Seeds to sow directly in the garden

Originating from the agricultural traditions of the Abenaki people and adapted to the cooler regions of the Northeast, Abenaki Calais corn is an ancient flour corn variety selected to mature quickly in short summers. Its colorful ears, with predominantly white to cream-colored kernels that sometimes show subtle variations, evoke the long-standing connection between these peoples and this staple of the kitchen garden.

In a harmonious garden , its straight, regular silhouette structures the space. Its rapid growth and good adaptation to cooler climates make it a reliable plant for vegetable gardens in Quebec and temperate regions. Grown in full sun, in warm , welcoming soil , it offers a generous harvest for semolina, cakes, or cornbread, perpetuating an age-old tradition at the heart of the kitchen.

Combined with classic organic gardening plants – climbing beans and vining squash – it integrates naturally into a rooted approach and a cultivation method that respects the cycles of life. A solid presence in the vegetable garden, it invites us to reconnect with the rhythm of the seasons and the patient transformation of grain into food.

Native to warm temperate regions and widely naturalized around the Mediterranean basin and elsewhere in the world, purslane ( Portulaca oleracea ) has carved out a discreet but reliable place in kitchen gardens. The Golden variety, with its golden-yellow-green leaves, adds a luminous touch close to the ground, like an edible carpet that weaves its way among other crops.

In the garden, this small, spreading annual quickly covers the ground with its fleshy stems and thick, smooth, succulent leaves. Its small, discreet but regular yellow flowers during the warm season mark the beautiful consistency of its summer cycle. It's a reliable plant for the organic vegetable garden: easy to grow, undemanding, and generous with tender foliage for everyday cooking.

Native to Europe, Dragon Tongue Mustard is prized for its variegated foliage, a delicate blend of light green and purple, reminiscent of the dragon's tongue from which it takes its name. With flavors reminiscent of classic mustard, it finds its place in exceptional gardens as an elegant, tangy green salad, adding a spicy and colorful touch to spring harvests.

In the garden, its bushy, compact habit makes it easy to plant in borders or mixed with other leafy greens. Its rapid growth and moderate hardiness make it a generous companion for brightening up fresh salads. Dragon Tongue invites culinary exploration while supporting biodiversity thanks to its small yellow flowers that attract pollinating insects.

An heirloom variety with unparalleled charm, the 'Golden Sweet' snow pea brightens vegetable gardens with its vibrant yellow pods, clearly visible against the tender green foliage. Originating from the agricultural traditions of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, it embodies the know-how of generations who selected it for its earliness and exceptional sweetness.

Climbing and vigorous, it rises steadily along its support, adorned with two-toned flowers in shades of mauve and purple. In a quiet corner of the garden, it provides a reliable and prolonged harvest, while enriching the soil through natural nitrogen fixation. An elegant and easy-to-grow companion plant that makes the most of every square meter of cultivated land.

Throughout the seasons, Golden Sweet proves to be a reliable companion in gardens with cooler climates. It thrives in the welcoming, well-drained, and organically rich soils of spring. In a harmonious vegetable garden, it climbs its support, creating a light, vertical structure that shelters small organisms in the soil and the surrounding tall grass. Its production of succulent pods contributes to a nourishing space where each harvest recalls the age-old act of gathering, day after day, what the plant so consistently provides.

The Noir des Carmes melon is an old French variety that has long been a staple in monastery and parsonage gardens. Its dark green, almost black skin, which cracks and turns slightly yellow when ripe, contrasts with its orange flesh, renowned for its intense aroma. In a thriving garden, it provides a discreet presence at first, then a generous one in the heart of summer, when its round fruits fill the air with their fragrance.

In the garden, this trailing melon weaves its way between the planting beds and covers the ground with dense foliage. It's a variety prized for its earliness , making it a valuable companion in regions with shorter summers. Grown with respect for the soil and the natural cycles of the seasons, it offers delicious harvests while integrating harmoniously into a diverse and harmonious vegetable garden.

Belonging to the large group of Asian daikon radishes , the mini daikon radish retains the slender shape of large white radishes while remaining modest in size. Its cylindrical root, generally white, forms quickly in well-loosened soil and offers a crisp flesh that integrates naturally into a harmonious garden, where sowing and harvesting follow the cycle of the seasons.

In the vegetable garden, this radish is well-suited to staggered sowings, allowing for small, regular harvests. Its presence is discreet above ground, with upright leaves typical of radishes, but beneath the fertile soil, it creates a precious, nourishing space at the heart of the garden. Cultivated with a respectful approach to soil and crop rotation, it contributes to the diversity of textures and flavors offered by a thriving garden.

Native to East Asia , Chinese chives ( Allium tuberosum ) are a hardy perennial that has become a staple in organic gardens as a discreet, generous, and valuable herb . Its flat, supple, deep green leaves form a dense, flexible clump, while its star-shaped white umbels , borne in late summer, attract a wide variety of pollinators and beneficial insects.

