At the beginning of February I wrote about a fantastic seed company.  They are a family run business who market some of the most remarkable seeds that I’ve ever grown.  The germination rate is stellar, they sell heirloom varieties and their prices are very reasonable.  The problem that I ran into this year was that the popularity of growing ones own garden has skyrocketed.  Seed companies are seeing record sales and smaller companies, like Heirloom Seeds, are getting behind in shipping.  Last year I ordered my seeds in early February and two weeks later they arrived in the mail.  This year I ordered my seeds on February 5th and they just arrived yesterday.  For most of my garden this is weeks too late.

I emailed Heirloom a week or so ago and asked when I could expect shipment and they said the first part of April.  I was saddened by the news.  They gave me the option to cancel my order, but after some consideration I decided not to.  This is a very small company.  We are talking all family members who work 15 hours days 7 days a week.  I’ve very sensitive to the nature of family run businesses and hate to take away from their sales.  I decided to wait for my order.

When I opened up my mail box yesterday to find an envelope stuffed with seeds I knew there was a reason I waited.  My son and I took out all of the seed packets and I told him what each of them were.  We talked about what we could make with each thing that would grow from the seeds.  I wished the packets had pictures of the plants on them, but he’ll figure that out soon enough.

So even though I’m late in getting my seeds started it’s still better than no garden at all.