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It’s one week into February and already Pauxatauny Phil has come from his lair to tell me that we will be experience an early spring. Luckily, for us we have Queen Charlotte who lives in North Carolina, Charlotte, I believe, hence the name and has called that yankee upstart a dirty rotten liar and banished him from the Queendom. It was a close call your majesty, but we intend to trust in Phil and his call for warm temps and favoring breezes.

It’s now that time to get dirt beneath my nails, pull weeds from the flowerbeds and curl up with some of the best reading material around when the sun goes down and the heat goes on. I have already made the acquaintance of some great folks who provide us with the most wonderful heirloom seed for the many things we grow in our garden. We have been ordering from them for several years and when we heard that the company they represented were no longer going to be offering home gardeners this valuable seed source, we were heart broken. The cost was so very affordable and the quality so high that we were really wondering what we were going to do. Then I got this message from Pattie and Mike and was just overjoyed!

Hi Sandra,

Thank you so much for your order and for your kind words. Below is some information about how we got started:

My husband Mike had worked for the SC Foundation Seed Association (SCFSA) for 37 years and began the home garden vegetable seed program there (to promote heirloom, organically grown and open-pollinated varieties for home gardeners). In October 2009, SCFSA merged with another non-profit organization and at that time Mike was told that they would no longer offer the home garden vegetable seed program. After much prayer, Mike made the decision to go ahead and retire from SCFSA and to start Heavenly Seed LLC so that the heirloom, organically grown and open-pollinated seed could still be offered to home gardeners. We are so excited about the positive response we have received.

If you need more information, let me know. Thanks!

Pattie

Well, we placed our seed order on a Tuesday and received the order on Friday. My fingers itch. We have decided to try a new cucumber called Armenian Melon. I love trying new “old” things. We will have five varieties of tomatoes, three different lettuce types, some really rad radishes, its time to plant cabbage and broccoli, sweet peas will need to be put into the ground. Later on, we will be getting our watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew seed to start. I’m trying to talk Mac into getting a bigger green house. Right now, we use my 100 gallon fish aquarium to start seed. Okay, so it works well, but we need more room than it provides.

I cannot wait to get started. You know, when the seed catalogs start arriving, Spring can not be far behind. So rather than waiting for Phil or Charlotte to tell me, I wait to see if the seed catalogs see their shadow. They rarely do.

I wish you happy gardening and lots of fun visiting Pattie and Mike at Heavenly Seed. You won’t regret the visit. You don’t have to live in South Carolina to take this trip. Just go to www.heavenlyseed.net and relax. You’ll enjoy the visit, I assure you. Man, I love the inter-net!

— Sandi McBride is a resident of Jefferson, who blogs regularly and enjoys her garden and her furry and feathered friends. She is a wife and mother of two sons.