It's Seed Catalog Season Already!
So you think the Christmas season starts earlier every year? Look what was in my mailbox yesterday - the first seed catalogs for 2017!
I remember waiting in January for the first seeds catalogs of the season. The holidays had passed - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day. There was a stillness and time for contemplation. Often, snow covered my gardens and frozen soil made for few chores. Well, there are always chores - pruning trees and shrubs, building bird houses and nests for solitary bees, sprouting microgreens, neglecting my houseplants. But compared to other seasons, quietude ruled.
And there was anticipation. Anticipation of the stream of seed catalogs that would be delivered into my mailbox. That anticipation started in childhood.
As a kid, each seed catalog arriving in the mailbox was announced by my dad. "Burpee's is in! Shumway is here! Jung's! Park's! Gurney's! Field's!" I would snuggle into a blanket on the couch and read each catalog - cover to cover, over and over. I would make lists of all the seeds I wanted my dad to order. Those seed lists were as long as my Christmas lists. No, my dad was not going to order $400 of seeds, including every kind of lima bean that existed.
In adulthood, those parental controls are gone. I still make long lists. And I do sometimes order too many seeds - OK, I always order too many seeds. But I have learned to keep the costs down pretty well. I save a lot of my own seeds to replant. But there is more than a lifetime of plant varieties to try - and new varieties are always appearing, too.
So here it is -- Thanksgiving only 4 days past. And here are two seed catalogs for the coming year. One from an old stalwart - Johnny's Selected Seeds. A great company that I have watched develop over the years, through their catalogs, from a small operation driven by the passion of the young company founder, to the sophisticated employee-owned powerhouse of today. Johnny's has developed some great plant varieties. And they have small commercial grower in mind, as well as family gardeners.
The other catalog is from a company I have never heard of. It looks suspiciously like the over-hype of garden catalog hucksters. There are more exclamation points on the cover than I use in my own posts and comments - and that's saying a lot! But I know I will read it cover to cover, over and over. Just like Johhny's. And just like whatever seed catalog arrives in my mailbox.
But when? Should I read them now? I know the companies want me to order Christmas gifts from these 2017 catalogs. And isn't a gift of seeds or gardening gear appreciated by any gardener? How about a fun collection of beans, squash, and sunflowers for a niece or nephew to have their own garden patch?
Bu still, it seems too early. I want to hole up in the long nights, with the rain or snow blowing outside, all warm and cozy in my house, reading catalog after catalog, and making long lists, and dreaming of great gardens springing forth. Or maybe I do both. I probably will do both. It's inevitable I will do both.
Do you look forward to getting seed catalogs in the mail? What are your favorite catalogs to look at, or to order from? Let us all know the first ones that come to your house. Be sure to use the tag #Gardening, so it can be curated for the SteemTrail @gardening-trail! Here's to great gardens for everyone in 2017!
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#self-control
I KNOW THAT FEELING!!!!
Haha - glad you caught that. It's a seed-buying challenge for many gardeners. : )
Sooooooooo many options these days!
I don't think I can try one of everything - even in an entire lifetime!
Not these days.... too much available!
It's pretty amazing, that's for sure!
Seed catalogs!! Yes!!
Another seed catalog fan, it looks like. Let us all know which ones you like or which ones are arriving in your mailbox!
I'm obsessed with Baker Creek, and fortunate they're also within driving distance!
Bakes Creek has such pretty catalogs and unusual varieties. That's neat that you are so close to them. You can do a trip report when you go there - hint, hint for the @gardening-trail. : )
There all arriving in the mail right now. What are you ordering?
I'm trying not to think about it yet, lol. I'm sure I will order varieties that I have never grown before. I'm a sucker for beans, especially dry beans and squash, . There are so many kinds of each and they are so pretty. There are so, so many varieties of lettuce out there these days, too. But I have a harder time getting enthused to try every one of them.
Check out Salanova lettuce by Jonny's Seeds
I've heard that's pretty good. I think that's what Curtis Stone grows for his commercial harvest for restaurants on the Urban Farmer.
You're absolutely right. In fact, that's how I first heard about that variety. We should try to recruit him to Steemit. He would be a great addition to the community.
Absolutely. I think Steemit would have to have a bigger audience and a long tail for payoffs, though. YouTube and websites have payoffs a lot longer than 30 days down the line, especially for his evergreen content. He would be a great addition, that's for sure!
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What a wonderful time of year!
Seed catalogs are like Christmas after Christmas, but now they are coming before Christmas - and I'm all confused, lol. ; )
SEEDS - the GIFT that keeps on giving!
