Bountiful Gardens is part of Ecology Action of the Mid-peninsula (www.growbiointensive.org), a  non-profit that for 40 years has been helping save the poorest third of the world by reforming their agriculture to sustainable agriculture. When we started Bountiful Gardens nearly 30 years ago their was little consciousness of untreated, open-pollinated heirloom seeds. We have helped change that.

We honestly believe that our seeds are among the best you can grow in these times of climate change. We seek out the finest, best-germinating seeds available - often they are organic, sometimes they aren't,. Increasingly we offer what we think every seed should  be, and that is growbiointensively grown, that is, organically grown under a system that improves and optomizes the soil.

For nearly 30 years we have done our best to provide the highest-quality service, and every packet we send is filled by hand. Our pledge is that we use the best seeds available. We’re doing our darndest to try and preserve our precious remaining soil fertility all over the world, and by purchasing from us you are directly helping our cause.

We remain small, frugal, and personal in our approach to business. Everyone here helps design the catalog, suggests products and ways to better serve you. We are responsive to comments and suggestions from our users - you are part of us and you own us (we are a 501(c)3 not-for-profit business).

What’s all the Fuss About Heirlooms, GMOs, Hybrids, Open-Pollinated..... 

And What Do All those Words Really Mean?

We helped start the fuss 27 years ago, when we founded a seed company that refused to carry hybrids so that people could save their own seed. Over the years, we have introduced gardeners to heirloom varieties that might otherwise have been lost. It’s a complicated issue, and we get lots of questions from concerned gardeners.

 Here is a brief explanation:

TRADITIONAL PLANT BREEDING often starts by pollinating a plant with pollen from a related, but slightly different, variety. Then, over several generations, the plants are selected for certain traits. In this way, broccoli, for example, became different from the tough wild plants that are its ancestors.

As people grow and select their best plants for seed, the results gradually become more predictable. Eventually every time you plant that kind of seed, the plants give similar results. The seed has been stabilized as an OPEN-POLLINATED VARIETY. The animal equivalent would be poodles, or golden retrievers—you know what to expect in looks and, to some extent, behavior, because they are purebred. Individuals have slight variations within the “family resemblance.”

HEIRLOOM SEEDS are open-pollinated varieties that have been around a long time; the most widely-accepted time is 50 years. Since they were bred before chemical pesticides were common, they are often well-adapted to home garden and organic cultivation. Farmers and gardeners are breeding new open-pollinated varieties today that will be the heirlooms of the future. We carry many heirloom varieties, some of which have their date of introduction in the description.

HYBRID SEEDS are seeds from the first generation of a cross between two related varieties. The cross is made by traditional breeding techniques, like brushing the flower of one with the pollen from another. The plants you get when you buy hybrid seeds are very uniform and predictable, which is why farmers use them (they might be ready to harvest the same day, for example.) However, the next generation of plants won’t be so predictable because it is not a stabilized variety.  Hybrids are like mutts, whose puppies might all be different. The bad thing about hybrids is not how they are made; it’s that the particular cross used to make each one is a trade secret belonging to a certain company or breeder. Hybrids make gardeners dependent on the companies who produce the seed. Hybrid seeds must be labeled “hybrid” or “F1” next to the variety name, and are more expensive than open-pollinated varieties. We don’t carry hybrids. We feel that food crops are a common heritage we all share, not a set of trade secrets.

GMO VARIETIES are not the result of traditional plant breeding, but of procedures in a laboratory. Instead of using pollen from another plant, technicians can insert genes that don’t even come from plants—they might come from a bacteria or a fish, for example. The process costs millions of dollars, and the GMO seeds are sold to big agribusiness farms who sign a contract with the GMO company. The main GMO crops are corn, soy, peanuts, and canola, used for processed food that ends up in the supermarket.  The danger to home gardens is not from the seeds we buy; it’s from pollen drifting in the wind. Home gardeners who live near big factory farms might want to learn how to hand-pollinate their corn.

TREATED SEEDS are coated with pesticide or fungicide chemicals after harvest. We don’t carry any treated seed.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC SEED has to come from farms inspected by the USDA’s Organic Certification program. They can’t use chemicals and must meet other regulatory requirements. The seed can’t be GMO. Seeds grown organically but not certified by the USDA program are designated GB, B, or N in this catalog.