If you want to grow anything unusual or unique this year, it is definitely time to get your seeds ordered, (if you haven’t already.)  I got my seeds in the mail last week.  The seed companies I worked with this year (Botanical Interests and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) were awesome and got my stuff to me super fast. These have been two of my favorite seed companies to work with but I have also heard great things about Seed Saver’s Exchange, Bountiful Gardens, and High Mowing Seeds.  I get an amazing variety from Baker Creek and their catalog is a beautiful and amazing, yet the packaging from Botanical Interests just makes me feel like I got a present in the mail.  They are both great companies and I have never had a problem with either one of them.

See how pretty the Botanical Interests order is?  The Baker Creek catalog trumps the Botanical Interests catalog, but they have nothing on their packaging.  The Baker Creek order came in a plain bubble wrap envelope.  But hey, it’s not what on the outside, but what’s inside that counts, right?  And I am pretty darn excited about what is inside both these packages.

I ordered more than usual this year, as I am in the process of converting all of my plants over to be open-pollinated and sourced from companies that take a firm stance against GMO crops.  Open pollinated basically means that you can save the seeds from your plants and grow the same plants again next year, as opposed to Hybrid (or F1) seeds that you could plant, but you are probably not going to get the same traits of the plant you saved them from. Hybrid crops aren’t bad, they aren’t necessarily GMO – I make sure that I use companies that don’t sell GMO seeds, but I still want to be able to save my own of most of my seeds to use again.  So theoretically, my expensive (mostly open-pollinated) seed order should end up saving money over the long haul.  HOWEVER, we all know that when those seed catalogs start showing up every spring, I can’t help but find all kinds of new things I want to try growing.  So it may not be much of a savings in the end. 😉

I ended up starting one flat of the early, cold weather things – onions, lettuces, artichokes, etc.

I think that in the next few nights I am going to start my tomatoes and peppers and a bunch of pretty flowers.  Technically, it is quite a bit earlier than the seed packets recommend you start them inside, but I find that (possibly because I am extraordinarily-challenged when taking care of indoor plants) they need the extra time to get to be properly sized to go in the garden.  Mostly, you just don’t want them flowering yet before you go to plant them.  From what I understand, if they have already started to bloom and then you go to transplant them, you won’t get as good of a yield as you would otherwise.  But, then I have also read that this is not necessarily true for tomatoes.  They will usually transplant fine, even with a few small fruits.  So, take it with a grain of salt I guess.  Either way, I have never found this to be a problem for me.  My plants are no where near flowering when I get them in the ground.  I started a bunch of my tomatoes and peppers last year around February 4 and they were just right going in our soil in early May.

The last frost date in my area is supposed to be around May 10.  But the weather feels weird to me.  I went outside today to play with the kids because this was the first sunny day we have had in forever and there were hyacinths coming out of the ground on the south side of the house.  It’s not even February yet.  What the heck are the hyacinths thinking???  I know they are cold weather, early spring flowers, but I haven’t even seen the crocuses yet.  Usually they are the first green things I see.  I looked back in my files and it was clear into March when I first saw the crocuses in past years.  So I am going on a hunch and betting that it is going to be an early spring in my area at least.  I will throw my bet in with the flowers.  I suppose they know more than I do about when it is time to wake up in the spring.

Plus this weekend is Superbowl Sunday.  For gardeners, this is also known as Super Sow Sunday.  So get your seeds started.  Soon.  And if you don’t have any, get them ordered or see if you have a local seed bank in your town.  Apparently there is a seed bank in our town at our local library that I just found out about.  A free seed exchange.  You might check around.  I have no idea how I didn’t already know about this.  I plan to check ours out in a couple of days.  Happy sowing!