I really think that seed catalogs save a gardener's sanity in January. With everything remotely green buried under several inches of snow or freeze dried by the wind, I pour over the brightly colored pages again and again and again. I remember my old favorites. I check out the new introductions. I reminisce about last year's garden, what worked, what didn't. I write down a wish list of more things than I could possibly grow, even if I had nothing else to do besides tend my plants.
This year the catalogs started coming early, even before Christmas. I gave them a quick glance and hid them away...saving them for January. But now that it's January the catalogs are out in full force. I read them in bed. I read them in the kitchen. I look at the pictures while I'm on the treadmill. There's a stash in the bathroom. I even pulled out a couple of favorites that I saved from last year.
I love a good book, but in January I'll take a stack of mail order garden catalogs and dream of spring.
Some of my favorite "seed reads" :
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - new to me this year, I think I'll be ordering!
- The Cook's Garden - fun to read, quite pricey.
- Territorial Seed Company - great info, I've ordered from them before.
- Pinetree Garden Seeds - I place orders here every year - good quality, great prices. Not a glitzy catalog, but you're not paying for the catalog when you order either.
- Thompson & Morgan English Seeds - I've ordered here too...like a Readers Digest plant catalog.
- Wildseed Farms - I ordered lots of wildflower seed from them last year - Awesome!
- John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds - very beautiful hand drawn illustrations, but $$$!
- High Country Gardens - great resource for waterwise plants and cultural information.
- Burpee - love the bright photographs, almost all hybrid seeds though.
- Stark Brothers - mostly fruit trees, but I read it just the same
