I did not read yesterday’s paper until after alert May Dreams Garden reader Robbie of Going Green Mama left a comment on my seed catalog personality test post about a potential vegetable seed shortage that she read about in our local paper.
Everyone stay calm.
I googled it and got some more information. Susan Reimer, who writes for the Baltimore Sun, wrote about a possible vegetable seed shortage, too, in her column on December 31st. You can read it and draw your own conclusions and decide for yourself what is best for you to do.
As for me, even though I should be taking down the outdoor Christmas lights, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, paying bills, organizing financial files for 2010, and shoveling more snow off the driveway, all while I would like to just be watching movies and gardening shows and reading gardening books and seed catalogs with my feet propped up and drinking sateady supply of iced green tea from Starbucks, I think I will actually order up my vegetable seeds, just in case.
Stay calm, do not panic… plenty of seeds for everyone… hopefully.
(Update… I just read my local morning paper and Susan Reimer’s article about the potential vegetable seed shortage is in it. Word is spreading…)
Well, dang. I guess I better get to ordering. Thanks for the heads up. BTW, I still have some of Christmas to put gently away too.~~Dee
I just ordered all my seeds on Wednesday. Thankfully nothing I ordered was on back order but I did see quite a few things on back order.
HM, makes me wonder which seeds are going to be in short supply. gail
Nothing like the pressure of a shortage for motivation. But is there really a shortage, or is it like OPEC, manufactured to drive up demand. I'm so cynical.
Perhaps a seed shortage will force less adventursome gardeners to expand their horizons and grow more unusual varieties.
I actually read about this shortage a while ago, they were actually having problems last year too, especially the smaller places that only carry heirloom and organic seeds. It's definitely NOT a manufactured issue, hopefully it causes more people to be alert about their food supplies!!
You are feaking me out! Just order for me whatever you order and I'll pay you back! Seriously! Ummm… would you start them for me too and when they are teenagers and you are ready to kick them out, I'll come get them and plant them in my garden 🙂
Your little sister!
ACK! A seed shortage after I've gone several years without ordering any seeds? There should be surplus since I didn't order! Well it looks like I'll have to get my design and plan in place so I can order soon.
Thanks for the heads up.
Always someone predicting some sort of shortage or disaster…on the one hand, I'm glad that more people are getting into veggie gardening, but I wonder about this story. I'll do some more digging too, Carol, as I'm curious now too.
There is something to collecting seeds from your own garden and doing seed swaps…don't know if I buy the seed shortage…
That kind of does panic me at first. But then I remember that I've been saving seeds, and I have friends who save seeds, and I've already got so many packets from previous years and last season's sales.
Stay calm, Meredith.
And then, I kind of have trouble imagining so many of us getting into veggie gardening that there's suddenly a shortage. I'm still viewed as a bit of a weirdo here. 😉
Yikes! There's an impetus for not dawdling or procrastinating on the seed order. I'll get right to it. I know the garden center nearby put up a seed rack just before Christmas for Botanical Interest seeds. Hmmmm. Maybe the BI castor bean plant can be my New Plant for 2010.
Carol – thanks for sounding the alarm! I didn't get as many seed catalogs this year – not sure why. But it's time to plant things in the greenhouse to get them started – but I'm still lethargic from the holidays and or brutal cold snap. Nothing like telling me I can't have something that i want to get me going, tho!