Seeds and Starters

The San Francisco Bay Area has many seed and starter plant sources for the vegetable garden. Nurseries abound, and many hardware stores, drug stores, and chain stores include extensive gardening departments. You can also participate in a local seed bank, and order from seed catalogs. The San Francisco Garden Show included local exhibitors, specializing in seeds that grow well in the Bay Area, such as Annie’s Annuals & Perennials (Richmond), Gold Rush Nursery (Soquel, near Santa Cruz), and Ploughshares Nursery (Alameda).

One of my favorite local places to buy seeds and starter plants is the CVS drugstore at 5100 Broadway (cross street - 51st), in North Oakland. They have had an extensive and diverse gardening department for years, and carried some of my favorites, like Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. I typically buy organic tomato starter plants from them, with good results. They are currently preparing for a remodel, so may not be available for the 2011 season.

This year I plan to try using seeds that I’ve purchased in previous years, rather than buy all new seeds. I recently read in Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, that you can reuse seeds packaged for previous years if they are stored properly in an environment that is dry and cool. This makes sense, since scientists have successfully grown plants from ancient seeds found at archaeological sites.

Seed packets from Renee's Garden and Botanical Interest.
Ready for planting.