About

Hi, I’m Leah.

I grew up in central Iowa, the kind of place where the corn is taller than the houses by August. My summers as a teenager were spent detasseling seed corn (if you know, you know) and my weekends were spent trailing my Grandpa Hank around his garden. He grew everything. Beans, tomatoes, sweet corn, squash the size of small children. And he saved seed from all of it in old coffee cans lined up in his basement.

In 2015 I married a Canadian and moved to Northwestern Ontario. Zone 3. Frost in June. Clay soil that could probably be fired into pottery. Everything Grandpa taught me about gardening in Iowa? About half of it just doesn’t work up here.

So this blog is me figuring it out. Starting seeds, saving seeds, growing food in a short season, and slowly turning a rocky slope into something that looks like a garden. My husband Mark builds things, I plant things, and our dog Juniper digs up whatever I just planted.

I named the blog Specialty Seed Growers because that’s what I’ve become. Someone who’s a little obsessed with the weird, old, hard to find varieties and keeping them going year after year. Grandpa would be proud. Or he’d laugh at me. Probably both.

Thanks for stopping by.

Leah