Letter of Recommendation: Seed Catalogs

For anyone who is really interested in gardening, this is a banal piece full of obvious information. And why a piece on CA gardening in the NYT?

I'd also recommend a shoutout to Baker Creek since I'm pretty sure they're the inspiration for the line about "rutabagas that grow to be the size of small children." That's not an exaggeration--Baker Creek actually grows rutabagas that rival the size of a small child! They also send a free seed packet of something seasonal with every order.

Gardening with the spectre of global warming is not nearly as fun as it was in the past, when we were blissfully unaware. I also check for "drought tolerant" in addition to the usual "shade" or "sun" requirements as I thumb through the delights of seed catalogs. Of course, the occasional deluge after a drought and the hotter summers/colder winters pose new challenges. We are creating a new type of "Victory Garden" in a scary new century.

I am a lifetime home gardener. I can say we HAVE come a long way from using the most up to the minute chemical treatments for pests and for fertilizer, row placement and commercial seed in the 60's-80's as trained by Extension Offices to where we are now in learning to go organic when doing pest control and fertilizer treatments, looking at what seed actually works in our region rather than accepting standard commercial varieties, and using raised beds with proper soil. I can say I have gone from growing the standard tomatoes, sweet corn, bush green beans, and watermelons to a whole cornucopia of vegetables whose origins are in the south like greasy beans, Seminole pumpkin squash, Virginia white gourdseed corn (a grinding corn), collards, Florida 91 tomatoes and more. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has been a boon for me. Baker Creek Seed has catalogues whose images are veggie porn and a wide array of choices. Seed Savers is the foundation for localized varieties and should always be considered when planning.

A gardener who believes they know it all is one who is fated to failure. Gardening should be considered a never-ending education.

I was talking with a friend on a day a couple weeks ago when the temperature was in the 50's. I mentioned that I was ready to start planting my garden. He suggested that gardening was my hobby. I responded that I had never thought of it as a hobby. I was reminded of that conversation while reading this article. It occurs to me that it is more of a ritual, beginning with the selection of the seeds & plants, the care & preparation of the soil, the plantings, tending the growth while eliminating the weeds, the joyful harvests, and the cleaning and preparations for next year. It increases my connection to the earth, my home.

Kentucky Wonder, Blue Lake, Rattlesnake -- those string-beans cultivars are just three of the marvelous terms with which a seed catalogue can conjure. Keep reading and start planting, and continue writing.

This has been a wonderful piece celebrating the blessings and bounty of growing beautiful vegetables & fruits. But, let me rain on this splendid parade of mother earth by sharing a warning by Wendell Berry: “I have no doubt at all that even if the global climate were getting better, our abuses of the land would still be the disaster most seriously threatening to the survival of humans and other creatures. Land abuse, I know, is pretty much a global phenomenon.But it is not happening in the whole world as climate change happens in the whole sky. It is happening, because if can happen,only locally, in small places, where the people who commit the abuses also live. And so my question has been, and continues to be, What can cause people to destroy the places where they live, the humans and other creatures who are their neighbors,
and ultimately themselves? How can humans willingly turn against the earth, of which they are made, from which they live? To treat that as a scientific and technological or political question is not enough, is even misleading. The question immediately and at least is economic: What is wrong with the way we are keeping house, the way we make our living, the way we live? (What is wrong with our minds?) And to take the economic question seriously enough is right away to ask another that is also but not only economic: What is happening to our souls?”

Surely some sort of shout out to Seedsavers is in order? No mention of the amazing work that they and others do in making sure you have access to these seeds seems like an overlooked opportunity!

Here in the Northeast the arrival of seed catalogs is even more meaningful, because it's a sign in the depth of winter that spring will come again. The catalogs remind us that we are part of nature, at the same time godlike bringing new life to the world from tiny seeds. There are few things as edifying as successfully nurturing a plant from seed to a successful plant, perhaps ultimately sitting in the shade of a tree that you grew from a seedling

While having good less romantic appeal than a seed catalog, the National Plant Germplasm System, administered by the USDA, maintains one of the largest repositories in the world of plant germplasm, includes seeds.