We can have our cake and eat it, too - if you think of seeds as cake, lol.
Yeah, I try not to eat all of my seeds....
haha - I have a lot of dry beans that I save from year to year. But I could easily get on a kick and eat my seed stock. I need about 100 pounds of beans, I think! :O
I usually just get catalogs from Burgess Seed Co. in Bloomington, IL. I am not sure how I ever got on their mailing list to begin with, but since they started coming to my house I have ordered dozens and dozens of bare-root trees.
Haha - that's what happens when the catalogs come. I usually get a Burgess catalog, too. Who knows how I got on their list. Looking forward to your posts on your trees - from Burgess or elsewhere!
One of my earliest posts on Steemit was about planting walnut trees as an investment.
https://steemit.com/gardening/@countryinspired/plant-your-walnut-trees-today-for-a-large-future-payout
I planted 40 walnut trees on our property, along with numerous other species. I will post more in the future about trees and their benefits. I will most likely write those posts in early spring when people are really thinking about planting.
Thanks for pointing out your article - very nice! That's a great mix of trees - black walnuts, sugar maples, and Bur oaks. You can eat off all three of those! Walnuts, maple sap and leaves and flowers, and acorns. I'm with you on planting trees. I've got 1.3 acres and have about 100 trees of various sorts. Enjoy your 2017 Burgess catalog when it gets to you!
Thank you!
What is also nice is that when I bought the property it already came with dozens of Mulberry trees, blackberries, and gooseberries. In fact, there are so many berries in the summer that I can't keep up.
We live at a house in town at the moment. We bought it in winter when all the leaves were gone. I wasn't even aware when we were looking at the house that it had three healthy apple trees and two apricot trees that bless us with an abundance of delicious fruit.
That sounds like a great piece of property! And it sounds like you were meant to raise fruit. There isn't much better than eating a well-ripened apricot right off the tree. Fanstastic. You are living large! :D
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I love garden catalogues. But yes, everything in it's time....and sometimes, well most times everyone is pushing the envelope. I don't get the kind most of your homesteaders get though. I garden on the small side - container size for example and then shop at a local market.
Pinetree Seeds used to specialize in tiny packets of seed for under a dollar. I think they have upped the packets sizes and prices some recently, though. It is hard for people that need just a few seeds for containers. But seeds still are a pretty good deal. Shopping locally makes sense for you, it sounds like. But those catalogs are still fun for you to look at, it sounds like. Some of them have so much good information about varieties.
I love Pinetree Seeds! I tend to order from them if I want to try a new variety. If we need seeds in bulk, I usually get them from Mountain Valley Seed Co. They are only one state away, so the shipping isn't brutal. Great article by the way!
Thanks! I've like Pinetree Seeds, too. Those small packets really are unusual and can be just the right size. I've never heard of Mountain Valley Seed Co. - I'll have to check them out. Or you can write a post about them -- hint, hint! : )
Seed catalogs!! What a wonderful idea!! I wish they did that here in Eastern Europe...
Wow - that's interesting. Do you buy seeds from a local store? How do you get information or access to new varieties? Do you generally save your seed from year to year? I love reading seed catalogs. They have so much information in them -- and they are the source of beautiful dreams of beautiful gardens, lol. :D
Yes we buy them from local stores, we save a lot of the seeds from year to year as well and also exchange or buy them from the neighbors. And for the new varieties we must trust the internet :D
I so appreciate learning how you get your seeds. Saving seed, trading seed, buying seed - all that has been so important in our total human history. I still don't trust the internet for seeds, lol. I see some crazy, impossible things for sale on Amazon and Ebay, like blue strawberries. The good seed catalog companies here do testing for high germination rates and no cross-pollination between varieties.
Yes there are some very crazy plants out there in the internet shops:) And it is really a fantastic idea with these food catalogs, knowing exactly the variety that you are buying and what are this variety's quirks.
It's a great way to learn about plants, too. Some of the catalogs have a lot of information about their history and ways to use the plants.
Great post. Love the humor and information about seed catalogs, gardening, general info, etc. I'm not a big gardener, but may need to start. Very inspirational, and so much to learn. Thanks.
It's pretty easy to get started gardening. Follow the @gardening-trail and you can see lots of different ways to garden. The main thing is to start somewhere. If you buy a green onion, after you use the green part, put the root end in a shallow dish of water to just cover the roots.- and put that on your windowsill. And you will be gardening! You will get another smaller crop of green onion tops. And it didn't even cost you anything extra.