As for the vegetables tossed back into the garden, some may germinate...it will depend on weather, birds, rodents too to some extent, things that would eat the seeds. I've had tomatoes, cukes germinate and grow in the compost pile, not peppers. If you allow your zinnia seeds to dry thoroughly, then put them someplace cool and dry to store, they should germinate at 70-72F when you sow them in Spring. No pretreatment needed.

I seeded Shasta Daisies in my home last year (late, not until April if I remember correctly). I started them in 2-cup size plastic containers from the Indian food place in Lexington (Tandoor).. perfect size. I filled half with seed starting mix, dropped in the seeds, watered with sprayer, put on lid and then sat on top of my water heater. They sprouted in a week. I then put them in the basement under lights for a couple weeks before transplanting into 6-packs. From 020508 Then I grew them under the florescent lights until the end of May when I put them outside (shown here to the right of the Italian Stone pine in the pic) From 052708 On July 19th From 071908 And then they flowered in late August\September So it is possible to get blooms the first year (I did), though it was not that many.

First, let me say that I'm not a commercial vendor or business. I have more varieties & seeds than I can grow and offer my extras at a cheap price to cover shipping, special envelopes, expenses, ebay & Paypal fees, etc. What I make is miniscule--it's almost a break-even in small amounts, and considering what it costs me in supplies & utilities to grow them til harvest, it may even be a net loss. Any money goes towards food on the table & my mother's Rx's or supplies. Without getting too personal here, she's diabetic & mid-level Alzheimers and I have more than 1 handicap/disability. As many here may know, I've given away many seeds for free in the past, both here & other places, as well as sometimes trading & bartering. This is just a way to get some harder to find seeds out there to people to grow, some aren't easily available commercially, (Olive Hill was great this year!) so it's a good cause both ways. I've distributed probably 20+ packs for free this year at the Buffalo-Niagara Tomato Tastefest party, in addition to donating 60 packs to the event as winner prizes, some still unclaimed (actually 50 packs--I won Smallest Tomato category! Anybody that won please contact me by e-mail if you still haven't picked your choices--yes, YOU get to choose 10 packs!) Anyway, generally 20-30 seeds per pack, even more for some small seeded varieties... about 300 tomato varieties, it increases every year. While I often use generic descriptions, I also try to include personal comments on how they did or what I thought of them. Pics are available for most so you know what they should look like, what the seeds came out of. Many are not bagged but I use some unique practices like isolation, distraction planting, timing, location/selection, etc. Commercial places don't bag blossoms, though they do grow larger #'s of plants to reduce their chances of crossing. I actually make it very difficult for crosses to occur. You really have to throw the plant distance/closeness theory out the window and think outside the box on this one--I've actually found that others that plant with sufficient or great space between plants often get crossed seeds and I don't. Plus I often regrow my seeds the following year to insure what it's supposed to be, not just germinating to check leaf type. If you feel you've got a variety that isn't what it was meant to be, I encourage everyone to e-mail me at matermark@gmail.com to let me know about it and I'll pull it and make good on it. And if I grow a variety from well known commercial sources that you've already mentioned here, and it's not correct, (yes, it happens many times, from many you've recommended above), I come right out and say it's suspect (say, PL Watermelon Beefsteak or WinsAll) & don't offer it, pull it or replace it. I usually outright discard seeds and try another source if it doesn't seem like what it should be, instead of selling those seeds or giving them away as "bonus" seeds like some often-recommended-here companies do--ie: Azoychka bonus seeds many are familiar with....plus you know what I've went through re: Dr. Lyle... Yes, many places charge shipping or handling charges that often are higher than the seeds... plus many people compromise what they grow because of high S/H costs incurred from ordering from multiple places. I've found ways to cut those costs considerably, so I pay the shipping. I don't really have any minimum order levels though try to stay in nice rounded numbers like $3-5-10, and have even worked with people with smaller quantities of each variety, of course it takes much more time & is more expensive for me to pull 20 packs of just 5 seeds than 5 packs of 20 seeds. And you don't need to be an ebay member either, it's just that that is my most common, easily accessable outlet, and I use it in the spring mostly, when I have all my seeds together, ready to decide which to plant. I also put my extra plants on craigslist in May for a buck or 2. So, once again, I'm not a business, and this isn't an ad or an offer--I'm an enthusiast. Like I said, if someone is looking for just 1 variety or so, I often help at no cost or SASE if it's something I have enough of and easy to get to & have time. Hope this helps. Mark, who must harvest peppers, take a "non-compliant" diabetic mother shopping for Halloween candy "for Trick or Treaters" she says, carve 2 Atlantic Giant pumpkins in the cold, and hopefully finish planting my garlic. Still no frost yet here in the metropolis named after "beautiful river", but expecting one tonight, almost a month later than usual...

Thanks for the information Dave. And thanks for providing the search link, I always forget about the search link. I had heard/read that starting from seed is less desirable, but I figured since I got in the seed I would use it- and give myself some time to get the bed set up. I figure if by the time the bed is ready to go, if I'm not happy with what I got from seed, I can get crowns of another sort at the time. I'm patient, and figure I probably won't see anything till at least 2020. I also figured that the wet area in the sun would be the best spot, but I wasn't sure. It's big enough that I can probably expand it a bit more as time and need go on. That drive is about 200 feet long, but I figure the usable area is more around 150 feet long- and of that I figured starting out with a 20-40 foot long patch was reasonable. Maybe I'll end up with two patches, one from seed starts, and one from crowns. Reason I figured around 60-80 pound a year is because my husband and I can go through 30-40 pound a year. I pick it up by the 10 pound bag when the local farm starts selling it in the spring. Now that I have mom and sis living with us, and they love asparagus too, I figured the increase. But then, if it were free out of my garden instead of buying it, we might end up eating more than we currently do. So maybe 60-80 pounds is too conservative an estimate.