Deanna, one of my favorite CT home nurseries moved to Maine a few years ago. Carol's Collectibles She's in Swanville now. She did focus mostly on woodies but it was one of my go-to places for many years.

I agree that good local nurseries are getting harder and harder to find. I still have excellent sources in CT for woody plants but I drive all over southern New England in May just to get the unusual annuals I like to use in my mixed containers. When it comes to perennials, it seems everybody has the same plants probably because they all use the same growers. For plant collectors like me the trend is unsettling.

I grow organically and that adds another layer to trying to find plants. Especially for vegetables and herbs, I just won't grow and eat anything that is not organically grown, so I've resigned myself to either growing my own from seed, or driving almost an hour away to a larger independent nursery that offers organic vegetable/herb starts, but at quite a premium. I also found a local farm that sells organic vegetable starts, but it cost me $75. the last time I bought starts for my small 25x30ft vegetable garden. This year I grew from seed.

I find it easy enough to grow from seed, having worked out the kinks over the years, but, I still haven't mastered starting everything at the right time, so I'm not having to hold over the seedlings waiting for the right time to plant. Springs have become so unreliable in one way or another, that the 'dates to start' seeds seem to not apply any more. I really don't enjoy having to repot up to larger sizes rather than getting a small seedling into the ground at the right time, which is the least labor intensive way to do it. And I won't grow something like onions from seed, because you just about have to start them in January and take care of them for months.

The thing I am now concerned about is the availability of good produce at the market. This year, I am finding less available and less that is in the kind of condition, size, ripeness, etc. that I used to take for granted 10 years ago. I can't help thinking growers are having problems with climate change that is only going to get worse. So, I am attempting to recommit to growing more of my own.

As far as perennials go, luckily I have a mature enough garden, that I'm usually only looking for a couple of things that are different from one season to the next. Shrubs the same. I don't normally buy a lot of annuals and I can manage to find enough to satisfy me locally. I've cut back on containers. Rose though, I grow and add a few every couple of years, and that I will only buy mail order, bare root, from a well respected grower.

Defrost, I have no long-term experience with the gardening world as I just began gardening about 10 years ago. It's sad to see it change so. Especially sad to go to three or four nurseries and see them all carrying the same things. I wanted a particular very short dianthus, 'Tiny Rubies,' which was available last year. It was nowhere to be found this year, except I managed to find a nursery that had overwintered three from last season. Maybe they didn't sell well, but it's still frustrating for all the nurseries to seem like they sell identical varieties each year.

One note on basil: I bought the 4" basil from the grocery store (I think it was only $3) and it is a good deal because they must have germinated several seedlings in that one pot. a 6-pack is generally about 6 plants, but I believe these 4" pots actually have more than six stalks in them. Kind of surprising. Check out the 4" pots where you are and see if they're multiple seedlings.

Sue, I'll try to check of Carol's place. She's pretty far up the coast, but occasionally we go there.

Prairie, I'm not cutting back on containers, but I am getting sticker shock. I am spending a fortune on annuals in containers. Makes me wonder if I should cut back. They are just so doggone expensive. I got a 6-pack of petunias cheaply, but they have to be deadheaded. Since I enjoy that, maybe I need to switch to old-fashioned annuals that all come in 6 packs! I brought a shade container in over the winter and was careless with tending it. Not going to make the same mistake this year. That stuff is too expensive. This winter they'll get attention!

I went back to the nursery with the no-root plants and nicely talked to one of the owners. He was nice, but the basic answer was they feel stuck on their end because the plants in their production houses need more time to develop roots when customers are clamoring to buy. Kind of rock and hard place. Next year I'll check the roots before I buy and forego the plant if it looks like this year's plants. Then I'll head to my new favorite nursery a bit farther south!

I bought a pot of grocery store basil since I needed some for a recipe and figured I would plant it. But, I left the plastic on too long and a mold/fungus developed. The entire plant went quickly. There are at least two Facebook gardening groups I joined. One is by Pine Tree seeds and the other is Gardening in NH. There was a recent post showing annuals someone had grown from seed. She did a terrific job. I have a lot more to learn about growing from seed. But, I'm lucky, some things volunteer in my garden and I'm not sure where the dark purple petunia came from. It's not a color I think I bought. I had a variety of white alyssum originally bought as an expensive Proven Winner that self seeded. I don't think any survived last winter but this year I let a dark reddish purple annual poppy take over that bed. One key if you can ever find the information is hardy annuals. Those will self sow. I usually have borage and calendula in the vegetable garden as well as dill and cilantro. You might want to check out the winter sowing technique and thread here on Houzz. Good luck! - Donna

i've been doing winter sowing for years, but the problem is the late start for decorative annuals. Especially with our longer cold temps for the last two years, the container annuals I could wintersow from seed (alyssum, etc.) would be so tiny until things warmed up. What I should definitely do this year is try some of them as an experiment and note how long it takes them to flower based on temps. This year my six-pack alyssum and petunia from the nurseries refused to grow any more until temps went to upper 70s. I STINK at growing seeds using lights or indoors. They always die somehow. I was hoping some impatience would self-seed, but they are a really warm annual, so I'm sure the seeds died over winter. I love my calendula, verbena bonariensis, and poppies that self-seed! Need to find more self-seeding annuals, for sure, defrost. Thanks for reminding me.

