Let's Order Seeds

"If every person in the world put the same energy into gardening that he or she spent watching television, the whole world could be a garden again. Gardening is an act of hope, an affirmation of what is possible. Read a newspaper. Then read a seed catalog. Which one makes you feel more hopeful?" (Source: Jeff Taylor. Sowing Serenity. In Yoga Journal, May/June 1999, 160ff.)

Glinda, with Melanie and Richard, write:

That magical time is here. The seed catalogs arrived with their smiling faces interspersed with the warm holiday greetings. Since the holidays, we are getting 3-4 catalogs a day. We each are pouring over them, taking notes, remembering last summer's lessons, dreaming a little bigger than last year, but not too big. We are also going through the seeds we have saved the last few years.

For this year's garden, the 3 of us mostly gravitate toward different objectives and plants. Richard is leading on beans, corn, squash, melons, potatoes, onions. Plus, Richard leads up our effort to plant sorghum for family molasses making in the fall. Melanie intends to integrate principles of permaculture, which includes seeing relationships between all things: plants, bugs, people, chickens, soil, soil organisms, air, water. Everything is related. She, like Richard and me, are at the edge of a learning curve. Or is it a cliff? Melanie leads on lettuces, specialty plants, poultry forage, pickling cucumbers, soybeans, greens, medicinal and culinary herbs. Richard and Melanie are collaborating on tomatoes, peppers, carrots and peas. I am responsible for sweet potatoes, my favorite beans (limas and horticultural), beets, spinach, sunflowers, child's garden. Melanie and I intend to bring a profusion of flowers into the veggie garden. I am also working on overall garden design. The artist already has some ideas. I am also heading up the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" in front of the house and will discuss this later.

We will order this week. While January is always the time for us to order, it seems odd this year. Such doin's are usually accompanied by robust winter weather. The weather was in the 60s yesterday with heavy rain last night. Some areas of the midwest reported tornados with the clash of fronts. Fortunately, we did not. Since we spent the last 32 winters in North Dakota, we do not have much of a frame for comparison. However, these are not the Missouri winters Richard and I remember from 38 years ago.

Our favorite seed catalogs are: Burpee's, Seeds of Change, Gurney's, Seed Savers, Shumway's.
Bottom photo: These bean seeds are from Richard's dry edible bean patch, 2007.

Note: The quote at the beginning of this post came from an article shared by gardening kindred spirit, Dan Svedarsky. Thanks, Dan!