The Seed Catalogs Are In!!

Before the holiday centerpieces have even been wrapped in tissue and stored, the seed catalog arrives in the mail, and just as Steve Martin got so excited as to announce the arrival of phone books in the movie, The Jerk, so gardeners everywhere pronounce the arrival of their seed catalogs. Just yesterday, in the usually quiet circulation office of the library where I volunteer, a usually quiet worker came bursting out of her cubicle to grab a co-workers's arm. "My Burpee arrived!"

So did mine. And this year, I might actually order from it.

You see, I've spent many years in the place where I advise all novice gardeners to begin: at a local nursery. This is a very safe place to do your garden plant shopping. If you go to the nursery, you see plants that are timely--in season and appropriate to your growing climate--available to you. You also see the bare minimum of necessities in garden tools and soil treatments, not to mention the guy who looks like Santa in suspenders, ready to answer all your gardening questions. And if you really want to get "out there" you might go to an herb festival, but that's the limit.

Nevertheless...as you "grow" in the hobby (I know, the pun is atrocious) you might find you want to "branch out" (did I not learn my lesson?) into some things that aren't of the most common fare. For instance, I wanted to re-grow broccoli as a fall crop last year, but found no local nursery offering it. One nursery told me they'd tried stocking it the previous year, but so few people bought it that the store had taken a loss on it and decided not to stock it that year I wanted it. I'm sure over someone's dinner table that night the conversation came up: "Danged, if someone didn't call today wantin' broccoli now, Myrtle!"

In any case, my resolution to wade through the confusion of a gardening catalog was confirmed by that desire for broccoli seedlings.

My next couple of posts will surely be related to this upcoming adventure.