Hi arkseven, First off, I wanted to sincerely thank you for your service to our country. I feel it is not expressed nearly enough. Secondly, Congratulations on your upcoming and well deserved, I'm sure, retirement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine. Thirdly, I can send small amounts of different tomatoes. Some are saved from 2008 and 2009. Some I got in a 2009 swap (and are more than I will use). Some are older commercial seeds but Hopefully you would get 'some' germination out of them and end up with a 'variety' of tomatoes to grow. I also received in more dill seeds than I can use, so can share some of those too. Please have Mrs. Arkseven look over my seed list and see if there might be any flowers or shrubs she might be interested in. Lastly, I think it is wonderful that you will be doing a Community Garden for others and wish you well. It is very thoughtful of you to include the Placard signs showing the seed contributors, and thanks for the link. What a great use for old gift cards. Just drop me an email and I will get things together...on me...no bubblie or postage necessary. Sue...aka chemocurl

Over on the Wintersowing forum we have an annual Newbie Seed Give-away that one very dedicated poster organizes on her own. It's called the Newbie Seed Project and it's done by Bakemom (Karen). If anyone from your group sends in an envelope, mailing address and stamps, she'll send back a package of 15 or more types of seeds. She'd welcome the donation of whatever seeds you have to spare, and she turns them around and gives them to others. She is accepting seeds donations at this point, and will start accepting requests sometime soon. She sends out whatever she has and doesn't take any requests for specific seeds because she sends out to over 300 people each year. MIght be just what your group could use. Wintersowing is a great method to check out, too, by the way. Martha

I have not been on here recently due to illness and Christmas chaos. I am starting to do better, and want to pick up where I left off. I have been furiously filling seed packs (one can do that while laid up), and am almost ready to do a mailing. I will be taking up the offers of respondents here. **REMEMBER** If you, or someone you know, is in need, please contact me for a Care Package. The best way is directly at Robin282mt@verizon.net Thanks so much to all of you, Robin

Seeds are tested and good to sell for a year. When the year is up, they can still sell them if they re-test them for viability and if they meet certain percent standards. They then can repackage them with the new date. Many seeds are not fully harvested and processed yet for the year, so some seeds are probably those that were grown for this year's sale, then retested and relabelled. I'm not sure if all state's have the same seed laws. And you can always buy seed online from the major companies if you can't find what you want in the stores, although some haven't replenished certain kinds yet because they didn't get the new seed crop in.