No. 44: A little wistful

Our entire team is catching up on forgotten tasks and postponed details. Products thought lost are resurfacing (sometimes too late) and there's a little more time for each other. Our plant team is still working at full speed; we'll be busy with your plant orders until the end of June. It's extra busy because Anouk, the linchpin of the plant team, has to be home sick for a while. Our evening team is also thinning out, as students are switching to hospitality work elsewhere... Thus, an exciting, but very pleasant period is coming to an end with both laughter and tears.

I used to not understand why fellow SeedSavers around the world were hard to reach during their busy season. They had and still have to focus on one mission: to make thousands of garden enthusiasts happy with rare seeds and plants in just a few months. Meanwhile, we are experiencing it ourselves first-hand; we already need a relatively large number of people for the many tasks involved in maintaining and building up our assortment. I simply do not have the budget for a communications team. Currently, the two of us are working to clear the email backlog. 5% of your emails have gone unanswered, which isn't a bad score yet. As every year, we will not leave any message unanswered. The phone line will also reopen soon until early March 2016...!

In 10 days, I hope to have caught up completely with overdue emails. As we dislike twiddling our thumbs, I invite you to share this season's results with us. Every year, some batches of seeds (despite us sowing all varieties ourselves year-round) fail due to low germination rates, so it's possible that something similar has happened to you. Have plants died due to transport damage or insufficient rooting? Always report it! We would like to hear your complaints in a timely manner so that we can continuously improve our quality.

Unfortunately, every year there are a few customers who remain dissatisfied. Sometimes, anger even arises due to incorrect expectations. Why am I telling you this? Because such customers often report their anger on forums, but satisfied customers are simply satisfied and do not express that on the internet. Of course, we would appreciate it (if only for the score) if you would take the trouble to report your positive findings on, for example, checkwebwinkel.nl and (English-language) davesgarden.com or as a review on our Facebook page

In the previous Newsletter, we mentioned that one of our growers of tomato and pepper plants had suddenly fallen ill. Fortunately, he is now back home and slowly recovering. His wife had to run the entire business by herself and even found time to provide us with a fantastic assortment of Pepper Plants (she had already delivered the tomatoes)! So, we can launch our annual offer (so incredibly popular with you). Grown with love and organically, no single variety is standard, some we don't even have available as seeds! Each package contains as many different plants as possible, a harvest full of discoveries! We are putting together different packages, which you can pre-order, with delivery in the coming weeks. The ratio between the numbers of peppers and tomatoes will fluctuate as stock progresses. Due to time constraints, not every plant is named; let yourself be surprised!

I propose these 3 packages to you:

1. Starter Package Tomatoes and Peppers (total 20 plants)
   worth € 35.00........ now € 25.00
2. Standard Package Tomatoes and Peppers (total 40 plants)
   worth € 70.00........ now € 45.00
3. Top Package Tomatoes and Peppers (total 60 plants)
   worth € 105.00...... now € 59.00

How can you fit many tomato plants in the strangest places? This year's bestseller was undoubtedly the "Topsy Turvy" Tomato Planter. Growing tomatoes upside down is going to become a real craze among my customers, partly due to the very favourable price.

Only a few packages left (if you come by, you can choose the bulbs yourself) and then they're all gone: whoever plants these bulbs, tubers or rhizomes in June can enjoy their blooms in late summer. We could replant them ourselves, but we'd rather let our customers benefit from a 50% end-of-season discount. Choose from various price ranges in our "Full of Bulbs" packages.

Do you have an extra-large space available? I'm offering a special discount for larger gardens: 1 package worth €200.00 now for the special price of €89.00 (maximum 3 packages per customer!)

I've already sent dozens of packages, and there's still a good amount left to go: Known and unknown varieties: Ulluco, Oca, multiplier onions, shallots, Madeira Vine, wild potato, Crosne, Indian potato... all easy-to-grow bulb and tuber vegetables. Around this time, we pot them to extend the selling season. Before then, I'm giving away a special deal: a nice and varied package (I'll also include some special potatoes) worth €40.00, which I'm offering for €19.50

Another small corner of seed potatoes fills my cold store. Growers and other customers responded generously with orders; now for the final push. Once again: a late-planted potato often yields a nice harvest of "new" potatoes in September, a discovery for many. You can also try this "trick" around this time with broad beans, peas and shelling peas: normally a spring starter, but sown at the end of June, these crops yield a nice autumn harvest 9 out of 10 times.

The prices for this offer are very favorable:

409055.1 4-7 kg (value ± € 20.00) € 9.50

409055.2 7-14 kg (value ± € 40.00) € 19.50

409055.3 17-35 kg (value ± € 100.00) € 39.50

409055.4 35-70 kg (value ± € 200.00) € 69.50

We store them as cool as possible; the plants are in good condition, and you can plant them until the end of June. The 'Grolim' variety is suitable for "white" (with covering soil) or "green" cultivation (without covering soil). Be quick, because experience tells us that this offer will sell out fast.

30 plants (value € 26.70) now for € 14.90

Although we have experienced remarkably cool months so far, thanks to the continuous north wind, spots are already becoming available in the vegetable garden for a second round. During this period, it is favorable to sow beans. Especially when the temperature rises above 20°C, they will germinate well and grow nicely. Some fast-growing fruiting vegetables such as zucchinis and sprint varieties of pumpkins can also still be sown. Most leafy vegetables and root vegetables can also still go into the ground. So, there are still plenty of opportunities... the time for the hammock will surely come!