Seed catalogs :)

[yarborough house]

Okay my mailbox has been bombarded by seed catalogs and I am in heaven and hell. Heaven because I can't wait to get my hands dirty and start gardening and spending so much money at nurseries..but hell well because it is cold and I can't do it..no fair.

So, what ideas do you all have for spring planting? Any plans worked out? Any veggie gardens? Any seed or plant catalogs you swear by?

Share away.

[Heather]

Tammy can you start some of your seeds indoors?

[yarborough house]

Heather - I am trying that right now. We have tried to grow pumpkins for two years now so we started pumpkins and they are getting quite large so I need spring to come so I can get them in the ground.

[Heather]

I've always had luck planting pumkins later, like in the middle of summer and in no time they grow just huge.

[yarborough house]

Never thought of that..planting later..but to get them by Halloween we kinda have to plant them early on..and it gets so hot here to plant them later would be hard..but I will grab a pack and try that out this year.

Had to bump that nasty porn crap down a bit from above..hate spam

[shabbychick]

I bought some seed packets from Home Depot. I've never actually tried seed catalogs. I usually plant starts, but this year I'm going to try some seeds. I got a lemon sunflower, California poppies, violas, and sweet peas. I'll plant the sweet peas along a wall where I have a trellis, sow the poppy seeds in the same bed but further from the wall (where the hyacinth is currently beginning to bloom) and probably put both the violas and the sunflower in a large container. I'll be planting lettuce again this year as well as tomatoes and some herbs.

I bought the seeds for the school's container garden last weekend, and we went out and bought the lumber last night after work. Next week we'll get the boxes assembled and order the dirt, and then we'll be in business. I bought early-maturing plants for the school garden so the kids can harvest them before school gets out in June. I will plant one bed of corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins as a sort of Colonial American garden so we can use that when this year's 7th graders start 8th grade next year and begin the year studying Colonial America. Another teacher and I have volunteered to tend that garden bed over the summer so we don't have to rely on students. I was surprised not to find very many herb seeds at Home Depot when I bought the vegetable and fruit seeds. I've still got to get my hands on chives, rosemary, and a few other things.

I would love to plant Gerbera Daisies in my home garden this year. Last year I planted a couple from starts and they did well in a container all summer. I'd like to try them from seed this year but didn't see any seeds at the store. Maybe I'll have to send away for them. They sure make a lovely cut flower.

[Gigi]

I don't have a green thumb in any way :(-- so I look forward to hearing about everyone's gardens, etc...

[Carrie]

I have lot's of plans. I just can't do them yet. :( It is so hard too because the temperature is fifty-three degrees! This is the first break in the weather I've seen in almost four weeks.
A lot of my plants should be coming back. I need to give the decorative grasses a haircut soon, before the weather gets warm. I see bulbs starting to poke up, so that's good! I planted cone flowers in the front yard, and I think they come back to life. The rose bush will need to be trimmed, the concord grapes will need to be unwrapped from cage I put around them to grow up when they were babies and I will be starting them up the back of my potting shed. I need to fluff the mulch and pop the brick stones back up since the rain made them fall over. I want to set up the new raised garden.
I haven't begun to figure out all my plants yet. I want a few annuals to go with my perenials. Maybe some more plants that always come back.
I think I need to apply for some seed catalogues. They might keep me busy while waiting for Spring. I need some more sunflowers.
I have been thinking of buying some wildflower seeds to throw out in the field in front of my house. There is an area where the farmer doesn't plant and the grasses get long. It would be cool to see lots of flowers out there.

[ChapterTwo]

Gigi, my friend...you need gardening confidence! :) You should start off by buying a pack or two of Black-eyed Susans. They are soooo easy - just plant and watch them grow (flowering from around June to frost)! Extremely fuss-free, very tolerant and what's better still - they multiply each year (or you can take the heads off after summer and plant wherever you want, next year). Once you experience success with them, you'll feel better about going further in your gardening.

[yarborough house]

Jeesh it was so nice and warm and sunny for a change- it about killed me not to be able to start planting something..Patience I know but I have none when it comes to gardening- I want it now...haha

[chyna]

Know what you mean about the heaven/hell. I'm getting catalogues and starting to wonder what my zone is. I used to......:o I also have this thing for wanting trees and shrubs and not sure where to put them.

[Heather]

I don't get any seed catalogs - I guess they don't know about me yet...

[yarborough house]

heather that means you haven't ordered enough junk so they can sell your address to everyone.. :) but you can go online and have the catalogs sent to you..

[memmey]

Today my front wooden door is open and I am using the screen door. It is warm and a little windy. Next week they said we may have snow again.??????? My yard is dead and brown and ugly. Some of the tropicals have melted to mush and the oak leaves are covering everything. The HUGE banana trees are slop and they weigh a ton .

I am planning to have to weed eat alot of the ferns down. The exteme cold here has burned all of them. I am thinking about moving rose bushes and adding annuals to the back yard/doggie yard. My pets are old . I hope they don't dig in the fresh beds. We will see.

I don't know if you know about a hardy little plant called melampodium ? It takes the extreme heat and it's has little yellow flowers. That is one excellent plant! You can collect the seeds and sow them anywhere. I used to have a skirt of them around my house in North Louisiana. They are about knee high or better and lush and wonderful. A very worthy plant.:)

[chyna]

Mem
Your ferns should come back from the roots, or at least ours do and they get buried under snow for weeks if not months. :( As for the mush, yuck!!!!

I do find those catalogues depressing because nearly all the really pretty flowers are sooo out of my zone they just don't mature in time to die in the fall. There are so many neat plants out there.:o

[CohenCottage]

I don't get any seed catalogs either Heather. Wonder how we get on their list? I sure do get every other catalog out there...

[yarborough house]

Just go online and order one seed catalog and then watch them roll in...

[mac78]

I have never ordered out of the seed catalogs. I get them all though because I requested them online. There stuff always looks so beautiful and my stuff always so lame. :( My little corner flower bed I did last year never amounted to much, I even put in humus and a few bags of other "stuff" to help it along, transplanted lots of plants, and it look sick till the snow covered it up. I went around my flower bed and gathered seeds and pitched them in the gardgen area, so I am hoping that this year some things sprout up and it fills up.

I never have luck with seeds, but may try again. I love flowers and all, just not very good at it.

[chyna]

I've had better luck with the companies that others tell you to watch out for and then a supposedly great company like Burpees has disappointed me greatly. You just can't win I swear.