Dream, dream, dream............

Typically, in January I would encourage you to curl up with an afghan, hot cup of tea and a seed catalog.  During the recent January warm spell, I could have advised you to put your sweatshirt on and take a walk around your yard instead.  I just love this planning part of my gardening year!  We can conjure up all sorts of ideas without all of the actual work (yet) :-)

  However you spend your planning time, I hope you are getting excited about your Spring garden.  The seed catalogs have been arriving since December so you should have your stack by now. I try to grow something different each year.  This year it's going to be okra and blue potatoes.  I confess to not being a huge okra fan although I plan to try some different recipes with it.  My main interest in okra is the plant itself.  I saw two different plantings of it last season and it has a huge presence in the garden.  The foliage and blossoms are gorgeous. 

Row of Okra approximately 5 ft tall

Okra blossom

Blue potatoes have been in the health news lately.  Besides being a nice conversation starter, they are high in antioxidants.  Have you tried them?  I haven't, but I have a small bag on the counter so will be trying them soon!

 I admire those of you who order actual seeds to early start vegetables and flowers.  I have spent a respectable amount of early growing seasons trying to start those tiny plants.  When I think about it, starting them isn't the problem.  It's getting them to grow to a transplantable size that gives me heartburn!  I know that some of you have great luck with setting up growing stations on a card table or sunny window seal.  Doesn't work for me.  K-State has instructions for using growing lights with adjustable heights.  This technique would definitely work ........ I don't have a good place to set the system up. 

Adjustable Grow Light

I wish my vegetable garden looked like this!

I order seeds that I can plant directly in my garden soil.  Some flowers, but also cucumber, green beans, beets, greens etc...  Besides the old standby catalogs, I have a few catalogs and websites that I have also successfully ordered and grown from.  I also have a couple of new catalogs that were discussed at our last advanced Master Gardener training and a couple that our County Agent uses.   I will list these below so that you can see what you think of them. 

highcountrygardens.com
jungseed.com
johnnyseeds.com
whiteflowerfarm.com
morgancountyseeds.com
grandpasorchard.com

Again, this is NOT my garden, but oh how I wish it were!  I need to work a little harder to eventually get to this!  Are you noticing that there is a general "mixing" of plants throughout this garden?  I am really liking the interest this creates.