Garden catalog season

I'm so dreaming of spring, but even though I get every catalog known to man, I still shop for seeds at the local nursery.

It's been so long since I had a home-home where I could really work the soil for veggies and count on being there for the harvest...Now I do. I can. Seed catalogues! All those hours I used to pore over them-------Burpee's, of course. I'm going to go google up an heirloom seed company or two.

Pepper Joe has the BEST catalog for peppers of all types. I planted some last year and was pleased with the crop, more hot peppers than I could eat!! I enjoy dreaming about the garden I could grow IF I ONLY HAD THE ROOM... oh well such is the stuff we think about.

I've purchased seeds and planting stock from more than a dozen companies and have rarely been disappointed by any of them. I've even bought seed from England. Thompson & Morgan is an English company that sells flower and vegetable seeds worldwide.

Carolion,
There are several companies that offer heirloom variety seeds as you probably already know. Two companies that I've done business with that deal exclusively with open pollinated and heirloom varieties are Sand Hill Preservation Center (http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/) and Seeds of Change (http://www.seedsofchange.com/). Sand Hill is a small hobby size business that still takes orders exclusively by mail (be prepared to wait your turn for service), and Seeds of Change is also 100 percent certified organic and offers a discount for orders placed via the internet.

You might also want to check out the Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/). They offer some seeds for sale, but they are primarily a network of gardeners and like-minded people who work together to preserve plant varieties that would otherwise be lost and/or unknown except for the families that carried special seeds with them to the New World.

I order alot of them online anymore. I use to go to Southern States but their beans are more tough hauls than are ediable beans. I got tired of sorting them.

What few things I plant I buy at retailers mostly. I aspire to garden someday as did my parents when I was young.

Most all of my gardening these days is done in containers on my deck, so it is easiest to go to the local nursery and buy plants- but that doesn't stop me from reading each and every page of all the catalogs that arrive in my mail box and dreaming of springtime...and then passing the catalogs along to a couple of the new homeowner/beginning gardners that I know.

That's cool, Joanne. We try to go to our local nursery too, but boy, those catalogs can be dream books.

Carolion! I can't wait to see what you grow in your home-home. Please tell me you're share words or pictures or both...

Thanks for the lead on peppers, David. Looks like Pepper Joe has some nice tomatoes, too. I'm very, very intrigued by that Chicken Heart Pepper...as well as some of the smaller peppers. Tell or remind me - which pepper did you plant last year?

Peter, thank you for mentioning Seed Savers Exchange. What a wonderful program. Thanks for the lead on Thompson & Morgan! The international laws around seeds and plants can be tough to navigate, but it looks like they make it sweet & easy!

Do you have any current favorites, Connie? Your note reminded me of how tough it is to plant something, care for it, and then end up disappointed in the result.

M.K. Mueller, what was your parents' garden like?

Melinda, what type of containers do you use? Self-watering? Any plans for this spring?

Thanks to everyone for the tips. I have to admit I usually buy small plants. But who knows? Maybe this is the year I try my own seedlings.