Countdown to Spring - Well, It Had to Happen

Today, I shall not discuss snow and snow shoveling.  I think I've clearly established that I'm tired of the precipitation type and the action required to remove it from places where I walk.  Tomorrow, we're supposed to have a little more, as in 1-3" of snow mixed in with rain.  I can deal with it because after that, temperatures will be in the 40's all week.  Let the snowmelt BEGIN!

Did I say I wasn't going to discuss snow?  I digressed.  It's hard not to.  It's still February, after all.

But, I am here to talk about spring fever, which I have and it's right on time, and how I deal with it.  I have need of green and not just the green of my houseplants.  I need new green, new growth, that which can only come from starting seeds.  Some might say that it's too early for it.  I say they're wrong.  January is too early.  I started tomatoes one time in January and had fruit developing in March.  Much as I love home-grown tomatoes because the flavor usually runs circles around store-bought, my early crop was a little boring, or what I refer to as cardboardy, and I vowed never to let my spring fever control my gardener ways like that again.

Late February is still a little early to be starting veggies.  But herbs, now that's a different story.  If all you want is green, starting herbs now is the way to go.  It's all leaves, all green, all shiny and new, and it does a spring fevered heart good to see them pop through the surface of the soil and make their way into the world.

So, I headed toward my local produce store, where they always have their seed display out by January 1st each year.  They also have a greenhouse, where I'll go when I need a serious "fix" of exposure to flowers, herbs and developing vegetable plants.  I wandered up and down the rows of seeds, looking at the pictures on the packets and knowing damn well my plants were never going to look that good.  I had specific plans on herb seed starting - sage, rosemary, and thyme (no, silly – parsley is started later in the season).  Last year, I started sage, thyme and oregano, but I only got the oregano to winter over inside and it's gotten seriously scraggly looking - not enough sunlight, mostly.  But by the time the seeds get growing, there will be light aplenty.  So I plunked down my green paper (money) for five packets of spring fever remedy and headed home.

What I forgot in my glee of buying those seeds was the soil to start them.  Yeah, Lauren, something to grow them in.  Duh!  It's okay, I can wait two days to go get that.  Why not go tomorrow?  Because it's going to snow – again.

Only 27 days until Spring.

Countdown to Spring: Let's Kill Some Trees

I didn't get out a ruler and measure it, but it looks like we got another 4" of fluffy dry white stuff from the latest winter storm.  I was out at around 3:30 in the morning moving the snow off my porch and sidewalks and, of course, the car – and I was up anyway, in case you're curious.  It wasn't windy at that hour, but I knew it was going to turn blustery later on, so I figured I might as well get it done before the wind chill factors took a nosedive.

As the day went by, I began my quest to find seeds online.  I visited the websites of about 10 companies.  Some were like old friends, companies I bought seeds from in the past.  Others, while I knew their names, I'd never done business with them.  I perused webpage after webpage, drooling over the most perfect specimens of vegetables, flowers, herbs, trees, etc. that could be photographed. They never turn out looking that wonderful in the average garden or yard. However, these places are not just selling a product, they're selling a dream, a paradise that could be yours for the humble price of .... HOW MUCH?

Yes, the prices online were pretty similar to what I saw in that one seed display I looked at the other day.  Factor in the shipping and, for the most part, it cost less to buy the seeds locally.  There was one exception, a seed coop company, where I saw prices for seeds  like I haven't seen in at least five years.  Even with the shipping charges, they appear to still cost less than what I could purchase locally.
There is one thing I grow every year, though, that I can only find in one company's catalog and it's not my more economical seed coop place.  So, there will likely be two orders going out soon.

However, I found myself yearning to continue the journey through pictures and descriptions of perfect plants, a sojourn that could be continued away from the computer.  Yes, I wanted catalogs.  They don't send them out automatically anymore since it costs them money to produce and mail them and they're not necessarily recouping those costs in the sale of goods.  Maybe that's why the prices make my eyes bug out to look at them.  Anyway, as environmentally unfriendly as it might be, I requested four catalogs that would make me smile as I turned the pages and daydreamed of how their wonderful items might look in my fantasy garden world.

Forgive me, I have spring and cabin fever and I need a dose of dose of hopeful green.  I promise to recycle the paper, okay?

Only 33 days until spring.

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Countdown to Spring: Seed Sticker Shock

Houseplants are wonderful.  The duty to their continued year-round green existence is lovingly performed.  But, starting plants from seed this time of year isn't just to have plants mature enough to transplant and get flowers or a crop of herbs and veggies from sometime in the upcoming months.  It's also to see the renewal process begin a few weeks earlier than the snow cover outside would ever allow.  To see those tiny starter leaves pop through the soil and slowly develop into much more does a winter-weary heart and mind good.

My intention was to buy seeds today and get them going for all the reasons outlined above.  I wasn't able to go to the store that I normally have a variety of seeds and seed companies to chose from, but I figured I'd pick up at least one or two packs to start when I stopped by the little display at the hardware store I had to go to.  Then I saw the prices.

In younger days, seed packets could be had for 10 cents.  Prices have slowly crept up from there over the years, of course.  Inflation misses no product or service nowadays.  The ordinary varieties of vegetable and flower seeds were always a little lower than the fancier ones.  Not so much anymore.  Prices have mostly equalized and at least at this display, they all started at over $2 a packet.

Now, I just bought seeds last year and while they weren't 10 cents, they weren't all over $2, either.  I need to get back to the store where I normally buy them and see if this is true no matter where I go.  I had intentions of starting 3 vegetables, 3 flower types and 4 herbs.  But to have to pay $20 or more for 10 seed packets on a tight budget is too much right now.  I could have bought the two packets today, but I just couldn't make myself pay that total without shopping around first.  I walked out of the store empty-handed, as they didn't have the item I went there for in the first place, anyway.

So, my best laid plans went awry, at least for the moment.  There are options like waiting for a sale or sharing the cost with a fellow seed-starter.  My spring-fevered brain wanted to buy seeds now, though, and come home and get my hands dirty playing in the soil.   I wanted to plant seeds and wait with happy anticipation for those touches of green to break through the surface.  But, it didn't happen, at least not today.

But it will.

Only 35 days until spring.