As a child I loved thumbing through catalogs and making a Christmas list. My siblings and I would bunch together on our blue floral couch to see what wonderful things were available for the season. There were the inevitable fights when more than one of us wanted the same thing. It all ended well on Christmas morning when we were surprised to find that Santa brought us things we didn’t even know we wanted.
These days my favorite catalogs contain seeds and pictures of beautiful plants. This is much harder than choosing a Christmas gift. Now I have to commit to a limited variety of foods for an entire season! We plant a lot of different varieties of a lot of different foods but when you start looking at seed catalogs you can see that even if you plant 10 different lettuce varieties there are still hundreds you’ll not get to taste this year.
I prefer heirloom seeds for a lot of reasons but I’m not against a good hybrid now and then. Just understand that when you plant that hybrid you won’t be able to save the seed and grow the same fruit next year. But if saving seed isn’t an issue for you, you’ll find a lot of good seed to choose from.
Here are a few of my favorite seed sellers:
Seed Savers Exchange is an incredible farm dedicated to the preservation of heirloom seeds. You can become a member of SSE and will have access to their “yearbook” which is a directory of other members who have heirloom seed they are willing to sell and share. Plus your membership gives you a 10% discount on seeds. Visit them at www.SeedSavers.org
Territorial Seed Company has an extensive collection as well as tools for gardening and preserving the harvest. Visit them at www.TerritorialSeed.com
Johnny Seeds has a great seed collection plus a lot of innovative tools. Some tools are exclusively theirs and designed by farmers such as Eliot Coleman. If you don’t know what “soil blocks” are, and you want to start your own seeds, I suggest you visit www.JohnnySeeds.com They’ve got a lot of free advice and videos to demonstrate the tools. All seed starting supplies are on sale this month.
Seed sellers are more than willing to send you a free catalog. The selection extends far beyond what any local garden center can offer. I love perusing the catalogs during dark winter days and dreaming of dirt and spring sunshine. The best part is that I’ll get exactly what I want.
