Seed Catalogs

With all the freezing cold outside (and trust me; it is freezing cold outside) the thing that helps save my sanity is the flood of seed catalogs I get every winter. (Odd considering I usually hate junk mail.)

The good old fashioned seed catalogs 1) Remind me what growing things look like, as opposed to all the white frozen stuff around me. 2) Causes me to think about experimenting with varieties of vegetables I haven't tried before. 3) Offer help with problems I have growing things.

Case in point: a good many of my neighbors seem to be able to grow strawberries and blueberries. I have spent a shameful amount of money trying to do likewise to no avail. I have yet to harvest a single berry; just a lot of dead plants. (hangs head in shame)

We received a nice big seed catalog from the Jung Seed Company (No, I am not affiliated with them in any way!) and my husband got to it first. He suddenly says, "Hey, I think I found your problem." (This could cover so many things!) I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He smiled. "Your dead blueberries," he elaborated, and handed me the catalog. 

Now, aside from the numerous seeds and plants offered in seed catalogs, they also offer tidbits about why one might be having a particular problem and of course the products they sell to remedy the situation. We had our farm soil tested last year and they all had pretty much the same result: our soil is neutral, as in, not acidic at all, especially around where I plant our food. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow. Well, I'll be. I have some work to do this spring and I will be getting the suggested products either from the catalog or locally if I can find it. Quite frankly, plants seldom survive the journey from any company to our farm anyway (like sweet potatoes-ahhh!), but the seeds and other products do well and if not available locally, I will go to the catalogs.

                                                   

                                    

            Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

             Stock Photo - image ID: 10090261

What I have started is my own gardening book of sorts and you can too. Peruse the catalogs for the types of produce, flowers, bushes, trees, etcetera, you prefer and see if they have growing tips and troubleshooting tidbits. Cut them out of the catalog and put them in a binder by category. That way you can find them easily when you run into something with your plants. This is fairly inexpensive –you still will need a binder and something on which to collect the articles. Print off articles you may find online or cut out agricultural articles in magazines and trade newspapers (I have done this for animal health) and add them to your binder. You can also obtain leaflets from your state's university extension service. It is way less expensive than buying an entire book, or books, just for one or two problems and you have what you need at your fingertips. 

Now, if someone could just help me with those strawberries!