Seed Catalogs

I LOVE when the seed catalogs start arriving. My garden isn't even winterized yet (I'm very behind), and I'm already thinking about next year! Dreaming about gardening, learning about gardening and planning my garden help keep me sane during the long, cold Wisconsin winter.

I don't need many seeds-if any!-this year, and with the new baby coming, my garden next year will be small or non-existent. But I still pour over the catalogs, reading every description, imagining how each variety will fit in my current garden or my dream garden of someday.

Both of my two favorite catalogs have arrived. I'll probably get a few more throughout the winter, but these two are the ones I wait for. I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds the first year we moved into this house. They are a great company and I was very pleased with them. I kept the leftover seeds for several years and had great germination rates. They also have a great selection of gardening-related stuff- from gift sets to fertilizer to harvesting baskets and soap-making supplies. I love using the book section to find new books to read during the winter.

Two years ago, and again last year, several friends and I created a very informal seed co-op, so we wouldn't end up with so many extra seeds and could share costs. We ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I always tried to grow heirlooms before, when I could find them, and now here was a whole catalog of nothing but heirlooms! I loved it. But when we had a problem with our order last year* and discovered how amazing the Baker Street customer service is, I was hooked! Nothing gets my repeat business like amazing customer service.

Happy Farming!


*Some seed packets were missing and my friend didn't know if she had misplaced them or if they hadn't been sent. We decided to call after looking everywhere and the woman we talked to was awesome about it. She looked at our order and what was missing and said since all of the second page of our order was missing, it was probably never sent. The person who picked the order probably missed the second page. We had them within a few days. (We never found any misplaced seeds, so I'm sure now they weren't sent, but how many customer service reps would hear, "We might have misplaced them" and reply with, "No, no, I'm sure this was our mistake" ? Not many!)