Northwest Edible Life

urban homesteading in the pacific northwest

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{Giveaway} High Mowing Organic Seeds Garden Starter Collection

I’ll make this brief so we can get to the good stuff, which is Free Seeds.

Something happened a couple months ago when I started getting death threats for writing this blog. I had my own “put up or shut up” moment and realized that, in writing here, despite what I’d been telling myself about how this blog was just my hobby, I had accidentally created for myself an awesome job, and I had two choices: quit and lick my wounds because sometimes people are jerks, or respect this gig for what it really is.

After the douche-waffle thing, I took a few weeks off and really thought about what the hell I was doing here. In the end I decided that, if the Universe hands you the opportunity for your dream job, you take it and you work hard and you don’t complain. That snapped me out of a kinda anti-consumerist delusion I’d been operating under, this idea that I would be a complete fraud if I got compensated at all for the inordinate time, effort and expense it takes to make this blog happen.

So, anyway, long-story-short, now I have a sponsor. No – I have the best sponsor. When you are a little advertising shy like me, it helps when your first and only sponsor is a small, friendly, super-ethical seed house that believes in the exact same things you do.

High Mowing Seeds Logo

Meet High Mowing Organic Seeds

High Mowing Organic Seeds is my new sponsor. They are a 100% organic, GMO-free, farm-based seed house. They are located in Vermont, and grow and trial many of their varieties in-house, but also have partner organic seed growers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Vermont, and New York.

I love them, and here’s why. High Mowing is doing something really important – they are aggressively developing more varieties of seeds that are successful for organic growers. That matters for two reasons.

The Selfish Reason – Organic Adaptation: You know how people talk about how heirlooms are awesome because they have become adapted to certain conditions over generations of seed-saving? Well, the organic thing is no different. Seeds grown from organically grown plants carry genetics that make them better adapted to successful organic culture in the garden or in the field.

Conventionally grown seeds come from plants that probably grew well with a lot of help from high doses of very strong chemical fertilizers, fungicides and herbicides. But you aren’t growing your veggies that way, so why buy seed that is adapted to that culture when organic seeds are more likely to thrive under the backyard organic conditions you’re providing?

The Big Picture Reason – Look, most people growing vegetable seeds are decent folk, but the regulations regarding what can be sprayed on seed crops is far more lenient than what exists for crops grown for human or animal feed consumption. Because of this, it’s pretty easy to spray stuff on your seed crops that you’d never be able to spray on your food crop. The Oregon Department of Agriculture, as an example, grants Special Local Need (SLN) pesticide registrations for crops grown for seed. These give the grower carte blanche to spray…um, basically whatever…as long as they include this message on the wholesale tag:

“This seed was produced using one or more products for which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has not established pesticide residue tolerances. This seed, in whole, as sprouts, or in any form, may not be used for human consumption or animal feed. Failure to comply with this condition may violate the requirements of the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and other regulatory agencies.”

That’s just not very comforting, is it?

Stuff like this makes me feel like insisting on organic growing methodologies from seed-to-sandwich isn’t nearly so paranoid as it might seem. And that’s where High Mowing comes in. 100% organic seed production means none of their products are part of the problem, and – in fact – by pushing more seed crop land into organic production, supporting their seeds is nudging acreage towards the solution.

Win Free High Mowing Organic Seeds

Okay, back to selfish…High Mowing is starting off their sponsorship here at NW Edible with a bang by giving away one of their 100% Organic Garden Starter Collections to one lucky reader.

The High Mowing Garden Starter Collection includes 10 seed packets of adaptable, easy-to-grow, organic vegetable varieties (I’ve grown most of these very successfully in the Pac NW) and – bonus!- it comes in a fab, reusable box.

Garden-Starter-Collections-Large-01

This collection includes one packet each of:

  • Provider Bush Bean
  • Detroit Dark Red Beet
  • Danvers 126 Carrot
  • Marketmore 76 Cucumber
  • High Mowing Mild Mix
  • Gourmet Lettuce Mix
  • Cascadia Snap Pea
  • Cherry Belle Radish
  • Sweet Basil
  • Dark Orange Calendula

This collection is valued at $27.50. One lucky winner will get the whole collection for free.

To enter to win, leave a comment on this blog post telling me what vegetable you have the most trouble growing. (Mine is carrots, which is why I am excited to see if this rust fly resistant carrot lives up to the hype.) The winner will be notified by email.

Contest open until Thursday, January 9th at 8:00 PM PST. Contest open to US residents only due to shipping regulations.

Thank you to High Mowing for sponsoring this giveaway. I encourage you guys to go check out High Mowing and request a free catalog. See if you like what you see.

Good luck everyone!

