It’s Beginning to Look Like Seed Starting Time!

It’s beginning to look a lot like seed starting time! The catalogs have arrived – fewer this year than last year, much to my disappointment. I know it’s expensive to print catalogs, but I love flipping through gardening catalogs in the evenings while my husband watches television. I mark pages, write down notes, and dream about my garden.

On Saturday evening, we had some friends and their families over for dinner, and after dessert we sat around the dining room table and talked about our gardens. What joy we had dreaming of our flowers to come! Helen introduced me to several new ideas for butterfly gardens, while Annette and I talked about flowers that easily reseed. Sharing my vegetable gardening tales with friends reminded me NOT to plant more turnips but to again plant lots of peppers; we all agreed that there is nothing quite as tasty as a pickled organic garden pepper, enjoyed right from the jar during the winter. I’ve got notes from last year, but talking with friends about gardening on a January day when it’s only about 20 degrees outside helped me remember all the things I want to do differently this year. I am already starting to get cabin fever, and it’s only early January. If we get a day above 40, I’m heading out to turn the compost pile.

This weekend I used up most of the remaining garden carrots and the last of the beets. Two lonely turnips remain in the fridge bin waiting their turn in mashed potato and turnip dishes. I straightened up my freezer and found bags more of green beans, peppers, corn on the cob, and Swiss chard. Snow still covers my raised beds, so I can’t pick whatever spinach, lettuce and chard was there in winter.

It’s time to think of those seeds. What will I plant? I’ve marked down six butterfly gardening perennial seed packets from Swallowtail Garden Seeds. I plan to add new varieties of Echinacea because they did so well, as well as Gaillardia and Salvia. Aescalpia tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) is on the list to plant, along with the Missouri Primrose. I’ve started sketching out a new flower bed, very small but filled with more butterfly-attracting flowers. It will be right at the end of the pathway that leads to my front porch. Now that we’ve lived in the house for two summers, I know the best views from my rocker on the porch, and I plan to fill those views with flowers!

A lovely gift of long term food storage seeds arrived from Hometown Garden Seeds; thank you, Chelsea! I’ve never grown some of these and they will be welcome additions to my vegetable garden.

As for the annuals, I am planting three new snapdragon varieties from seeds. I love the bronze to golden yellow snaps, and I didn’t plant nearly enough last year. I’ve had them winter over, so they seem to be like tender perennials here instead of annuals. And as for zinnias…the bigger the better. Giant, giant and giant!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d better get back to work. Got to earn the money for my seeds somehow!