Woo Hoo! It's Seed Catalog Season!

We got snow again overnight here.

The roads are slushy, and the myriad of local birdies are camping out in the ornamental plum branches by our sunroom window awaiting their turn at the newly-filled feeder, chirping and squawking and fluffing themselves out to double in size. 

In short, it is a day for hunkering down indoors with a mug of hot coffee and a good book.

Or, in my case, something even more exciting:  the first of the seed catalogs started arriving in the mail the last week or so, and today is the perfect day to start browsing.

Ahhhhhh...it's the first day of seed catalog dreaming at my house.  And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

Every year, during this brief, fleeting garden planning season, I begin to plan and dream that somehow, by some gardening miracle, this is the year that my flowers turn out like Gertrude Jekyll's most beautiful landscapes.

Alas, the reality generally turns out to be something less than that, but a girl can dream.


This year?  I'm taking last year's failures and trying to learn from them:  too many tomatoes is just annoying, no matter how tasty they are; not having all the herbs in one place makes for a cranky cook; and zucchini just doesn't seem to want to grow well for me here.

I've always wanted to take a gardening tour in England where I can see some of Gertrude Jekyll's landscapes in person, because I'm sure that the pictures don't do them justice.  But today?  I'll take another visual tour through my gardening books, and soak in some of the colors of summer while I stay cozy in our home.

What are your growing plans this year?


(Photo via steeljam.)