A Few Warm Days Trigger Gardening Urge

Nothing like a few warm and sunny days for triggering a gardening urge.  However, it is only the first of February.  That means it is still winter.  It will probably be another month and a half until I can even plant peas! However, now is a good time to think about the vegetables I want to plant this year.

I was shopping this week and noticed that all the home improvement stores, hardware stores and grocery stores are putting out racks of garden seeds.  I was drawn to them like a moth to a flame!  A person can spend a lot of time standing in front of those seeds, trying to decide what to grow. 

Sometimes I find it difficult to find the exact kind of tomato or green bean seed in the seed rack.  It doesn't appear as if the seed rack contains a variety I had heard about from a friend, or from a program on TV or the internet.  For this reason, I have found that I like perusing the seed catalogs, either online or in hard copy, in the comfort of my own home.  All the information that one can find on the front and back of each seed packet is written in the seed catalog.

Every seed company is different.  Some offer all organic seeds, others offer all the new hybrid seeds, or lots of heirloom varieties or varieties developed in foreign countries.  I generally explore five or six different seed catalogs or seed company websites.  The old style (paper and ink) seed catalog, which is mailed to a physical address, is still a favorite way of shopping for seeds.  It's easy to jot notes in the margins of the pages so that I can return to the page later. 

Most, if not all, seed companies also have online catalogs now.  It is very easy and convenient to order seeds online.  Their seeds are competitively priced. Many seed companies author online newsletters or blogs, and offer coupons and discount codes once you are subscribed.  

Of course, I want to grow everything!  I make a wish list of all the different varieties I want to grow.  Then, I have to look at my garden diagram and figure out exactly how many plants will fit.  Finally, I have to go through the list and winnow it down to the ones I will actually have room for!  

For my garden diagram, I have used the online garden planner available through a link on Territorial Seed Company's website.   The garden planner has video tutorials that helped me understand all the features.  I used the draw feature to show the basic dimensions of my garden beds, and then used the click and drop feature to "plant" my garden.  The garden planner is very cool, in that it told me that the garden space I have allowed for peppers has enough space for 14 Ancho pepper plants, three tomatillo plants, five tomato plants, 73 radish plants, etc., etc.  It is a useful tool.  It is also a fun way to plan a garden.  The garden planner is free for 30 days.  

The last step was to order the seeds.  I did that online.  Mission accomplished.  I am looking forward to planting!