The Garden Seed Inventory: An Inventory of Seed Catalogs, Listing All Non-Hybrid Vegetable and Garden Seeds Still Available in the United States

If you are looking for non-hybrid vegetable seed sources, this is the book for you. It lists vegetables, their characteristics and where their seed may be obtained. I own a copy and have spent hours enjoying it. I don't consider myself a zealot, just an avid gardener who is interested in preserving the vegetable gene pool, and trying some old varieties. I was interested in finding disease and insect resistant varieties. If your library has this book you can take a look at it before buying to be sure it is what you are looking for. I had to have my own copy.

Printed on the inside of the cover there are praises for "Garden Seed Inventory," and rightly so, for it is a valuable, "one of a kind" catalogue of all the vegetable seeds offered by garden seed companies in North America. Dr. Harlan, retired professor of plant genetics (there's a clue for you) states that the book is for "enthusiastic gardeners, plant breeders and those interested in the preservation of seed stocks." Now I think of myself as an enthusiastic amateur gardener, but it will take a whole lot more than my enthusiasm to really make this tome useful. This is a book that a professor of plant genetics should have. This is the book that the owners of one of the 255 seed companies listed in the book should have, and this is the book that a seed zealot would have, but not your normal `enthusiastic gardener'. Don't get me wrong, this book is extremely valuable to the right person. As Wendell Berry said, "The saving of seeds has become a matter of the greatest importance, for we are on the verge of losing the genetic diversity of our food crops.". Over the last 20 years, because of mega-transnational corporations buying out the small seed companies, there has been a significant loss of local or regional varieties. Here's why; when a large corporation gets into the seed business they have to cover a large market, so they breed for a variety of vegetables plants that can grow anywhere across North America (hybrid) and dump the regional plants. In 1981, the first edition of "Garden Seed Inventory" there were 493 tomatoes (red) varieties available; by 1998 there were 108 still available (78% drop). Then again, in the same period, there were 546 new varieties brought to market. What this book is really about is saving our vegetable heritage and assuring genetic preservation. It is the seed squealer of horticulture books. It will tell you which varieties are about to be dropped and it also helps you find regional varieties that you can plant, thus preserve the lineage. It is a great tool for those that are ready to move from enthusiastic gardener to zealous, non-hybrid vegetable seed gardener. However, for the rest of us Americans, we will probably plant our gardens with the seeds that were on the rack at the local stores and when they come up, if they come up, enthusiastically smile. Highly Recommended for the zealot, conditionally recommended for the rest of us.