed Company in Illinois in 1932. Since then, this reliable heirloom has been producing small, 1.5kg (3 lb) turban shaped fruits with dark green skins and the unmistakable navel or dome at the blossom end. The golden orange flesh inside each fruit is sweet and finely textured, never watery. The thin skins are extremely hard, but that is key for long term storage. These popular squashes won't last right through winter the way a hubbard or delicata might, but you should bring one to Christmas dinner, and impress your friends and family.

Matures in 115 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Same delicious flavour as the standard delicata, Bush Delicata grows on compact, space-saving plants. The .5-1kg (1-2lb) oblong fruit start off a pale cream colour that turns yellow as fruit matures. Green stripes darken before turning orange. Flesh is smooth and sweet and very fast to cook. Edible skin makes delicatas easier to manage than other winter squash. Try cutting into rounds, scooping out the seeds, and baking on each side until brown.

Matures in 80 days

Adorable mini butternuts that are the perfect single serving size! Butterbaby is an excellent choice for home gardeners with its early maturity and high yields per plant. Uniform .5-.9kg (1.25-2lb) tan fruits have sweet, dark orange flesh and good storability. Semi-vining plants.

Matures in 80 days

We love the flavour and delicate texture of the leaves for lettuce wraps! Buttercrunch butterhead lettuce seeds are a Bibb type lettuce that forms a tight little rosette of soft, dark-green, upward-facing leaves surrounding a tender, pale centre. The small hearts don't become bitter in hot weather. Later plantings stand well into fall and make good growth in spring cold frames. Buttercrunch lettuce is a good candidate for growing all winter if you can provide cloche or greenhouse protection, or even a simple cold frame. Sow some extra early indoors in February for transplanting to the cold frame in March.

Matures in 67 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)