Cleaning and Coughing

So the seeds have been ordered, and most of them have arrived. Yet before planting can start, the basement needed cleaning. Ugh.

For some reason, every time we clean the basement we get sick, and this year was no different. It's probably all that dust and dirt that accumulates over the summer and fall, which we stir up as we clean.

After a long afternoon of sweeping, vacuuming, rearranging, tossing out old junk, and generally getting the basement in tip-top shape for seed planting, Mike and I both ended up with a cough. Which turned into the flu. With fever, sore throat, stuffy nose, congestion, the works. And it came around a second time for both of us, and a third for him. What we do for our vegetables!

But the place is clean (yay!) and I started right in on planting. I like to make seed pots from newspapers, and bought a groovy tool several years ago that works great. I can make lots of pots in just a couple hours and fill two or three of the trays I use. A bunch of years ago I bought up 25 or so cat litter trays from our local Wegmans for less than $5 apiece. That was one of the best purchases I've ever made for the garden, because they're still going strong 10+ years later. I can fit 35 pots in each tray, and I use them for brassica, corn, squash, melon, parsley, hollyhock, sunflower, and other seedlings that don't much care for root disturbance when planted outside. The trays are really sturdy, deep enough to water the pots well, and withstand the rigors of hardening off. I'd be lost without them!

Another cleaning chore awaited me, though; in fact, it awaits me all spring: cleaning trays. I don't know why I'm so anal about it, because I really do hate this chore. But all my organic resources tell me it's essential to clean—with hot water and soap—all the seed-starting trays and pots, so I do. I scrub the cat-litter trays for newspaper pots, then watch movies while making the pots. I scrub the black seed inserts and trays I've bought over the years (I have stacks and stacks of these things!). And I scrub the three- and four-inch pots for transplanting (more on them later). At least I finally gave in to wearing rubber gloves to protect against scratches from those sharp corners on the inserts.

So now the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts) and kale and bok choy are planted, and all of them have germinated. I talk to my plants all the time, actually, and don't care what anyone thinks about it. Years ago our kids took tae kwon do lessons, and their master would say, "Everybody up!" or "Everybody very good!" They brought those phrases home, and I've been using them on the plants ever since. They seem to like the encouragement!

Death by Seed Catalogs

This year they started arriving in November. I can remember—not many years ago—when the first arrival occurred shortly before New Year's. I think they're trying to tell me that the garden should never ever be out of mind, even in the cold depths of winter.

They're right, of course. Because I had barely finished freezing brussels sprouts and the last batch of butternut squash soup before the Seeds of Change catalog arrived. That one's my favorite, mostly because I trust the purity (read: organic purity) of their products more than anyone else's.

A couple more showed up before the end of the month, and by the time I'd returned from our post-Christmas trip south on January 9, another dozen had filled the mailbox. I finally sat down with them late in January, since there was no denying that the Time Had Come.

I must receive about 20 catalogs, which really isn't all that many, I'm guessing. I actually don't mind getting ones from new suppliers, as I'm hardly ever completely satisfied with any one company. For instance, Seeds of Change has pretty high prices, and the selection seems to be smaller than it used to be. Fedco has low prices and I'm learning to trust them a lot, but the catalog is ugly. The content is clever and lively, but not my style, I'm afraid. Nevertheless, I order more from them than anyone else. Abundant Life Seeds is a nice new supplier I found a year or so ago; they seem mostly decent for organic seeds, and the variety and prices are mostly decent. I'm not sure how much longer I'll order from Johnny's, as it's really hard to find organic seeds for the varieties I want. Some suppliers I've tried and still use for a couple hard-to-find varieties are Pinetree, Territorial (but not this year), Totally Tomatoes, Scheepers, and Cook's Garden. A few years ago I received catalogs from two different flower seed suppliers—Select Seeds and Wildflower Farms. Both have done well for me in price and variety and quality of seed, and I do rely on them for many of my flower seeds.

And of course there are the catalogs from suppliers I don't use anymore: Shumway's and Jung and Burpee and Gurney's. And the garden supply and perennial flower inevitable Michigan Bulb catalogs hop on the bandwagon, too. The stack this year was close to a foot high, fercryingoutloud!

But I have to admit that the excitement builds as I review each cover, leaf through the pages, and sort them into the "yes" and "no" piles. Once I've made the piles, the first big chore of the gardening year commences. It's my seed selection and purchasing chore, and it goes like this:

• identify what I need by checking my existing supply, kept in an airtight bucket in the freezer;
• look through all the catalogs to find the varieties I want or need;
• transfer the names and prices to my Excel chart; review all prices to find the best price for each variety;
• order all of them online, which can be tedious, depending on how the sites are set up and how good their search tools are;
• sit back and wait for the packages to arrive.

 Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting more efficient, since this year's chore seemed way less fraught with anxiety about the order and getting it completed. But I kinda wanted to investigate seed saving and exchange, since I'm feeling pretty worried about seed purity nowadays. So much for any efficiencies!