Seed Catalogs: The First Sign of Spring

[Friends just call me Ross]

I love how my seed catalogs start coming in the mail when there are still 3 feet of snow on the ground. 

I always consider the arrival of the first catalog as the first sign of Spring and paging through them

always seems to help see me through the long, dragged out tail end of winter.

 

 

 

 

Anybody got a favorite?

 

 

 

 

[cricket246]

I love Wildseed Farms and Michigan Bulb ❤️ I've never seen so many beautiful catalogs

[CHecker]

My 3 favorites are Baker Creek Heirloom, Seed Saver and Adaptive Seed. My Adaptive catalog is specifically for the Pacific NW, Oregon actually. Our more mild climate on the coast means we struggle to grow melons and other heat loving fruit/veg but they have saved seed from years, sometimes 200 years, ago and they're specific for our climate. I also appreciated that they worked with the Organic Seed Growers Conference, keeping things very diverse.

I'm ordering a melon that's the size of a grapefruit- Farthest North Mix and another called Kazakh. Both should grow here.  

 

 

[Áine]

What beautiful seed catalogs I wish we had such a variety here.

I love sitting down with a nice hot chocolate on a freezing cold day looking at seed catalogues

[CHecker]

How's your soil there Annie? Mine, now, is rich and fluffy with few rocks or roots. It took me 5 years of adding mulch, straw, grass clippings, food scraps and lots of manure to make it this way. I live within walking distance of the ocean so we have dirty sand here. And everything eventually sinks into the sand so it's a yearly battle of adding more manure. 

[Áine]

My soil is very dark and peaty, like much of Ireland really.. also we don't have a great depth of top soil.

 

Because I'm right next to the sea I have free access to seaweed thankfully... your soil actually sounds beautiful Cheryl.

[CHecker]

So root veg might not be something you can do much of then? I'm glad you use seaweed too, 2-3 years ago I put a mass of it in my garden and it went great.

 

My soil is so beautiful Annie that when it dries out, doesn't take long, I love to go out and run my fingers through it, on hands and knees and bare footed!  It's taken so long to get it to this point and I am truly grateful. I asked if I could get another 2 utility trailers full of manure this spring. Each trailer can take 6 John Deer tractor bucket fulls! Even if I have to pile it up in the corner of the garden I want to get it here. The stuff I found is at the bottom of a 30 year old pile of organically contributed horse manure. Black and rich. Ummmmm

[normadenardo]

Yay! I ordered seeds yesterday to go with the seeds I already have. I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I still have seed from several other companies that I am sure are still viable, especially Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Supposed to get my trays next week and set up my shelves and lights to start. It’s not really warm enough to start outdoors here yet. Last frost for this area is first to second week of May. This will be my first garden on this property. I am soooo excited. 

[CHecker]

I cannot wait to see pic's Norma!

[Áine]

Sometimes we get together and have seed swaps... or share the seeds we have, I think that's a great idea!

[CHecker]

15 hours ago, anniebea said:

Sometimes we get together and have seed swaps... or share the seeds we have, I think that's a great idea!

I do the same thing with a couple people here. Love the diversity. 

Edited March 21, 2019 by bagwell1987

[Sunflower]

I would love listing of your favorite seed catalogs. Although I haven’t made a garden yet, I do dream about them. 

[Cherie]

Hi, 

This year I'm going to try starting my seeds in gallon size milk cartons. They make a mini greenhouse. There's online videos that show this technique.

 

Then I'm going to plant those that survive into compost-in-place containers that Robbie of

robbieandgarygardeningeasy.com explains so thoroughly

 

As long as I have this husband of mine, I'll not be able to improve our soil as Cheryl has...

[Áine]

Im actually finding it hard to get seed catalogues this year, everything seems to be order on line...