Collections
Gardens, chosen and priced together
A collection is a small set of varieties that want the same soil, the same water and the same season — so you can plant the whole thing at once and have it work. Every one costs less than buying the same packets separately, and arrives with a single card telling you what goes in the ground when.
Photo — bees working a mixed border, midsummer, shot low
The Pollinator Garden
For a sunny strip you want alive from June to frost
Six flowers chosen to bloom in sequence rather than all at once, so there is never a fortnight with nothing open. Direct-sown after your last frost, no starting indoors. Bees first, then butterflies, then the goldfinches come for the seed heads if you leave them standing.
Zinnia · Cosmos · Calendula · Sunflower · Milkweed · Purple Coneflower
$19 6 packets · $21 bought separately
Photo — a first raised bed, seedlings up, hose coiled beside it
Easy First Garden
For a first season, or a first bed in a new place
Eight vegetables that forgive a beginner. Every one goes straight into the ground — no seed trays, no grow lights, no transplanting, which is where most first gardens actually fail. Sown on time, this feeds two people through a summer from a bed about four feet by eight.
Bush Bean · Radish · Beet · Lettuce · Carrot · Cucumber · Dill · Zinnia
$24 8 packets · $27 bought separately
Photo — cut herbs on a board beside a kitchen window, winter light
The Kitchen Window
For someone with a sunny sill and no garden at all
Five herbs that will grow indoors through the winter in a south-facing window, in whatever you have — a coffee can with a hole punched in it does the job. Cut them regularly and they come back thicker. This is the collection we sell to apartment dwellers and to people who say they can’t grow anything.
Genovese Basil · Cilantro · Dill · Parsley · Chives
$14 5 packets · $16 bought separately
Photo — an armful of cut stems on a porch step, scissors, jar of water
The Cutting Garden
For anyone who wants flowers in the house all summer
Seven flowers picked for stem length, vase life and the fact that cutting them makes the plant produce more. Sown in one row along a fence, this fills a jar a week from June onward and keeps going as long as you keep cutting.
Bouquet Zinnia · Sensation Cosmos · Calendula · Nasturtium · Sunflower · Danish Flag Poppy · Bachelor’s Button
$22 7 packets · $24.50 bought separately
Sending it to someone else
Any collection can go as a gift
Tick the box at checkout and we’ll pack it in a plain kraft box with a ribbon, leave the prices off the packing slip, and write your note on a card by hand. It ships straight to them. There’s no charge for it — seed is a good present and we’d rather more of it went out that way.
If you want it to arrive at a particular time — a birthday, or the week before their last frost — tell us in the note field and we’ll hold it and send it then.
Photo — kraft box open on a table, packets and a handwritten card
Why we sell them this way
Chosen to go in together
Same sun, same water, same sowing window. Most first gardens fail because six varieties bought separately wanted six different things.
Cheaper than the parts
Every collection is priced below the same packets bought one at a time. The individual total is printed next to the price so you can check it.
One card, one plan
Each collection ships with a single card showing what to sow when, in order, for your zone — not five sets of instructions to reconcile.
Same seed, same testing
Nothing in a collection is old stock or overage. It is the same germination-tested lot we sell as single packets, with the same date printed on it.
Coming with the season
Join the list below and we’ll tell you the week each of these opens.
The Fall Garden
Cool-season greens and roots sown in late summer for an autumn crop.
Opens July
The Tea Garden
Herbs grown to be dried and steeped rather than cooked with.
Opens spring 2027
First Seeds
Big seed that comes up fast, for planting with a child who will lose interest by Thursday.
Opens spring 2027
The Seed Keeper’s Box
Open-pollinated varieties selected to save seed from and plant again next year.
Opens spring 2027
Questions about collections
Can I swap a packet for something else?
Not through the cart, but write to us before we pack and we will usually do it. If you already grow zinnias by the yard and want something else in their place, say so — we would rather send you a collection you will plant entirely.
Is a collection actually cheaper?
Yes, and we print the individual total beside the price so you don’t have to take our word for it. The packets are full size and identical to the ones sold singly.
When should a collection be planted?
Each one ships with a card giving the order and timing, and the product page states the sowing window. Most are sown after your last spring frost. Order early if you want it in hand before then — we ship year round and seed keeps perfectly well in a cool cupboard until you’re ready.
How much ground does one cover?
The product page gives a figure for each. As a rough guide, a vegetable collection suits a bed around four feet by eight, and a flower collection suits a single sunny row or strip. There is generally seed left over in the packet, which is normal and worth keeping.
Can I send one as a gift?
Any of them. Tick the gift box at checkout and we pack it in a kraft box with a ribbon, leave prices off the slip, and write your note by hand. No extra charge. Tell us in the note field if you want it held for a particular date.
Free planting calendar
Know exactly when to sow, for your zone
Give us your ZIP code and we’ll send a one-page calendar with the sowing window for every crop we carry. We’ll also tell you the week each new collection opens.
REPLACE THIS GROUP with your email provider’s form block (ZIP + email + “Send my calendar”).
One or two emails a month. Unsubscribe any time.
On buying seed by the garden
Most people who give up on gardening didn’t fail at growing. They failed at choosing. A cart with eleven varieties in it, picked one at a time from a catalogue of four hundred, is a cart full of plants that want different soil temperatures and different amounts of water and go in the ground six weeks apart — and by the time that becomes obvious it is July and half the bed is bare.
A collection is our answer to that. We do the choosing, we say plainly who it is for and what it needs, and we put the whole plan on one card. It is not a discount bin and it is not last year’s seed. It is the same tested lots we sell singly, grouped the way we would plant them ourselves.
If none of them fits your ground, buy the packets separately — the departments are one click away and nothing here is trying to talk you out of that. But if you want a bed that works the first year, start with one of these and add to it next season.