West Coast Seeds

Enjoy the diversity that carrots can bring to the garden. Plant Rainbow Blend carrot seeds to grow purple, white, red, and nice big orange carrots all in the same row. Get the most out of this collection by sowing as evenly as possible to reduce thinning and waste. Repeat sowings will provide a polychromatic carrot bounty from late spring to winter. Kids will love the variety of colours - and flavours.

Matures in 75-110 days. (Hybrid and open-pollinated seeds)

Coriandrum sativum. Cilantro "Santo" is bred to be slow bolting. Direct sow short rows of Santo Long Standing cilantro seeds every other week from spring to late summer for continuous harvest. The mature seeds, better known as coriander, are easy to harvest, and used in many dishes - notably curry powder blends. Keep an eye you your cilantro crop because the flowering process (bolting) is famously quick in this plant. As soon as a central stem appears and the uppermost leaves become frilly, it's time to harvest the whole plant, roots and all. 

If growing for seeds, simply allow the plants to flower. Cilantro flowers are highly attractive to beneficial insects like Syrphid flies, lacewings, and lady beetles. Be warned that if the seeds are not harvested when they are mature, you will have volunteer cilantro plants for years to come.

Cilantro will grow somewhat leggy, but productively in partial shade, and it is quite tolerant of cool temperatures. With the protection of a cloche greenhouse, cilantro will continue growing all winter.

This delicious carrot shrugs aside heavy soil, and forms beautiful 15-20cm (6-8") long, fine-grained roots that are bright orange throughout and as coreless as the name suggests. Nantes Coreless carrot seeds develop cylindrical and sweet roots, with relatively small tops. They have excellent flavour, and are very tender. Sow these lovely carrots in raised beds or in deeply cultivated garden soil, and be sure to thin the seedlings to 4-10cm (1.5 - 4") apart in the row so that each has room to develop on its own. In the home garden, sow short rows of carrot seeds at two to three week intervals, and enjoy a much longer harvest window.

Matures in 75 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

A very productive, 60-75cm (24-30") bushy plant that benefits from some support, Sugar Daddy snap pea seeds produce pods that become uniquely stringless, 8cm (3") snap peas. They grow in pairs near the top of the plant for easy picking. This variety has good disease resistance, but not to the enation virus that sometimes spreads in mid-summer. That means Sugar Daddy is perfect for those early spring plantings, when the soil is still cool and wet - for early summer harvests of delicious snap peas.

Matures in 68 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Cosmos bipinnatus. Purity cosmos seeds yield single snow-white flowers to lighten the dark areas of a cottage garden. Regular dead heading will encourage continuous flowering from summer into late autumn. The ferny foliage on this variety is graced by the flowers up to 10cm (4") in diameter on plants that grow to about 76cm (30") tall. Stake this variety if growing in exposed areas, or use Green Garden Netting to keep plants upright. When they are just two feet tall, let their tips grow through a layer of netting lain flat over the bed. This will give them all the support they need.

Annual

Beta vulgaris. Can't choose which beet to grow? Try this multicoloured beet blend. It represents the best and brightest of our beet varieties for high performance and great flavour. Get the most variety out of this colourful, tasty, dynamic blend of beet seeds. This easy to grow vegetable may be eaten from foliage to root. Beets can grow in cool months and can take some frost. Beets are high in Vitamin C, folic acid, antioxidants, minerals, fibre, and potassium. They also contain betaine, a compound that is essential for cardiovascular health.

Matures in 50 to 65 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

CERTIFIED ORGANIC! This is the extra early hybrid that organic guru Eliot Coleman raves about for cool season growing under cover in early spring and late fall/winter. Napoli carrots become incredibly sweet after frost as they literally convert starches into sugars as a kind of carrot anti-freeze. It is rated by many as one of the best tasting carrots available, and wonderful as baby roots. Plant Napoli Organic carrot seeds in August in a raised bed or beneath a cloche, and experience the full flavour of winter "candy carrots." Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 55 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Flavourful pale centres are surrounded by thick green outer leaves on enormous upright plants. Parris Island Cos romaine lettuce seeds can be planted close together for a long harvest of little leaves for gourmet salads. Given space and time to grow to full size, Parris Island forms huge heads up to 30cm (12") tall, but even at this crazy size, the leaves are tender and succulent, with mild flavour. Dating back to 1952, this heirloom lettuce is named after the actual Parris Island off the coast of South Carolina. Parris Island Cos is tipburn and mosaic tolerant. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 75 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

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)

Salad Bowl lettuce seeds are a traditional stand-by for salad mixes. These large, lime-green rosettes resist bolting for a long time in summer and do not get bitter. The frilly, deeply cut oakleaf shape has excellent flavour and good texture. They add loft and character to salad mixes. Rapid cool-weather growth makes it a prime candidate for spring cold frame growing. This heirloom lettuce dates back to 1952, the year it was given a well deserved AAS Award. It's also a winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Give it a try in patio containers to keep near the kitchen. The individual leaves are a nice addition to sandwiches, or just as garnishes.

Matures in 60 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Seaside spinach seeds produce very uniform, dark green baby leaf spinach for fast harvests and high volume production. The leaves are thick and succulent, with well developed flavour. The upright plants grow at a moderate rate, and work well in winter high tunnels. It is the best choice we have seen for baby leaf growers, and has good resistance to downy mildew. With the correct timing, a small farming operation can produce a constant supply of baby leaf spinach nearly all year, which can be a lucrative option for your restaurant and CSA clients.

Baby greens in 25 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Ella Organic dill seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Finally, a dill variety for the patio herb garden! Ella is a dwarf dill bred for container and hydroponic growing. She has short leaf internodes, so she stays compact and bushy at 25-36cm (10-14"), but with all the great fragrance and flavour of a giant garden dill.

The structure of dill's flowers is known as an umbel, so 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 take advantage of this natural food chain by growing 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).

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).

Nepeta cataria. Not just for cats! Tall pink and white flower spikes are great in fresh and dried arrangements. Use the leaves in salads, sauces, teas, and soups - and of course fresh or dried for the cats! Catnip seeds are a good choice for a bee attractor that works well in containers on cat-free balconies. Protect seedlings from cats.

Catnip (and a few of its close relatives) contain the compound nepetalactone, which is extremely attractive to domestic and wild cats. It has the same effect on leopards, lynxes, and tigers as it does on house cats. Roughly 33% of all cats do not respond to catnip, and the response is believed to be hereditary.

Plant Forest Green parsley seeds in your organic herb garden. The plants have short, strong stems that support big clusters of highly curled, dark-green leaves. The flavour is distinctly savoury without being bitter. Parsley adds a subtle, but key flavour to a host of Mediterranean dishes. It is widely used in companion planting because its strong scent repels insects like the Asparagus Beetle. Parsley likes asparagus, carrots, chives, corn, onions, and tomatoes. The leaves can be sprinkled on asparagus to repel asparagus beetles, and around roses, to improve their scent. Let some of your parsley go to bloom to attract hover-flies and predatory wasps.

Parsley is a biennial plant that forms a long (edible) tap root. Choose deep pots for container growing.

Matures in 80 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)