So far, I have received 14 seed & plant catalogues from gardening companies near and far. I am excited to walk to the mailbox these days ~ anticipating a new catalogue that is exploding with pictures & color. I like to make a cup of coffee, grab my glasses, put on my reading lamp and settle in to compare products & prices. I write lists of wants & needs from each book and, during the next few days, these lists are edited again and again until they are refined into a realistic preview of the things needed and not so much of things wanted.
Yesterday, a friend and I got together over chicken salad sandwiches and corn chowder to compare garden lists so that we can consolidate our orders to save shipping costs. Her garden is about 3 miles from mine (as the crow flies) and her daughter-in-law's garden is somewhere in between. Since there is a new baby due in February, the daughter-in-law's garden would not be feasible this year so my friend and I are going to run 3 gardens concurrently ~ mine, hers & her daughter-in-law's. Lots of work scheduled for this spring but it will be so rewarding come harvest time.
The rambling vegetables (squash, pumpkins, melons) will be planted in my friend's garden along with a small amount of other things (swiss chard, Jacob's Cattle beans, green & wax beans, corn, tomatoes & cucumbers) ~ we're calling hers a Sampler Garden. Her daughter-in-law will have a little of everything, too ~ enough for their family of 4 for the season. I will benefit from that garden this year since they are overrun with strawberries ~ I will be getting 25 strawberry plants and I will start a strawberry garden for my grandsons to enjoy.
My garden will have 100 lbs of seed potatoes, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, green & wax beans, iceberg lettuce & onions. There will be a separate garden for zinnias & sunflowers for cutting bouquets and a small garden for strawberries. I have my garden hat, my shovels, the rototiller and my spade all ready to go. I will order my seeds in February and I have already prayed to Mother Nature to bring Spring forthwith. I hope she's listening........
My mailbox has been empty and I so miss the promise of Spring that came with those midwinter catalogs. Of course, with the temps today, it would be a tad harder to believe that promise.
ReplyDeleteGlad your catalog cup runneth over. And thanks for praying to Mother Nature. The more the better!
Wildjo ~ I went on every flower/vegetable website and ordered catalogs so that I could dream & plan through the long winter months. If you do that, within a few weeks, your mailbox will runneth over, too. I will keep praying to Mother Nature & I hope that you do, too. I hope that you are keeping warm.....this weather is not fit for man nor chickens.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the dream of Spring! I'm with you, longing for signs of earth rebirth....
ReplyDeleteI'm snuggled inside with a high of ONE degree (omg) paging thru my Annies flower and veg catalog and my first homebrewers catalog (seeds n suds?! what a combo, lol).
I'm not certain why some winters (tho all are fairly similar) seem so much harder to wait out. Mindset? The timing of freeze and storm? Sun (or lack of)?
Whatever the case, this one here in Upstate NY seems excessively wearying. Spring can not possibly arrive soon enough.
Happy seed-hunting-planning - and I'm glad to have found your blog - I'll be back!
Issy
Hi Issy ~ Happy to hear from you. We have had similar temps here in NH over the last few days & the cold accompanied by bone-chilling winds is mind-boggling. I think that last winter was easier to take and seemed to end quicker because it was so mild. It is hard to get back to the way winter really is when you have had a year without a true winter. I don't know about you but the cold has sent me into a minor hibernation ~ I want to sleep & never leave the warmth of the woodstove. I agree that Spring can not arrive soon enough.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep my seed catalogues close at hand and maybe plant a few herbs for the windowsill to hurry Spring along. How about you? Do you have plans for a garden & do you have any livestock?
Have a wonderful weekend............
The arrival of seed catalogues is a gardener's delight! You sound just like me with your lists. I'm impressed though with that 100 pounds of potatoes. We haven't done well with potatoes the past two years, but I'm hoping that will change. Great idea to combine an order to save on shipping.
ReplyDeleteI have done some reading regarding potato crops and it says that you need to change the location of your potato crop every couple of years because the soil gets depleted of nutrients. Also, if you need to order seed potatoes take a look at Johnny's Selected Seeds website. I got potatoes from them last year and they did great and their prices are much cheaper than anywhere else that I've looked.
ReplyDeleteWe are under 2+ feet of snow right now (we got the blizzard that swept through New England over the weekend) but I'm praying that we get some warm days so that the potatoes can be cut & buried in late March.
Good Luck with your garden, Leigh.