I love this time of year, Christmas is finally over at our place. Way to much eating and drinking and visiting. Now it's time to plan.

I have started my peppers, only because my season is so short and I would love to get more than one this year.

Planning a huge veggie garden, with lots to share. I can get Bow seeds from the farm store so I don't generally order from them. And over the past couple of years I have really started to slim down the catalog shopping. I find McFayden's and William Dam to be the best. Great prices and larger quantities for the price.

Still love to look at the rest but with shipping charges it makes some orders really expensive.

Would love to hear what everyone else is planning. Cheryl

Forgot about William Dam Cheryl. Thanks for reminding me. I have their catalogue too. They have lots of selection too. :)

Now that Christmas & New Year's are over I decided to start planting. Maybe I started them to early, we'll see. I have planted my daylily seeds and some iris seeds. Yes, I finally found them --- in the freezer. Can't even remember putting them in there! There are also some tree seeds, Northern Catalpa, that I need to w/s. Later in about Feb. I'll start doing more of the w/s. Other than that I've put in my seed orders at Dams and the Cottage Gardener. I used to use Veseys but found their seed quality was going down and prices going up. As soon as Dams gets here, I will be seeding Candy onions, green onions, leeks and celeriac. We're planning on having a big vegie garden this year if DH health allows it. Marg

Me too Marg. Funny how I have been trying to get my DH to eat better by encouraging fresh vegies and such. Now his health may not be good enough to increase the size of my garden to grow those vegies! Hmmmm....

Going to do SFG if I can this year. Still not sure when we will be selling the house tho so I don't want to do anything too permanent. Another hmmmmmm.....

Ginny

Ginny,

I'm close and have tomato seeds, ~30 varieties, and a spare Stokes seed catalogue. Also, I may be interested in some of your surplus seed. Another outlet for your seed is Seedy Sunday in March.

Let me know if you're interested. I have an email address on my page.

I got my Stokes catalogue way back in November, they must have missed you.

Depending on the seed species they can be viable for decades. Or others for only a few weeks. I finally collected Smilax herbacea berries this year, but forgot to plant them in fall so they're probably no good. I might try wintersowing them and see what happens.

Larry ~ I sent you an email with my list. :) Would love a Stoke's catalogue even just to look through and see what's new. *smiling as I remember the Sears Wishbook*

Was doing the inventory on my flower seeds last night and apparently, wherever my tomato seeds are, my sunflower, spinach/swiss chard baggy, and nasturtium are too! The situation is getting more mysterious.......*nununununununu.......as the haunting music plays*. Must organize a search after I bath the dogs! :)

Ginny

I also received my Stokes catalogue a good long while ago and soon must start going through it and the others. This year I've decided to cut way back on the annuals, I must start transitioning into more perennials and shrubs. Although the annuals look so amazing, they're so very much work and will now reduce things down to a small handful of my favorites such as snaps and rubeckias.

Terrance

Terry ~ I must have recieved a Stoke's catalogue that somehow got misplaced or lost. Seems I remember it was one of the first ones to arrive. Maybe I took it up to Dad and it made it's way around the nursing home. I can always look it up on line if I really need to. No real need for more seeds anyway. :) Swallowtail has a nice selection of snaps this year.

Will, however, order a few of the cold hardy tomato sees from Bowseed. Maybe a few dry bean seeds from Cottage Gardener. :)

Ginny

OK. The mystery deepens.......Apparently I have lost my memory as to what I did with my seeds. Now I have all my grains missing as well. Hmmmmm......I guess there is another bin that I forgot about or I have a poltergeist in my house. So weird..........

Cheryl, I meant to ask you what varieties of peppers you grow or are growing this year?

Ginny

Marg, i got northern catalpa seeds in the Box of Seeds several years ago and ended up with one that grew. It lived for a couple of years but didn't make it through last spring's cold temps with no snow. :( I was really proud of starting a tree! The only other one from seed is a Manitoba maple which must have come in some leaves a friend gave me. It, of course, is growing strong! LOL

I just tossed a bunch of old seeds. Some of them may have been viable, but i just didn't feel like taking the chance. Haven't started anything yet, and i haven't ordered anything either. Maybe soon. :)

To reply to the question in the initial post in this thread... I start my pumpkins just before a stretch of forecast sunny warm weather in late May. I sprout the seeds indoors kind of like bean sprouts... put them in a plastic tub like an old sour cream container, cover with a j-cloth held on with a rubber band, then wet and drain the seeds several times per day. At a constant indoor temp of 20 or 22 degrees they usually start to sprout in 2-4 days (might take longer if your seeds are old and some varieties take longer than others). So I set up my jars about 3 days before a forecast stretch of warm weather, then the just-sprouted seeds are ready to plant when the warm weather hits. For the first month or so I grow them under mini-greenhouse tents (about 6' long by 3' wide, almost like rowcovers but different, they were sold by Vesey's some years ago). I keep them under the mini-greenhouses until they fill them up, usually by late June, then I remove the cover and let them grow in the open. When they start to bloom, I hand-pollinate until I'm good and sure the bees have found the flowers. Sounds like an effort I guess, but I quite enjoy fussing over them, so it's more fun than anything else.

Hey Ginny, this year my peppers are Sweet Bell, California Wonder Bell, Hungarian Hot Wax, California Chili, Jalapeno and Anaheim. All of which are up except for the Anaheim, got that in an exchange not sure if it is going to do anything.

I have some tomatoes still up for SASE if you don't find yours.

Don555, very interesting on the pumpkins, might give that a try. I usually start them in cells and then transplant, but they sometimes get so wind whipped or stressed. Hmmmm something new to consider.

MarciaZ3: I w/s my catalpa seeds and they got a good start that way. Is that how you started yours? Around here, I find the trees growing on the side of the road surrounded by other trees. They also get a lot of natural mulch growing there. Maybe that protects them from strong winter winds? Mine are still in pots in the hosta garden where they are somewhat sheltered. It's been 2 years and they should be planted where I want them soon. I have a lot more seeds, if anyone wants some just email me, and I will probably start a few more this year. Marg

Yes, mine were winter-sowed. I had two but one didn't survive the first winter. The second one i had high hopes for, but it didn't live. They took ages to leaf out, if i recall correctly, so i was hoping and hoping, but it never happened. I even had a little bed surrounding it. :-/

One thing I noticed some of the catalogues with the cheaper seeds-----have very HIGH shipping rates.
Caroline

I ordered from Sample Seeds and Pinetree Seeds in the US, good prices and very low shipping costs. Did both on line.