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!

Time for a Nap

Wow, I sure didn't have time to post here all during the season! Oh well. I'm gonna keep trying next year.

In the meantime it's time to take stock of the season just past. I don't think I've ever been completely satisfied -- in 15 years of gardening -- with the harvest. If the winter squash does great, the tomatoes or peppers dribble in; if the kale is overwhelming in its abundance, the spinach never germinates; if the fall weather is fabulous, the brussels sprouts were drowned by weeds and never made it past July.

Of course this comes with the territory, and I eventually figured it out and (mostly) accept it. This year saw all of the above happen, so I have done some complaining about the tomatoes, spinach and brussels sprouts, but I'm trying to focus on the positive. The positive being a fabulous crop of acorn and butternut squash, kale that could feed 20, the prettiest bok choy ever, and a basil crop that I finally was able to really use (instead of watch it destroyed with the first frost).

Now it's time for a long winter's nap. Sorta. The first seed catalog came over the weekend, so I reckon I've got some planning to do! hehe

Vacation Gardening

Why is it so many people want to invite you to weddings and parties and dinner and concerts in May? We've been having a great time at lots of May events, but what about the garden?

Ah, the dedication of a gardener knows no bounds! Right? The only way to get my garden chores done was to take a week of vacation to do it. And I'm happy to report that my karma was right: the weather cooperated with beautiful, hot, sunny weather all week, I didn't get any major injuries, and nobody dropped in to thwart my plans for any of the days.

I used to pay attention to the established tradition of having all veggies planted by Memorial Day, but the stress of doing that finally got to me and I gave it up. Now I rationalize that our season is longer, thanks to global warming, and that I actually have all of September for growing. (Those of you who understand global warming no doubt are shaking your heads at my irrational assumptions, but hey -- it saves me a few years of stress to lie to myself this way, so leave me alone!)

So what did I do that whole week? Well, I'd already planted the broccoli, peas, and cabbages. But here's what I planted my week off:

• snap peas and snow peas
• beans
• carrots, turnips, beets, and fennel
• brussels sprouts
• kale and bok choy
• cilantro, dill, and cukes
• potatoes and onions

The potatoes went in first. I dig short trenches, plant the seed potatoes, and hill the trenches up a bit. I usually run out of time to hill them more than once, and I've lately been using the horse manure I get from the Cornell polo barns to hill them. Last year I used compost, but that's because I actually had a good amount of compost (a real rarity for me!).

Mike chose not to take vacation with me, but he'd tilled another bed the first weekend, and that's where next I planted the snap peas (two rows), kale, and bok choy around Monday. Tuesday I planted the long row of snow peas (it's in a partly shaded bed, so hopefully it'll be cooler and more like early spring), and I started the beans that day as well. I finished them Wednesday, then put in the zukes and radishes nearby, since the beans didn't completely fill the bed.

Wednesday was time for the onions -- yellow, red, and white sets. And carrots. I'm excited about carrots this year, since I ordered and planted red and purple varieties along with my standard Sweetness II and Scarlet Nantes. I also found a spot (finally!) for the beets and turnips.

And finally Thursday found me planting the fennel and brussels sprouts. That final crop was a killer, though. I needed to till the bed, and the tiller just would not behave. The completely bent wheels don't help, but one of them finally broke off, which meant that the only way to make the tiller work was to pull it backwards. I had to stop at the end of each row, huffing and puffing over the energy exerted. Then, on the fourth row, the handle bar jumped out of its slot and banged the spark plug cover, which popped off the plug and immediately shut down the engine. After a break and a beer, I picked up the shovel and tilled the bed the old-fashioned way: I dug it up. But it worked and I finished the brussels sprouts.

The May Scramble

It's officially mid-May, and the scramble is on! How on earth anyone with a full-time job can put in a garden by Memorial Day has always eluded me. It's just impossible to get it all done!

It's a catch-22. I'm so busy harvesting in the fall that I never clean up the beds. Which means they're a mess by the time spring arrives: dead leaves, old stalks, sometimes stakes and plastic mulch, and weeds out the wazoo. So the first thing to do in spring is clean up the beds. One at a time.

This past weekend I actually got peas, cabbage, and broccoli planted, and frankly even that small amount does wonders for my sense of accomplishment. It seems that I'm prone to see the glass half-empty, so I've been trying in the last couple years to focus on what I've got done than what's still left to do.

So let's focus: The peas -- Green Arrow and Dual -- and the pea fence are in. The cabbages -- Gonzales and Dynamo -- are happy in the dirt in front of the broccoli -- Packman and Waltham. the garlic I planted last fall, but a few stray cloves came up in the old bed, so I moved them to the new one, just for kicks. Mike's tilled the potato bed, and the bed for kale, bok choy, swiss chard, and spinach is cleared of weeds.

And then there's the occasional weeding and futzing in the flower beds (still focusing). They're not completely cleaned up, but the tulips out front look lovely right now. The daffodils and narcissus in the butterfly garden were a good idea last fall, actually, as was the mulching Mike did on top of them.