About Us

The Home Gardening Seed Association (HGSA) is a member driven organization made up of garden seed packet companies, seed growers for the packet trade and allied vendors. Organized in 2008, our membership is committed to promoting gardening from seed. Our goals include: communicating with the gardening media to promote and educate about growing from seed, providing a web resource with seasonal information about growing from seed for home gardeners nationwide, and providing a forum for packet seed companies to discuss issues of mutual concern.

The HGSA website serves as a central location for its membership as well as a resource about growing from seed.

Why have the HGSA? Much of the reason has rapidly become evident with the tremendous increase this year in seed sales , most notably with vegetable and herb seeds. The economy, the concern for healthy food, the interest in organic gardening, the nation-wide "Green" movement, and the simple desire to garden have all come together as the impetus creating the huge boon in garden seed sales. Interest and sales of this year's magnitude have not occurred industry-wide since the "Victory Gardens" of WWII. Some seed companies are publicly reporting sales increases as high as 40% in just one year.

It is critical for the garden seed industry, separately from the bedding and vegetable plant starts industry, to take care of this future. Bedding plants and vegetable starts have their place in gardening no doubt; but now with the tremendous revival of interest in seed gardening, the HGSA is specifically targeted to taking care of its own. We want to build on the current growth to make certain that gardening from seed is strongly supported in both current and future generations of gardeners. Seeds are vital to the future of American home gardening in order to assure quality, health, variety and results to every gardener.

Interested parties are welcome to contact HGSA Board Members Charlie Hart, 860-529-2537, Renee Shepherd, 831-335-8257, or Patty Buskirk, 530-438-2126 or more information.

2010 activities

Useful and Productive Annual Winter and Summer Meetings

Our winter meeting and wine reception at the ASTA Flower and Vegetable Conference enable members to interact and network and get a complete update on HSGA. Our upcoming Summer Meetings, this year in Geneva, New York , offer a particularly beautiful setting for our members tours to seed research labs, breeders growing grounds, seed storage facilities and seed producing companies, industry round tables and timely seminar discussions, as well as the time to reconnect and socialize with other HSGA members.

Expand our Low Cost Trialing Program

HGSA offers members the opportunity to participate in our National Trialing program. This low cost program is a great benefit for companies that do not have the facilities to perform their own variety trialing. Each season, in conjunction with our summer meeting, members send in seed varieties for evaluation at our annual summer trials. The trials are carefully organized and coordinated each year through a qualified grower at our summer meeting location. Participants can send in either brand-new varieties or varieties for quality control evaluation. 2010 Summer Trials will be held September 9-11 in Geneva New York

Update Our Website Regularly

Our web partner, the National Gardening Association, is a very effective media communicator with a proven track record and has an established membership base in the garden community . With the NGA hosting our web pages, we have an instant base of home gardeners and a great starting point to begin emphasizing gardening from seed to a wide- ranging national audience. Regular updates and new features will appear monthly on our website.

Quarterly Press Releases/Web updates to Highlight and Educate about the Seed Growing Seasons

We will be doing seasonal updates and press releases on various topics to promote and educate growing from seed through the seasons.

Garden and Seed Industry Participation

Member participation in the seed and gardening sector is another key factor for communication with all facets of our industry. Members will also will attend and report about the Organic Seed Alliance meetings in February and other small grower conferences from time to time as opportunity arises. We will attend the Garden Writers Annual Conference to promote HGSA and gardening from seed with garden writers from all over the country.

Because we are dedicated to satisfying the needs of the home garden seed industry, we welcome your suggestions on how best we can serve your needs.

Sincere Regards,
The Home Garden Seed Association Board of Directors

Charlie Hart, Hart Seed, President
Mike Tate, Ferry-Morse, Past President
John Walhert, Wild West Seeds, Vice President
Patty Buskirk, Seeds By Design, Treasurer
Renee Shepherd, Renee's Garden, Director
Brian Markham, Hammer Lithograph, Director
Barbara Melera, Landreth Seed, Director