Edible Landscaping

Exhaustive array of over 1200 varieties of open- pollinated and heirloom vegetable, herb and flower seeds from 66 countries, some quite rare. Check out the gorgeous melons and multi- colored heirloom tomatoes: You’ll wish you had more garden space!

A local favorite of ours with hardy and tropical trees, shrubs, berries and more, all producing edible and tasty fruit for your home garden. Open for walk- in customers or buy through the website. Will make you rethink your landscape plan!

Filaree Farm

Gourmet Seed International

These folks live, eat and breathe garlic! They offer dozens upon dozens of garlic varieties, some quite rare, and loads of descriptions and advice throughout for the novice. Order early, they sell out of some varieties every year.

Vegetable and herb seeds from around the globe, many hard to find. Generous quantities, too.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Nichols Garden Nursery

Comprehensive and thoughtful selection of everything for the home gardener and market grower, from vegetable, flower and herb seeds to fruits, innovative garden tools and supplies. Many vegetable varieties have been bred by Johnny’s. Bulk quantities available for the market grower. We eagerly await this catalogue every year.

Great selection of hard- to find herb seeds and plants, vegetable and flower seeds, bulbs, roots and tubers. Look for such rarities as saffron crocus bulbs, tea plants and Kaffir lime trees.

Pinetree Garden Seeds

Richters Herbs

A longtime favorite of ours with everything for the kitchen garden, from ethnic vegetables and herbs to flower seeds and plants, bulbs, mushroom kits, great garden supplies and a nice book selection. Seed packets are sized for the home gardener and are priced accordingly, with most packets priced $1.50 or less, so you can try a new variety for pocket change.

An herb gardener’s dream come true, with a staggering array of culinary and medicinal herb plants and seeds for both novice and professional growers. Medicinal uses both now and in antiquity are discussed at length for each herb. Should be in every herb- lover’s library.

Ronniger Potato Farm

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds

Potatoes galore, with dozens of varieties offered here, from fingerlings to those cool blue potatoes. Jerusalem artichokes, garlic and specialty onions can be found here as well.

A wonderful resource for the kitchen gardener, with the choicest gourmet vegetable, and herb seeds as well as old- fashioned flowers. I love this catalogue for the descriptions alone, and the evocative recipes scattered throughout.

Seeds From Italy

Seed Savers Exchange

Your own- stop catalogue for starting your own Italian kitchen garden. This is a distributor for the vegetable, herb and flower seeds of Franchi Sementi spa of Bergamo, Italy, seedsmen for over 200 years. They specialize in traditional heirloom Italian varieties and the selection is impressive; making choices is fun but difficult! Seed packets are generously sized, in full color and with English language stickers.

The glossy full color catalogue of tempting heirloom vegetables and herbs that SSE puts out every year is the retail face of a non- profit member organization dedicated to saving and maintaining seed of over 25,000 (!) endangered varieties. While anyone can order from the retail catalogue, with its breathtaking array of heirloom vegetables, SSE also invites both novice and experienced seed savers, or those who wish to become so, to be members. SSE members (ourselves included) pay an annual fee to gain access to fellow members’ rare seeds, roots, tubers and scions, which are outlined in the annual Seed Savers Yearbook distributed to its members. Log onto the website to find out more.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Tomato Growers Supply Company

This worker- owned cooperative is close to home but flew under our radar until a fewyeara ago, when we met Ira Wallace at the James Madison University Carrier Arboretum’s Herb and Garden Festival. SESE offers a wide array of heirloom and open- pollinated vegetable, herb and flower seeds, with detailed growing information and highly personalized descriptions, making it easier for those of us in central Virginia to choose varieties suited to this climate. Chefs' favorite Doe Hill Golden Bell pepper can be found here, from Doe Hill, VA.

This is a great source for some very unusual tomatoes of all colors, including Deirdre’s new favorite tomato for BLTs, bruschetta and summer salads: a green- when -ripe tomato called Green Giant. Peppers of all colors and heat levels can be found here too.

Totally Tomatoes

Wild Garden Seed

The name here is a bit misleading, for in addition to offering a great choice of tomato varieties, there’s also a fun selection of peppers as well, and a small range of other vegetables. There’s a tomato for every palate here, with many more hybrids than the previously mentioned seed companies offer but also a good selection of heirloom and open- pollinated varieties. Cherry tomato lovers will have a hard time choosing from among their rainbow- colored collection. And we have fun picking which ornamental hot peppers we want to grow for our flower beds. Prices are very fair and encourage experimentation.