Traditionally used in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese cuisine , it adds a mild, vegetal garlic note to stir-fries, soups, stuffings, and noodles. More subtle than garlic or onion, it is prized for its delicate, aromatic flavor , which can be found in the young leaves, flower buds, and flowers.

In the garden, it integrates easily into borders, edible flowerbeds, or herb spirals , where it plays a valuable role in companion planting , notably through its natural repellent effect on certain unwanted insects . Undemanding , it is drought-tolerant, cold-hardy, and self-seeds readily , providing a vibrant and lasting presence.

The Giant Sicilian radish is an old variety originating from the Mediterranean basin, known for its large, elongated roots and its mild flavor, quite different from the usual spiciness of spring radishes. When mature, it develops a firm, juicy white flesh, prized for its delicate taste and versatility in cooking.

Unlike early radishes, this variety requires patience. It takes its time to fully develop, allowing the root to reach an impressive size without becoming hollow or fibrous. Its flavor mellows with growth, resulting in a rounder, more subtle radish.

In the garden, the Giant of Sicily is primarily cultivated in late summer and autumn. It thrives in deep, loose, well-drained soils and prefers consistent moisture. Its hardiness and tolerance to cooler temperatures make it an excellent choice for extending the harvest season.

Originating from the fertile hills of Piedmont in Italy, Merveille du Piémont is a dwarf bean with an old-fashioned charm, celebrated for its pale yellow pods subtly streaked with purple and its vibrant bicolored beans, ranging from red to cream. It embodies both the richness of Italian vegetable-growing traditions and the elegance of a refined vegetable.

In the garden, this compact, bushy variety is perfectly suited to small spaces and container gardening. Hardy and undemanding, it offers rapid growth (around 55 days) and continuous production, while naturally improving soil fertility thanks to its nitrogen-fixing capacity. Its inconspicuous flowers attract a few pollinators, and its decorative pods add a vibrant touch to the vegetable garden.

Merveille du Piémont fully flourishes in a nurturing approach that values ​​diversity, heritage seeds and edible beauty.

Wild lupin is one of those unassuming presences that transforms a dry bank or depleted soil into a vibrant and colorful corner. With its finely cut palmate leaves and upright spikes of bluish-purple to whitish flowers, it evokes natural meadows and roadsides where the garden still leaves ample room for spontaneity.

In a garden in harmony with the cycle of the seasons, wild lupin establishes itself slowly, extending its deep roots and connecting with the soil. As a true legume, it contributes to fertility by associating nitrogen-fixing bacteria with its roots. Its flowers, growing in vertical clusters, offer a valuable resource for bees and other pollinating insects, making it a trusted companion in a diverse and nourishing environment.

Hardy and undemanding, it prefers poor soils to overly rich ones. It readily complements naturalistic flowerbeds, wildflower meadows, and areas slightly removed from the vegetable garden, where its benevolent presence contributes to biodiversity as much as to the daily pleasure of the observant gardener.

Originating with the Hopi people, who have lived for centuries in the arid lands of the southwestern United States, this bean embodies the intimate, ancestral connection between communities and their seeds. Passed down through generations, this traditional variety— Hopi Black —reveals elegant yet robust, matte black beans deeply rooted in a culture of resilience, sovereignty, and respect for all living things.

In the garden, this dwarf plant is distinguished by its vigor and its ability to adapt to varying climates, including shorter or drier summers. It thrives in well-drained soil, tolerates drought, and produces abundantly even in regions with limited growing seasons.

Its unassuming foliage complements its discreet flowering, soon followed by pods filled with seeds that are easy to shell by hand. It is a valuable variety for gardeners committed to preserving living seed heritage.

Originally from Europe, the Redina leaf lettuce has become a staple in vegetable gardens thanks to its vigor and beautiful purple color, which enhances salads. This variety of leaf lettuce is characterized by its tender, serrated leaves, whose deep red hue adds an aesthetic and flavorful touch to both the garden and the plate.

In the garden, Redina stands out for its rapid growth and slightly spreading habit, allowing it to quickly form a colorful carpet. Its relative hardiness in the face of climatic variations makes it an ideal companion for the cooler seasons of early spring or autumn. It adds diversity to a productive garden, bringing freshness and lightness to the table.

Orchard Baby is a dwarf sweet corn variety designed for gardens where summer is short and every sunny day counts. Its low, stocky plants produce small, uniform ears that mature quickly, providing a sweet corn harvest even where larger varieties struggle to reach maturity.

In a kitchen garden , its compact size makes it easy to plant in combination with other plants and allows light to circulate. It participates in the cycle of the seasons as a discreet yet reliable presence: sown when the soil warms up, it quickly grows, flowers, and forms its seed heads in a short time. It is a variety prized for its ability to offer, in a quiet corner of the vegetable garden, the simple pleasure of picking tender young seed heads straight from the living garden.

Fordhook Giant Swiss chard is a robust and tried-and-tested variety, renowned for its reliability in the garden. It is distinguished by its large, dark green, thick, and slightly crinkled leaves, borne on fleshy, well-developed white ribs. Its imposing stature gives it a striking, almost architectural presence in the vegetable garden.

