One of my greatest gardening results was a long hot pepper plant that I once planted and provide absolutely no care to that in the end produced beyond imagining. I took loads and loads of peppers into work to the delight of my coworkers and their families. Since then, I have not had anything grow even partly as well.

However, 2025 is the year of my wonder garden. I am actually paying attention to the back of the seed packets, signed up to an Old Farmer’s Almanac membership, and bought a mini indoor greenhouse kit. I hope you will join me as we persevere through this year with failures and successes as I turn this gardening thumb of death green!

I will also include details about how we can make our gardens more accessible both in inclusivity in the planting and gathering as well as accessing seeds, tools, etc.

Today’s tip addresses accessing free seeds. The first stop, as it often can be, is your local library. Our small town library has a case that resembles a small version of the old card catalog cabinets. In each drawer are packets of seeds which you can choose which to take home and plant. All of the usual suspects are there: tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, etc. This article shares information of another library that provides seeds as an example.

Other options are:

• websites such as https://www.freeheirloomseeds.org/, which offers free seeds (restrictions apply)
• seeds from the food you buy; this may seem obvious, but I was fairly surprised by the number of seeds provided in the Anaheim peppers I bought. There were so many that I am going to find out if I am able to provide the extra to my library.
• Online and local gardening groups sometimes offer seed exchange opportunities.

About those Anaheim peppers, I highly recommend Anne Louise Avery’s charming and often touching animal stories on Patreon. I made her “Restorative Soup for Dragons suffering with Colds or Influenza” and it has been a tremendous hit. Perhaps you will find its internal warming (but not too spicy) helps you finish the winter with a bit of determined blaze!