Most of you have probably had some seed catalogs show up in your mail by now. Some of mine came around Christmas so I stuck them away to enjoy later. My later was about a month long so now I am finally pulling them out to enjoy them.

Seed and flower catalogs are my weakness. I just love to look at all the produce and imagine what beautiful garden I will have this year. And all the flowers make me just wish it was spring.

Before I get too deep into my catalogs, I like to check all my seeds that I have left from prior years.  I make a list of which ones I will need to buy. Most years I buy the same amount of beans, corn, carrots, beats, and lettuce seeds.

I enjoy the seed catalogs for the pictures and learning about the new kinds of plants.  I actually never buy seeds through the mail as some of our local stores sell seeds in 1/2 pound and one pound packs of my favorite varieties.

Just today I walked into one of those stores and saw that the seeds are all on display. Somehow having 5 degree weather did not seem like the day to think about gardening.  The flower seeds did take my attention and I wondered if I should dig out my seed starting trays. That thought I put aside for another day as today I was in a hurry.

Another fun thing to do with the catalogs is to use them to plot out your garden. I know exactly how many 75 foot rows I plant of each kind of vegetable so I can decide how I want to plant them. I like to rotate my vegetables each year so they are not at the same spot as last year.

The seed catalogs usually have flowers in them and that is my favorite part. Which plants will do good in my climate and which ones will not survive. Check out which planting zone you are in and buy accordingly.

Every year I like to start a new perennial that I never had before. I have a seed starting bed where I plant the seeds and then by summer’s end I can usually transplant it in a permanent bed. So by looking at the catalogs I can try to narrow it down to just one or two plants. That way when I go shopping for seeds I can have it down on my list and not spend half the day wondering which one is the best one  to buy.

Usually once a year I do order some plants from the catalogs. They send such good money saving coupons that I just can’t resist! I do find that those plants usually are very hard to keep alive and I prefer just buying seeds as they seem to grow better for me.

If you don’t mind having your catalogs cut up, you can let your children cut out pictures of the plants that you plan to grow. Cut out two of the same plant and laminate  them together. Place a popsicle stick up the bottom and you have lovely markers for your garden rows.

Well, I think I must go look through my catalogs again and figure out which will be the top perennial for me this year and which kinds of pumpkins I will raise. What is your favorite plant to grow?