I spent the day selling t-shirts and books at the Toronto Seedy Saturday event this weekend. It really is growing bigger and better every year (see a pic here). The aisles were packed with excited gardeners from 10 am on and I got to meet a lot of great people, talk gardening (my voice is hoarse), and get rid of extra seeds (gotta make room for the new). Even though I only had a few short minutes to run around and shop, I still managed to bring home the motherlode.

What I Got:

• Bush Bean ‘Royal Burgundy‘
• Bush Bean ‘Sequoia‘
• Eggplant ‘Turkish Orange‘ – I’m really excited about these. The fruit is both round and bright orange!
• Eggplant ‘Rosa Bianca‘ – These were a trade with Brenda. Lavender coloured fruit with rosy stripes. I’m not an eggplant fan and yet I managed to bring home two varieties!
• Sweet Pepper ‘Pepperoncini‘ – I’m assuming this plant was named after the elongated fruit. Should be interesting.
• Hot Pepper ‘Fish‘ – This is my most anticipated plant. Both the fruit and the foliage is variegated cream and green. The fruit then change to orange with brown stripes and finally red. It is listed as a pre-1870’s African American heirloom. Pretty cool!
• Tomato ‘ Black Pear‘ – I’m thinking I should have been less impulsive and gone for ‘Black Cherry‘ as they are 65 days and ‘Black Pear’ are 80 days.
• Tomato ‘Zapotec Pleated‘ – I’ve been meaning to grow this variety for a few years so I thought I would finally get to it.
• Tomato ‘Costoluto Genovese‘ – Collette talked me into this one. She had only recently ordered the seeds online and the Green Gardener’s table was selling them for pennies. I got 8 packs of seeds for $1.50!
• Orach
• Mexican Marigold (Tagetes minuta)
• Tarragon – A trade from a kind woman who said the original seeds came from her neighbour. And now I will start these at the community garden.
• Buckwheat – We have a spot at the community garden that could use this.
• Virgin’s Bower (Clematis virginiana) – A native vine that is good for dry soils.
• Beebalm (Monarda species)
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• A native corn and sunflower mix – Gift from one of the Native plant people.
• Sunny Native Plant Mix – Gift from same guy. Yellow cornflower, grey headed coneflower, sweet brown-eyed susan, tall coreopsis.
• Organic Popcorn Kernals – Grown locally. The kernals are a really beautiful peachy shade.
• “100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants for Canadian Gardeners” by Lorraine Johnson – A book.

I am regreting that I did not purchase ‘Fatalii‘ hot pepper seeds.

See also: Seedy Saturday Toronto 2005, 2004,2003