Selected for its vigor and productivity, Fordhook Giant is a reliable choice for both novice and experienced gardeners. It tolerates temperature variations well and continues to produce for a long time, even when other leafy greens are showing signs of decline. Harvested leaf by leaf, it provides a continuous harvest over several months.

In the garden, it integrates well into vegetable beds as well as edging. Its dense foliage protects the soil and helps maintain moisture around the base of the plants. It appreciates rich, well-drained soil, but is tolerant of less-than-ideal conditions.

In the world, Fordhook Giant Swiss chard is seen as a plant of consistency. It accompanies the gardener throughout the season, offering a reliable and versatile harvest, and reminding us that some crops shine less for their brilliance than for their endurance.

The Fortin dry bean is an heirloom variety from Quebec, rooted in the Cap-Saint-Ignace region (Chaudière-Appalaches), where several generations of the Fortin family have carefully cultivated it. Hardy and deeply adapted to local conditions, this legume embodies a living heritage of Quebec's food garden.

Its compact, dwarf habit makes cultivation and harvesting easy, while its long, yellow pods contain numerous beige peas marked with a black eye, typical of the black-eyed pea variety. It is renowned for its exceptional productivity, yielding up to 45 lbs of harvest from a single pound of seed. Resistant to diseases and pests, it integrates easily into ecological crop rotations and naturally enriches the soil with nitrogen.

Native to Europe, common St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a plant that brightens landscapes with its vibrant yellow flowers. Traditionally, it was valued for its soothing and medicinal properties, often harvested in summer to prepare infusions or oils with recognized benefits.

In the garden, it proves to be a robust and generous companion, capable of colonizing poor and dry soils. Its luminous flowers make it an attractive plant for pollinators, thus contributing to local biodiversity. Its bushy habit and leaves dotted with small translucent "perforations" make it a valuable visual and ecological element.

St. John's wort is a plant with a hospitable character, naturally fitting into meadows, borders and medicinal gardens, where it plays a protective and soothing role.

Originating from the cooler regions of Europe , Red Ursa kale stands out in the garden as a true purple jewel . Its finely curled leaves, with their shades of deep red and bluish-green , capture the winter light and bring a vibrant touch as soon as the first frosts arrive.

In the vegetable garden, this variety stands out for its generosity and resilience : it withstands cold admirably and produces dense foliage that protects the soil and limits evaporation , thus promoting a fertile and vibrant ecosystem. Red Ursa perfectly embodies the spirit of the sustainable food garden , where beauty, abundance, and vitality go hand in hand.

Its vigorous growth habit and long harvest period make it a valuable ally for autumn and winter gardeners , keen to cultivate health, diversity… and a touch of wonder.

Native to Western Europe , this hardy biennial, tolerant to zone 3, has become a staple in vegetable gardening for its rapid growth, delicate foliage, and unique flavor . Its airy habit and finely cut, light green leaves are reminiscent of parsley, but offer a milder, aniseed aroma.

Undemanding, chervil prefers partially shaded, cool spots , especially during the summer heat, and thrives in light, humus-rich soil . Its white umbels of flowers add a touch of lightness to herb borders or leafy vegetable combinations. A discreet yet valuable plant, it attracts beneficial insects and contributes to the balance of a living garden , embodying the gentle and nurturing spirit of eco-friendly gardens.

Small in stature but big on presence, Tom Thumb Popcorn is a dwarf popcorn variety that naturally finds its place in compact vegetable gardens and allotments. Its short plants, topped with small golden ears, evoke the age-old practice of corn cultivation while adapting to the limited spaces and sometimes unpredictable seasons of northern gardens.

In the garden, Tom Thumb forms a small, vibrant thicket , a tranquil corner where the ears of corn soak up the summer sun. Its modest size makes it easy to care for and harvest, allowing it to be integrated harmoniously into a garden, whether planted along a border or mixed with other crops. Dried at the end of the season, it yields golden popcorn with a crunchy texture, transforming the garden harvest into a daily culinary delight.

Companion to a diverse food space, this popcorn corn participates in the cycle of the seasons: sown in spring in welcoming soil, it stands up in summer, then lets itself dry in autumn to offer its grains and seeds to attentive gardeners who wish to continue the rooted approach of preserving varieties.

Native to South America, jasmine-flowered tobacco ( Nicotiana alata ) first became famous as an ornamental plant, cultivated for its small, trumpet-shaped flowers, often white and pleasantly fragrant. In a vibrant garden, it easily finds its place at the edge or in the heart of flowerbeds, where its summer blooms accompany the cycle of the seasons.

Its soft green foliage beautifully complements the star-shaped flowers, which release their fragrance especially in the late afternoon and evening, reminiscent of the sweet notes of jasmine. In a diverse, nutrient-rich garden, this ornamental tobacco provides a discreet yet constant presence, harmonizing with the other plants. Its careful cultivation from seed is part of an age-old tradition that connects the gardener to nature, year after year.