From seed to harvest
About Gourmet Seed
Gourmet Seed is an independent garden guide and shop for home gardeners. Our growing guides draw on university extension and seed-company sources, and we sell gear they call for, shipped by the brand or distributor named on each product page.
What you will find here
Every season brings the same question: when do I plant this where I live? The answer turns on your frost dates, the crop and the soil temperature it needs, and the people who study it for a living don't always agree. Our guides put those answers in one place, with the sources listed on each guide, so you can make the call for your own garden.
- Crop guides. When to sow where you live, how deep and how far apart, and when to harvest, with dates counted from frost dates, not zones.
- Crop family pages. Brassicas, nightshades, cucurbits and chicories: what each family's crops share, from timing to rotation and pests.
- Companion planting. Pairings to grow together and to keep apart, each taken from an extension service.
Crops come first. From there the site grows into all things gardening: soil, water, supports, tools and the jobs each season brings.
How a guide is made
Every number has a source.
56 grow guides are built on university extension and seed-company pages, and each lists its sources on the page. Every guide passes the five steps below before it goes live.
The trace standard, in plain words
- Start from the people who study it. Land-grant university extension services come first, for planting depth, spacing, timing, soil temperature and pests. Seed companies' growing notes cover days to maturity and the traits of a variety.
- Keep a copy of each source. We save every page a guide draws on, so any number in it can be checked later against the page it came from.
- Trace every number. Each date, depth, spacing and temperature is matched to the line in its saved source that gives it. A number that cannot be traced does not go in the guide.
- Show where sources disagree. When sources give different numbers, you see the full range. Planting dates count from your frost dates, never from your zone.
- Review before it goes live. Each guide lists its sources, is reviewed before it goes live and shows the date it was last updated.
How we choose gear
The shop starts from the guides. A product earns a place when a guide calls for the job it does: starting seeds indoors, holding up tomato vines, watering at the soil line.
We look first for brands and distributors that ship orders directly from US warehouses. We write each description from the maker's own listing, with specs as the maker states them, and leave out ratings, rankings and promises about yields or health.
Buying guides apply the same rules to one garden job per page.
What the shop sells, and how
- Gear for the jobs in our guides. We sell gear such as hoses, sprinklers and water timers, pruners, loppers and a harvest knife, a reel mower and grass shears for the lawn, grow lights and liquid plant food, each from the brand or distributor named on its product page.
- Shipped by the company named on the page. Each product page names the brand or distributor that ships it and its own return terms. An order from two suppliers arrives in two boxes.
- No seed in the shop. Seed packets are not in our shop. When a guide links one on Amazon, the page notes our commission in one short line above the first link.
- Nothing made by us. We do not make our own products, and no brand pays to be listed.
More from Gourmet Seed
Beyond the crop guides
Tools and pages built from the same named sources. Each links here once it is live.
-
Live now
Frost dates by ZIP code
Enter a ZIP code for your last spring and first fall frost dates, from NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals at the nearest weather station, with sowing dates for each crop.
-
Live now
Planting schedules by zone
A month by month vegetable calendar by USDA zone. The zone only finds your page: every date on it counts from NOAA frost dates at named weather stations.
-
Live now
Buying guides, one job each
Starting seeds, holding up tomato vines, watering at the soil: what each job needs, then a few picks with the maker named.
-
Live now
A first garden
Five crops to start with, and when to sow each.
What this site is not
We are not connected to the seed store that once used this name.
We are not a review site: no ratings, no scores and no sponsored posts. And there is no personal byline. Guides carry the name Gourmet Seed.
Write to us
We reply within 48 hours.
- Spotted a number that looks wrong? Name the page and the line, and we will check it against the source.
- Want a crop or a garden job covered? Tell us which one.
- Asking about an order? Include the order number.
Start with a crop
Pick a guide, check your frost dates, then gather what the guide calls for.