Update: Contest now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered, and to High Mowing for sponsoring this giveaway. Congratulations to winner Joy D, who said, “I started gardening in a field claimed as a community plot for gardeners. Therefore the root veggies were/are the hardest. (I could find no one with a rototiller. When I was a kid my Dad was busy with his rototiller every day after he came home from his job until dark. Helping everyone he could to get a good start in their gardening.)”

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Comments

  2. Cauliflower. Huge plants but no head. Did a little research and you probably already know this but “it does not like to be in warm temps above 75 degrees when developing. That can cause leafy plants and small heads or buttons.” Since it matures in 75 days or so supposedly, I’ll try to set out transplants 2-3 wks before the last frost (beg of April in Sonoma Co.) since they hate hot weather. They don’t like the freezing either though so will have to be protected. They’re picky lil’ things, but oh so delicious. (Must be close to dinner time – havin’ a hankerin’!) May your new sponsorship be greatly mutually beneficial.

  5. I’m a very novice gardener, but my lettuce crop this year was disappointing. Birds got to the first batch, and then the second batch was small and bitter.

  6. I have a lot of trouble with pumpkins. I grow them in the sunniest spot in my yard, but they still get covered white mold. I am a fairly new gardener, so I won’t be surprised if I am just doing something terribly wrong…It’s so sad when I see the tiny little green baby pumpkins die! 🙁

    Thank you for writing this blog! You are awesome!

  7. Beets would be my most puzzling failure. I can figure out the other failures due to vine borers or blight but the leafy beet greens never produce a beet root.
    Congrats on your partnership with a like-minded sponsor.!!

  8. We gave up long ago trying to grow carrots without those worm holes – my biggest failure lately is believe it or not zucchini. I’m still looking for those people that grow tons and beg people to take them!

  9. Will try to start peppers earlier outside, so the sweet colorful red and orange ones actually turn color before the frost her in Pa. We have a blast starting tomatoes and peps and cukes from seed!

  10. Potatoes. We can’t seem to grow potatoes without scabs or blight. We live in northern Vermont.

  11. Great choice with High Mowing!

    I’m new at this gardening thing, but the most difficult veggies for me this year were large tomatoes. Too much rain, not enough rain. Not enough heat, too much heat. Pests. Etc. etc. etc.

  12. Tomatoes – poor things couldn’t grab enough sunshine, and the plants that did develop a few tomatoes, developed them without any flavor!

  13. Lately, it seems that I have problems with everything. We used to have a successful garden every summer, but since my Sweetie passed it’s been a struggle. This year I am hoping to return to success. I miss fresh tomatoes more than I can say!

  14. Carrots… I am in Montana. Dry, hot, dry and it seems I don’t keep the soil damp enough to keep it from cracking and getting hard. Poor tiny seedlings.

  15. I have trouble growing broccoli. It just never seems to get any sort of head built up, only leaves. And then when I think it’s starting to grow, it just produces that flower thing. The worst part is: that’s my favorite vegetable!

  16. Bell peppers. I never get anything but the tiniest peppers, and not even very many of those.

  17. I’m a recent transplant to Seattle. So far, it’s been squash. Not sure why; when I lived in south Mississippi, it grew great.

  20. I cannot seem to get squash on the vine. Embarrassing, since I live in northern California! I get tons of male flowers, lots of bees visit, but if I get a female, not much happens. I’ve tried hand pollinating, blossom end rot got two of my three fruit last year, which was a banner year for me.
    By the way, Erica, in my area there is a small company that is growing their own seeds- Redwood Seeds is the company’s name. It is amazing how far apart crops must be planted so that there is not a chance of cross-pollination and mixing of varieties!!

  21. Yeah, gotta agree – bell peppers are all-but-impossible here in the PNW. But generally, I am not successfully growing much beyond weeds and blackberries.

    (SO glad you have a sponsor! Woohoo you!)

  23. I always seem to have trouble with celery. I don’t know if I am transplanting too early or too late.

  25. I think your blog rocks. In fact just yesterday I put a link up on my page to let people know you are one of my “must reads”.

    Anyways, carrots are also my garden demon. I have the ideal nutrient rich sandy soil and I still get crooked pinky fingers. At this point it’s just a running joke.

  28. So glad you’ve got a fantastic sponsor like a High Mowing–their’s was the first seed catalog
    I received this year; I’m excited to try their seeds.

    I have yet to grow truly successful tomatoes here on the Oregon coast–hoping to try some sort of hoop house this year!

  29. I have been in Tucson for the last 10 years and have just moved back home to Oregon. Am looking forward to having a garden again. I would say that I have a hard time growing carrots.

  30. If we could (would?) eat aphids, we know exactly how to get as many as we’d ever want — plant Brussels sprouts. Congrats on the sponsor!! They are truly a great outfit.

  31. I cannot grow broccoli which is a vegetable my three year old will eat without complaining.

  32. Green beans!!! This past summer we grew beautiful lush vines which resulted in NO sun to the beams themselves – this the beans were pale & fibrous – poor suckers just wanted in on the chlorophyll action! Thanks for a chance at the giveaway!

