It's January - that means it's Seed Catalog time!

It's a dark and dreary January afternoon. The garden is soggy and bedraggled, but our mailbox has been filling up with seed catalogs and gardening magazines. 

So I've been spending some time reading and dreaming. After all, what's a gardener to do when it's too cold and wet to get out in the garden?

Found on Facebook :-)

Most seed companies will be happy to send you a free catalog.

Here are some links to get you started:

Annie's Heirloom Seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Burpee Seed

Gurney's Seed and Nursery Co.

Native American Seed Co.

Park Seed

Seed Savers Exchange

*****

If you live in the UK, you can request a catalogue from these companies

Marshall's Seeds

Sutton's Seeds

Thompson and Morgan

*****

Of course, most of these companies have their full seed catalog available for online browsing, often with articles about seed starting and other gardening subjects.  But on a cold winter's day, I feel there's nothing quite like curling up in your favorite armchair with a mug of something hot and a pile of seed catalogs.

Happy armchair gardening to you all!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Time to Plan for Spring

It's that time of year.  It seems like no sooner do the Christmas decorations get taken down, than the seed and plant catalogs arrive in the mailbox.

I'll be first to admit, I tend to get a bit too ambitious as I browse through the catalogs, either circling, or putting large red stars on things that look I want to try, or that just look interesting.

But hey, that's half the fun!

  
Our vegetable garden is tiny, but to see me go through catalogs, you'd think we had acres of tilled earth just waiting for seeds to be sown!

This year, I think I will limit myself to a few simple veggies that are easy to grow, and that I know we will eat -- tomatoes, beans, snap peas etc., and also some flowers to turn the island bed into a butterfly garden.  I spotted a nice mix of Profusion zinnia in a variety of colors that I will be ordering soon.

What have you seen in the seed and garden catalogs that you want to try this year?


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

A little inspiration!

There's nothing like the annual deluge of garden-related magazines and catalogs in the mailbox to get the creative gardening juices flowing!

Which catalog or gardening magazine do you most look forward to

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Miscellaneous Musings

After last year's drought, I have a tendancy to get excited if we get any significant amount of rainfall.

Imagine my joy then, when we got over three inches last Wednesday.  Of course the problem with getting over three inches of rain in one day is that it tends to lead to flooding. As it happened, we were lucky and by afternoon it had cleared up, so the street flooding that often occurs around freeway off ramps and service roads had, for the most part, cleared up by evening drive time.


I was actually home from work on that day and spent the day indoors, watching the water gushing out of the downspouts and out to the street to the storm drain.


It was raining so hard and so fast that the water started pooling in the back garden and I got worried about flooding.

 Eventually though,  most of it soaked in to the ground (I'm sure the pine tree was loving it) and the swales around the house took the excess water out to the street too and out to the storm drains.

The sight of the steady stream of runoff between the houses to the street got me thinking about something else I read about last week. 


As I watched the steady stream of runoff water, I felt relieved to note that I don't use any kind of chemicals on the yard, so we weren't contributing any pollutants to the local streams and rivers through the storm drain system.

Fellow gardeners have probably heard about the proposed partnership between NWF, National Wildlife Federation and Scotts Miracle-Gro in NWF's Be Out There program, aimed at getting kids outside and reconnected with the outdoors and with nature.


There was a firestorm of opposition in various blogs around the internet, as well as on Facebook and Twitter from people who couldn't understand why an organization which condemns the use of pesticides and other chemicals in the garden and promotes gardening for nature would partner with the company which makes its money selling said pesticides and chemicals, such as Round Up.


Now I'll admit, I've used Miracle-Gro on my houseplants and a few years ago I spent way too much money having Scotts come out quarterly and treat the lawn, before I learned about the benefits of organic gardening.


I've even got Miracle-Gro Organic Choice fertilizer in the garage now and use it, and I feed the birds in the garden with Scotts No-Mess Patio Blend seed, which they relish.

So I'm not totally anti- Scotts or Miracle-Gro, but I did feel a little disappointment that my recently NWF-certified wildlife habitat was now a little tainted by the association with Scotts in the minds of many gardeners.


I read later in the week that an issue had come up involving a pending legal settlement that Scotts were involved, dating back to 2008, in which they had not disclosed to NWF. 

Because of that pending legal settlement, NWF announced that the partnership would be ended


NWF is still going ahead with the Be Out There campaign, which I highly endorse -- I spent my whole childhood outdoors and loving it and often think how kids today are missing out on something great.  I hope the program is a success.


Something that might get myself and my husband outside more in the near future has been the arrival of seemingly every seed and plant catalog in existance!

We're planning a small vegetable garden on the unused east side of the house. It will be raised and will be created using bricks left over from the building of the house, which have been taking up room in our garage since we moved in.


I'll keep you updated as it progresses. 


And finally, we added a new birdhouse in the back corner. I think it adds a cottage garden look to the garden.

I hope Mrs. Wren or Mrs. Chickadee like it.
 

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Armchair Gardener

 This weekend has been quite mild and I had planned to get out in the garden today and do some cleanup.  But when I looked outside this morning, I was dismayed to see overcast skies and the sort of drizzle that the English weather I grew up with is famous for. The gardening will have to wait...


So what's a gardener to do when the weather outside isn't suitable for gardening?

One of my favorite things to do is sit and read gardening books, magazines, or any of the myriad seed and flower catalogs that show up in the mailbox at this time of year.

Garden Gate is a magazine I've subscribed to since last year.  I love the garden plans and in some cases they'll offer regional variations, so you can get the same "look" using plants that are suitable for your area of the country.  That's something that has frustrated me with other magazines and catalogs -- falling in love with a plant, only to find it's not suited to my zone.

Gardening Made Easy is an easy-to-browse book. It has a section on garden styles -- formal, romantic, modernist, cottage garden, cook's garden etc. as well as lots of lovely garden plans. There are also informative how-to sections, such as how to divide perennials, how to start vegetable seeds etc.  Experienced gardeners probably wouldn't get much out of the book, but for an enthusiastic beginner like myself, the book is a comfortable blend of inspiration and practical information.

One of my favorite books this winter has been Projects for the Birder's Garden.  My husband rolled his eyes when he saw the word "projects", thinking it would mean a list of honey-do's a mile long. But actually many of the projects are very simple - like making tray feeders and bird baths from clay plant saucers.

For sheer eye candy, it's hard to beat Birds and Blooms.  I get the magazine every other month and love browsing through the glorious photos (while all the time wishing I could take photos like those). The magazine combines two of my favorite topics, so it's a win-win for me!


What are your favorite gardening magazines or books?


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.