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When I first started gardening, I grew my onions from small bulbs called onion sets.  Onion sets are large and easy to plant directly into the garden.  But what is an onion set and why can you grow from sets or seeds seemingly interchangeably?  An onion set is an onion that has been started from seed and allowed to form a small bulb the previous fall.  Sets are dug and stored, and sold to be replanted in spring.  So an onion set is really a second year onion.  Being a second year onion, most of your onion sets will flower...

Making Mason Bee BoxesSolitary native bees like mason bees and leafcutter bees are crucial, but often overlooked, pollinators. As opposed to the European Honeybee (also an important pollinator) native solitary bees do not live in colonies.  Instead, individual females find-tunnel like structures to lay their eggs in.  These might be hollowed woody stems, woodpecker holes in trees, or human-made nesting structures like the photo above.  Inside each tunnel the bee creates partitioned chambers out of leaves and petals (leafcutter bees) or out of mud (mason bees.)  In each chamber she lays one egg and deposits a pollen patty she has collected...

Pictured above are 'Swenson Swedish' snow peas up and going in the cold, water-logged soil of early spring at Giving Ground Farm.  These peas germinated quickly and at the same time, something difficult to achieve in late winter soils without the help of a few pea germinating tips, my favorite of which are found below.  Impress your neighbors with the earliest peas, and get a warm and fuzzy feeling by sharing your secret/this blog post with them! Pushing the Pea-season Boundaries Yeah, yeah, we know, peas love it cool, moist, and as the back of every vague seed packet says should...

It's planting time!  We want you to be successful when starting your seeds.  Here are a few tips to remember when you get to growing your seeds: The basics of seed germination: Healthy seeds are little protected packets of everything a plant needs to get off to a great start.  As a survival mechanism, seeds are dormant and protected by a hard seed coat until the right conditions arrive for them to grow.  They've evolved this as a protection, otherwise they would germinate in unfavorable conditions. When we germinate the seeds for our garden, we strive to create just the...

Giving Ground Seeds has joined the Open Source Seed Initiative as a seed company partner.  This means we are growing and offering some OSSI pledged varieties and are committed to promoting the ideals of the Open Source Seed Initiative.  We love this organization and we'll be growing and offering even more OSSI pledged varieties in the future.  The mission is simple- keep seeds and their genetics free from patents.  Pledged OSSI varieties are free to be used by anyone for any purpose- growing, seed saving, breeding, sharing, trialing, publishing information about, and selling.  Plant can breeders pledge varieties or plant...