Resources

🥕Baker Creek Seeds

I've been buying heirloom veggie, flower, and herb seeds from Baker Creek since 2010. I find their passion for growing heirlooms to be infectious, their quality stupendous, and their huge selection of global seeds absolutely thrilling. I'm like a kid in a candy store with their website. And I always have excellent germination with their seeds! And I highly recommend buying their annual Whole Seed Catalog, which has so much more insightful gardening info in addition to their available seeds. It's a must for every gardener.

And I've met Baker Creek owners Jere and Emilee Gettle, their kids, and photographer Monik Folkman who were visiting when I was living in Shanghai. They're really genuine and kind people who care about heirloom seeds, and I happily grow their crops every year.

Here are some photos of the many seeds I've bought from Baker Creek and grown in my garden:

📸Capture by Lucy Photographic Backdrops

The vinyl photography backdrops from Capture by Lucy are simply stunning. They display a huge variety of genuine surfaces and textures from photos that Lucy has taken around the world. I'm so happy to be learning my food and garden photography skills on these beautiful backgrounds! They evoke a huge variety of moods and emotions that translate wonderfully to still photos. And Lucy and her sister Natalie are so kind, enthusiastic, and wonderful to work with. I'm so grateful to have these high quality, gorgeous backdrops to use in my work! Besides some photos on my kitchen table and on the grass outside, all of the backdrops in my blog photos are from Lucy.

Here are 3 of Lucy's beautiful backdrops:

🌱Ginger's Greenhouse

I'm really excited to have found Ginger's Greenhouse, a friendly and impressive seller of cactus and succulents, herbs, perennials, annuals, and vegetable plants. I'm always on the hunt for rare global heirloom herb and veggie plants to grow, and this wonderful online vendor really delivers with a stunning variety!

Ginger's Greenhouse owners Waylon and Christine are fantastic to work with. They've both been patient and thorough in answering my many questions about their herbs. I placed an order in late winter for almost 300 mint, scented geranium, and a few more rare herb seedlings like lemon leaf, ngo om (rice paddy herb), rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) and rungia klossi (mushroom plant), and they made sure they'd have everything ready by spring. All at a very reasonable price.

Sure enough, with proactive communication and a low shipping cost, my plants arrived in time for planting. I was absolutely stunned at how lush and healthy they were! All of the seedlings were wrapped and labeled well, and thoroughly watered. And the packaging was so innovative; the seedlings were taped together in lines that I could easily lift and transfer to fit perfectly in my nursery flats until I could plant them. This was ingenious!

After buying plants by mail from many vendors over the years, I was shocked at the quality and vigor of these gorgeous seedlings. I just had to let everyone know about this gem of a seller with an incredible selection of heirloom plants. I'm thrilled to recommend Ginger's Greenhouse to all of you.

I can't believe that these robust and flourishing leaves and flowers are on tiny seedlings! Clearly these plants have been grown with love. I'm really looking forward to growing my gorgeous plants from this treasured seller.

☕Mei Leaf Tea

Mei Leaf is a very special tea purveyor. I've visited their store in London, and had a chance to meet owner Don Mei. Mei Leaf sells tea that is carefully selected with the utmost attention to taste and quality, with top varieties from the best tea-growing areas in the world. Their teas and brewing equipment are a joy to experience.

And the Mei Leaf YouTube channel is so inspiring! I'd first found it while living in Shanghai, where I'd experienced the beauty of Chinese gong fu brewing. Don's videos about tea are passionately informative, and his tastings are full of nuance and presence. I've truly enjoyed learning about the moving and accessible technique of gong fu brewing.

Drinking tea is truly a delight for me in both taste and an ability to help feel centered within my day. I know you'll also love to learn about and experience real gong fu brewing with the world's top teas from this truly special company.

Here are some photos of some tea I've bought from Mei Leaf:

Orange spice thyme

Profusion sorrel. You can read more about this in my post Rustic Vegan French Sorrel Soup (Soupe à l'Oseille).

Za'atar Syrian oregano

Camphor kapoor tulsi basil. You can read about this in my post 38 Types of Basil You Need to Grow in Your Herb Garden.

If you'd like to buy from Richters, you can use the link below, which will give me some store credit as an affiliate with no cost to you. Thanks!