  34. I can’t grow peppers to save my life. Pepper plants? Sure–they’re nice and healthy looking….they just don’t have any peppers growing on them.

  35. Oh BOY! do I have a collection of sad tales to share. Don’t get me wrong, I have my share of happy little Life’s Little Victories in the garden, too. (For example, here in sunny socal – Zone 10 – my *volunteer* cherry tomato vine is still producing in insane quantities.)
    But…
    The Woes abound.
    I tried growing hot peppers. Year 1, they never germinated. Year 2, Damping-Off got them.
    I tried growing cucumbers. I got one awkward, mis-shapen thing before white powder mildew wiped them out.
    I tried growing heirloom watermelons. Seeds never sprouted.
    I tried growing heirloom melons. 1 seed sprouted and grew a vine. Which got wiped out by white powder mildew. (Curses! CURSES! Damn you, White Powder Mildew! Damn you!)
    I tried growing pumpkins from seeds I had saved from a previous year’s Halloween. (I saved seeds from a large jack-o-lantern pumpkin, a white pumpkin, a warty pumpkin and a large squash, later identified as a banana squash.) I managed to grow a couple tiny white pumpkins and it turnd out the warty “pumpkin” was a hybrid seed and what I grew was just decorative gourds. I grew squash. In fact, I was up to my ass in banana squash! But NOT ONE regular Jack-o-lantern pumpkin.
    In fact, THE ONLY pumpkin I’ve ever grown was a *Volunteer* that grew from the top of my compost pile.
    *Sigh*
    And now it’s time to start planning my 2014 Garden. Um… yay?

    Matthew K.
    in Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10)

  36. Brussels Sprouts get eaten and aren’t even worth trying to harvest. We love them too.

    I am loving all the resources you have been sharing lately.

  37. Oddly enough, despite all the comments about carrots, mine grow well. Just pulled a few to munch on today. But I can not grow zucchini here in Seattle. Back in NJ I was giving it away every day. But then in South Jersey as fool can grow just about anything well. And I did!

  38. Parsnips. If I can get them to germinate in our dry springs, it’s good. But 3 weeks of constant babying, and forget one day, start over! It’s worth it.

    So glad you decided to “put up” instead of “shut up”. That’s the real reason why I’m commenting. Mostly get our seeds from Fedco for their short season veg, but I wouldn’t mind trying High Mowing tool

  39. Red bell peppers, which I LOVE. I was so bummed about my sad little peppers in 2012 that I didn’t even plant any this year. And, while typing this, I’m rolling my eyes because I didn’t even plant a few bell peppers just for the heck of it. Sheesh!

  40. Congratulations on getting such a terrific sponsor – High Mowings just does it right – as you do, also! I think you took that energy from fear and turned it to make you stronger. Write on!

  41. It sounds ridiculous, but I have trouble with zucchini. If they don’t get eaten by slugs or just don’t grow, they make lots of male flowers and in the end, one female. I wait, pick it, then have to wait forever again until it makes a female one…. Meanwhile my friend supplies with me with zucchinis from her crazy-on-steroids-zucchini plant which grows what feels a hundred fruit per week….
    Maybe I never found the right kind of zucchini? There is plenty of compost in the ground where I’m growing it!

  44. I have tried MULTIPLE times to grow brussel sprouts. I’ve planted in the early spring, summer, late summer and fall … ALL to no avail and we LOVE brussel sprouts! We are SW Washinton and we KNOW they grow here but apparently not for us. In the spring they bolt, in the summer they bolt, in the late summer and fall we THINK they will do something by spring only to have them melt away with the first freeze we have long before spring thinks about coming back. Some day, some day. :

  47. I have had great luck (knock wood!) with most vegetables, but something always chews my basil! Every year…and I can never see who it is! So frustrating. Carrots take a very long time to germinate for me, but then they do and diligent weeding, watering and careful thinning make the difference. I have used High Mowing seeds for years. Living in New Hampshire, we are neighbors. They are a great catch as a sponsor, Erica!

  48. I’ve given up on Brussels sprouts, maybe. I love them so, but the climate here (coastal south) gives them hell. Also I would like to bump up beet production, there are never enough, and germination is hit or miss.

  49. Usually my lack of gardening luck is reserved for brassicas, particularly broccoli. This past summer I would have to say everything thanks to the seven solid weeks of rain that started in June last year. My squashes drowned, tomatillos formed fruitless husks, tomatoes suffered blossom end rot, and I had no luck at all with my corn, eggplants, and beets. About the only thing I did get were radishes, lettuce, and okra. Hopefully the weather here in NC will be more cooperative this year.

  50. I can no longer grow eggplant or arugula because of the damn flea beetles! Would love to try these seeds from your new sponsor. Congrats and thanks for the opportunity!