Cold Climate Gardening

I mentioned in a recent post that I use a spreadsheet to plan my garden purchases. Others have mentioned using a spreadsheet to track their seed sowing. But that doesn’t help you much if you don’t know a spreadsheet from a tablecloth, so let’s start right there: a spreadsheet is a computer program that arranges numbers in a table and allows you to make calculations in the cells of the table. When you change the number in one cell used in a calculation (called a formula), it recalculates the formula and updates the answer. Very handy.

The most common spreadsheet program is Excel, made by Microsoft. Most people get it included in Microsoft Office, or the less powerful version, Microsoft Works. Many home computers come with one or the other of these, but not all. A free alternative would be Calc, but that involves a huge download and a lot of disk space. Another alternative is Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which is what I am going to use for my tutorial.

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Don of An Iowa Garden gets the prize–uh, actually, there is no prize–gets the glory for the First Snowdrop of 2007, North American Division. Shucks, it’s hardly any fun when it’s over this early. If anyone had one blooming earlier in January than the 6th, well, did you get a picture?

Special mention must go to Old Roses–as well as Don–for documenting the last snowdrops of 2006. In autumn. Some snowdrops are supposed to bloom in autumn, but these were just precocious spring ones. Actually, a lot of people consider them late winter flowers, but we’re already splitting enough hairs here.

What’s that? You say you …

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Spring-like warmth and an absence of snow have conspired to create irresistible conditions for working outside in the garden. But not much beyond a little cleaning, mulching, and pruning can be done, as the soil is soaked and soggy and, as tempting as it is, it’s much too early to sow seeds outside. I’m channeling my gardening urges into planning the gardens and beds for this year and what seeds I would like to grow and/or need to realize the Versailles of my mind.

Seed catalogs have been piling up in neglected must-read piles for several months but I hadn’t the heart or inclination to attend to them until now. I am just as easily seduced by their pictures and descriptions of the newest and greatest as anyone and can see my garden flooded with their luscious colors and visions of Elysian Fields here on Earth. Or something like it.

Most of the generalist catalogs don’t offer clues to the originators of their seeds. How many of you know which seed companies developed Explorer Petunias, Majestic Giants Pansies, and Zowie! Yellow Flame Zinnia? If you said PanAmerican, Sakata, and Goldsmith you are either in the industry or unusually observant and informed.

So what goes into making all those beautiful plants in seed form available to us? My work in the flower department for a large wholesale seed company gained me invaluable seed sowing, germinating, and growing knowledge as well as an understanding of the research behind something as seemingly simple as a seed.

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Barbara Damrosch rightly points out that not only is this a good time of year (for us Northerners, at least) to be thinking about what to plant in the vegetable garden next year, but it’s also a good time to think about that garden on a more FUNdamental level:

If your vegetable garden isn’t fun anymore, this is a good time to ask why it’s not . . . . A garden that becomes a burden is easy to avoid, so that by fall it’s a disaster you can’t face at all. Instead of promising yourself to do better next year, see if you can figure out just what makes that spring-planted Eden slide downhill. Use the tranquil dormant period

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Have you ever gotten ready to order from a mail order seed or plant merchant, only to discover if you’d ordered a few days sooner you could have gotten a discount or a freebie? I have. It’s more than annoying–it makes me feel like I’m losing my penny-pinching touch. So I decided that this year I’d keep better track. And if I’m going to use my computer to keep track, it isn’t that much harder to stick it up where everyone else can take advantage of it. So here it is.

Deals are discounts or free offers. They’re organized alphabetically. Deadlines are dates, either for the expiration of the deals, or last day to order, unless the last day to order is the last day of the year. They’re organized chronologically. Keep in mind, though, that just because you can order in June doesn’t mean the item will be in stock. Also keep in mind that some catalogs may offer deals only to certain customers, to try to tempt them to buy. If you don’t fit their criteria the offer may not show up on your version of the catalog.

I don’t get every catalog printed (thank goodness), so feel free to alert me of other deadlines and deals through the comments or my contact form, but limit yourselves to firms that ship to the United States. I hope to turn this post into a page that will be visible in the sidebar, so you can check more easily for updates. If for some reason you’re not getting enough catalogs, check out Cyndi’s Garden Catalog Web Sites.

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Carol at May Dreams Gardens wrote a series of thought-provoking questions on the gardener’s relationship to seeds. I decided to answer in my own blog, and I hope you do, too. More intriguing and less silly than all those memes going around.

Do you carefully read all of the seed catalogs sent to you and then browse the Internet to compare and contrast all the options, then decide which seeds to buy?

I used to read every seed catalog that came in the house. And I would figure out the cost-per-seed for each variety I was interested in. (And this before electronic spreadsheets became common!) Eventually I realized the shipping cost could offset any savings realized.

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I am getting ready to upgrade my software from WordPress 1.5.2 to 2.0.8. I have to deactivate all my plugins. This will make the site look weird. Then I have to delete and reinstall. This will give you a 404 error. Then it will (Lord willing) be up and running again, but without the plugins, so still looking weird. Then, I will add the plugins back in, and it will look as it always has. At least, that is my intention.
So long.
Farewell.
Adieu.
Update: Done. I’m back. I think everything works. Let me know if you find something broken. For my next trick, I will attempt to change the theme. But not tonight. Enough for one day.

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