Things to Consider When Ordering from Seed Catalogs

It’s January when the seed catalogs usually start coming in. So many! All the plants and food looks so pretty and fresh. You want to grow it all! Before you start acting like a crazy plant lady/man and ordering all the seeds and plants you should consider a few things.

1. What do you have space for? How much garden space do you have available? Read the planting instructions for what you are considering ordering. Some need a few inches of spacing, some more. How many carrots or tomato plants can you realistically fit in the space you have?
2. What will you eat? This is not a good time to try out a new food. Growing from seed takes a lot of work, you don’t want to waste time growing a product that you are not going to enjoy.
3. What do you want to preserve? If you are planning on canning what you grow you will need a lot more of the product. Also, because not everything is ripe at the same time, growing extra make it more likely that you have enough product for a canning session.
4. What is its purpose? What are you going to make with your product? Are you going to use your cucumbers for salads or for pickles? The great thing about ordering from a catalog is the amount of options you have. Catalogs describe flavor and state what each type of product is best for.
5. What will grow well together? Some plants don’t grow well together and some do very well together, enough so that they will help each other grow. Before you order seeds, look into companion planting. Make sure that what you plan on purchasing will grow with each other or make sure you have enough space in your garden to separate plants. The Farmers Almanac has an easy to read companion planting guide.
6. Would it be better to buy it as a plant? Do you only need one cucumber plant? Why buy a seed packet of 25 when you can buy the plant itself. Then you don’t have to go through all the work. I enjoy growing from seed, so even though I only need a few pumpkin plants I will still grow them from seed. If you have extra plants you can share them with friends or neighbors.
7. Have enough seeds to grow extra plants. Make sure you have extra seeds! Most likely, not all your plants will germinate. Have extra seeds, and grow extra seedlings, to make sure you have enough plants. Like I said before, you can always gift your extras.
8. Where do you live? Know your zone! Be aware of how long your growing season is. Check the days to maturity of the variety of seed you are interested in. If you have a short growing season then it would be safer to choose a variety that has a quicker days to maturity.