Hi Deanna - I grow from seed when I can. It does take some experience to work the kinks out. I had trouble in the beginning. What I did learn from that was that potting soil is important. I tried the cheapest one and that was a disaster. A light set up is great - but you do have to check the seedlings a couple of times a day to make sure nothing is drying out. You also can't water too much either. You let the top dry out just a little before you water again. The third thing that made a big difference for me, was setting up an oscillating fan on the seedlings. This kept disease at bay, helps them dry out and it helps to strengthen the stems of the seedlings.

But, the problem I am still working on is timing. If you start the seeds too soon and then the weather doesn't cooperate, you can't put them out yet. So you're holding them. If you keep them in the six packs too long, they're signaled to slow down growth, which you don't want, so then ideally you would repot them up to the next size pot. That is way too much work for me, so I try to start seeds later. This year that didn't even help. [g] . It was still too cold too long. But I imagine if you plan on growing from seed every year, then you get it settled and figure out which seeds work best for you and what the timing needs to be.

Winter sowing was great, but, for any warm season plants, it wasn't worth it. Like tomatoes and peppers which are my main crop in summer. And finding the containers and prepping them was fun the first two times we did it, but that wore off. [g] Plus we don't really drink much milk.

Self seeding annuals - I like some of those. I have Oriental Poppies, those reseed a little. Lunaria - Honesty - my favorite, reseeds every year gently. I've never had to reseed and I have a good patch of them every year. Columbine reseeds well, but I find you don't maintain any of the hybrids you try, they all revert, but I still like them. Alyssum has been great for me. I buy about 4 packs of them and I can sow them in place, either early spring or in the previous fall too. I don't have to prepare anything I can just sprinkle them where I want them and in the spring I just water religiously until they sprout. Or leave them over winter and get what I get. Portulaca is another one I can sprinkle where I want them in the fall and get a fairly good result. Dill and cilantro, and parsley like Donna - I get a lot from these without any effort from me. I just let them go to seed, which requires leaving them in place when their bloom is past, long enough for them to drop seed. Cleome is another one that reseeds well. I bought seeds once and every year I have a good amount of them and I just pull them from where I don't want them. Cosmos - always reseeds without any effort from me.

I buy Pentas, Calibrachoas, Wave petunias once in awhile, cupheas for hummers, begonias, impatiens, verbenas and lantana sometimes. I bought fuschias this year, which I don't usually. Once in awhile a coleus or a hybrid caladium for a shade pot. That's about it.

LOL Prairiemoon, my husband made a two shelf light stand for me with old office flourescent lights on chains that could be adjusted. We could barely fit it into place due to the size and doorways so it is forever resident in our second floor bathroom! I have the lights on timers. I have thought if he could saw it apart so it was stackable, I could move it elsewhere but elsewhere would probably mean the back of our oversize garage that stays about 50 degrees in winter which isn't warm enough. By having it in the bathroom I'm guaranteed a nearby water source and checking at least twice a day.

What first started me on growing seedlings under lights was a book called 'The New Seed Starters Handbook' by Nancy Bubel. She thought that a bathroom was a most excellent place for a light setup, since the idea was to put them wherever you have the room.

Currently, I haven't started seeds in years because the *(&*&(* mice eat them. I tried moving the lights out of the basement to the dining room, and did get a warm, fuzzy feeling when the cats were standing (laying?) guard on either side. However, there isn't a good place in the dining room for 4 ft of fluorescent light.

Wow, I'm just amazed anyone has a bathroom big enough for a light set up! [g]. I would love that! We tried ours in the Dining Room, but I did not enjoy having that in my living space. It was too big and bulky. So we bought a new metal shelf unit and put flourescents hanging over those and still have shelves for other things, in the basement. I have an oscillating fan there and the whole set up has worked fine. I have a table next to it for working with the seedlings and I just fill a watering can and bring it down with me when I check the seedlings. I count going up and down the stairs to check, part of my workout. I don't grow a huge amount of seedlings. And I store my seeds in the refrigerator. I bought these hangers that make raising and lowering the lights really easy.

Grow Light Hangers

I remember that book, 'The Seed Starters Handbook'. It was a good one.

I think I have that book, bought used and maybe never opened. (insert shamefaced emoji) A gardening friend uses his basement. I have to go down to the basement every morning to put wood in the furnace. The old section is damp and cobwebby. The new section is off limits due to husband's workshop and car restoration hobby. We live in an old farmhouse. Putting in a second bathroom was almost mandatory. The space used to be two bedrooms but now is one bedroom plus bathroom. The size of the bathroom was determined by not disturbing the slanted window, keeping existing tiny closet, etc. The seed starting shelves fit into the dormer window space. The rest of the room has a slanted ceiling. My potting area is at the back of the garage. Fortunately my husband loves oversize garages so that's what he built. I have storage shelves in front of and along the side where I park my car and there is still room for a folding table, etc. The garage stays around 50-55 degrees even in winter because of the thermal mass of our three flue chimney, one flue for the wood furnace and a second for the kitchen wood stove. Yes, I am lucky.

Not every basement is a great place to grow plants. I am lucky to have a useable, warm space that is dry in the winter and a dehumidifier does the trick in the summer. Your house sounds charming, I love dormer windows. Great to be able to put a light set up in front of a window, too. I have space in the garage, like you, along side the car there's a whole wall that we store garden related paraphernalia. Still, I also need to use the basement as well for all my pots and then some. It's amazing to me how much stuff you need for gardening. lol

I thought I needed something more for a work space, but really, when I thought it through, my habits are to work in place. I rarely use a potting bench. I end up storing things on it. [g] .