To save money this year, we're buying flower seeds instead of plants from the nursery. I've grown a few things from seed in the past, but this will be pretty ambitious.
It's been a blast pouring over the 2009 gardening catalogs and making up imaginary orders (that quickly get whittled down to the practical). I'm going to stick with the fairly simple: morning glories, petunias, impatiens. Things that are pretty tough and can hold their own against a scorching Chicago summer.
Burpee was one of the companies I wanted to order from. I selected $15 worth of seeds--California poppies, a mix of loose leaf lettuce, coleus, and butterfly weed among them. Do you know what the shipping charge was going to be? $8.95. Are they freakin' kidding me? Nobody else was charging anywhere near that much. $8.95 for a couple of packets of seeds seems unreasonably high.
I may go back to buying seeds from other gardeners on eBay. It's a hell of a lot cheaper.
4 comments:
Try seedsavers.org Cheaper shipping, and you help support preserving heirloom seeds. You can buy from them online without being a member.
If you buy non-hybrids, you can save seeds from this year's plants, and next year your cost is zero.
You're ordering vegetable seeds from a company called Burpee? Burpee? Really? (falls down sniggering like a 7 year old child)
Modernemama-Thanks, I'll never be able to look at the catalog in the same way again. :-)
Karen Anne--I did end up buying some seeds from seedsavers.org, and a whole mass of them from eBay. With luck, I'll be able to start them indoors without too much help from the kittens.
It's sad, the high shipping charges keep me away from a lot of online purchases. That dutch bulb company (can't remember the name...) usually does a $25 off a $50 order every Spring.
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