Yup.
You read that right.
I’ve ordered seeds for next year’s garden already.
There’s a reason for that, though. For starters, we can already see how things went with direct sowing in the fall, and how they’re doing now. So while these are for our 2026 garden, some will be planted this year, before the ground freezes.
Another reason is, MI Gardener has refused to raise their prices making them more affordable, even when taking the dollar difference into account.
As low as their prices already were, they also have a 20% off sale, and free shipping to boot.
I took advantage of that.
Well. Just for the seeds. Everything in their site is on sale for a week, but ordering things bulkier than seeds over the border is not something I plan to do.
When I did the winter sowing, I made seed mixes using up a lot of our seeds that were starting to get old. All our radish seeds, spinach, a summer squash seed mix I’d accidentally bought extras of a few years ago, beets, Swiss Chard, etc. were all finished off when I made our seed mixes for the winter sowing.
Here is what I ordered today. I ended up taking three screen caps of the entire order, to get all the little thumbnail images.
Borage: this is an herb I’ve been meaning to get for a long time. Many uses, and a great pollinator attractor.
Kandy Korn Sweet Corn: I have the super short season Yukon Chief for next year already. Having a longer season variety means we can have a longer season for corn, and no overlap on pollination times, so we can still save seeds.
Fordhook Giant and Rainbow Swiss Chard: the same types that I finished off in my winter sowing seed mixes, these will be planted in the fall.
Giant Nobel and American Spinach: while I am looking to save seed from what we have now (we didn’t eat much spinach this year; they bolted too quickly), these are new varieties that I hope will do well. They will be planted in the fall.
White Egg Turnip: all our turnip seeds were used up, so I will be trying this interesting looking variety for our fall planting.
White Icicle Radish: these will be sown in the fall, but not for their pods, though I will probably allow at least one go to seed. My younger daughter likes the daikon radish, which was sold out. This is a smaller relative, and I think she will enjoy these. I recall seeing a variety of radish sold specifically for their large seed pods that I’ll keep an eye out for as well.
Spring Blush Pea: a new variety to plant in the fall, along with other peas we still have.
Bi-Colour Pear Gourd: my “for fun” item.
Purple Vienne Kohlrabi: I used up the last of our old kohlrabi seeds to plant in the fall, and most of the ones that are growing now are the purple ones. Definitely doing to plant more in the fall!
Red Beard Bunching onion: I’ve tried a red variety of bunching onion twice before, and they didn’t succeed. I want to try again with this variety. For bulb onions, we will have our own seed.
Assorted Beet Mix: I planted the last of our beet seeds in the fall, and have the most robust beets growing right now. I decided to go with a mix this time. I like variety!
Green Scallop Benning’s Squash: we’ve got white scallop squash, but they don’t seem to like germinating here. We have more seeds for next year, but I want to try a green variety, too.
Gill’s Golden Pippin Squash: a new and versatile variety to try. I have lots of different types of winter squash seeds, still, both large and small. I like variety!
Tri-colour Green Bean mix: we have a number of different beans left, but the first bush beans we ever grew were a tri-colour mix, and they were the most successful we’d ever grown.
Rainbow Mix Carrot: to plant in the fall. We still have a couple of varieties of carrot seeds left, so we could also start some in the spring, as space opens up, too.
White Vienna Kohlrabi: of our old seeds, it looks like only a couple of the white kohlrabi germinated. These will be planted in the fall. I think they will fair better, not in a mix.
Yellow Scallop Squash: because I like variety, and I really like patty pan squash!
While I will probably pick up other seeds for next year between now and spring, between this order and what I still have in my seed bin, we don’t actually need anything else, besides things like potatoes. It may still be July but, with fall planting in mind, plus working on getting more beds either reworked or made new, I hope to have a larger garden next year, and get a head start on it, this year. After all, almost half of our growing season is already gone!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
I didn’t realize some folks grow the radishes for their seed pods, I have the white icicles growing now, but it’s so hot they very quickly went to seed. Will have to try those pods. I also love the daikon, excellent as a simple sweet pickle, but have none this year because I didn’t realize I was out of seed. Better get on that!
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I didn’t know either, until just a few years ago. I have a homesteading type book, and in the gardening section, it said that people used to grow them only for their pods, not their roots, and that they were usually pickled. Eating the roots and not the pods is apparently a much more modern thing. Ever since I read that, I’ve been wanting to try it, and this year I can! I should be able to harvest enough larger bods to be able to try pickling them.
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