Seed Shopping (the Other Winter Sport)

Rainy February days - what's there to do besides bake cupcakes and watch old movies???

Go seed shopping, of course!

I've got a few favorite websites I love to visit in the Winter, places that pull me into a mental Summer with glossy photos (can they be "glossy" if they're only on my computer screen?) of juicy veggies, sunny flowers and rampant ground cover (hiding all sorts of ugly landscape flaws in my yard). Yummy yummy yummy.

photo: reneesgarden.com

 And oh, the veggies!  I had great luck (as a Master Gardener, should I admit it's sometimes lucky when my plants grow well?) with cucumbers last year.  I had a sudden brainstorm last Spring and put the seedling cucumber plants in my cold frame. Voila - tons of beautiful, full sized cucumbers in a location that might have been too hot for many other plants.  I had to monitor the temps all summer, opening and closing the lid, raising and lowering the height of the lid, making sure the lid was open when the sprinklers went on...but it was sooo worth the fantastic harvest!

photo: reneesgarden.com

So I'm definitely shopping for more cucumber seeds this year.

And broccoli - my yard seems perfect for broccoli, even producing lots of side shoots through the hot summer.  Since broccoli is a cool weather crop, I always make sure the location is shady by afternoon. Some really hot summers I've even built a little shade structure with pvc pipe and row cover to protect the plants when the August temperatures have spiked.

The most important thing I've learned about choosing vegetables, besides reading the 'reviews' of how they taste, is making sure the ones I grow have the shortest number of days to harvest of any veggie in the catalogs. Annual flowers have to be short season, too, or I'll never get any flowers before the first hard frost. Luckily, all the good seed companies put the Days to Harvest number on their packets.

photo: johnnysseeds.com

These are Rudbeckia flowers - what a contrast to the grey-skied February day outside! I love to shop for seeds for yellow plants on days like this but some times it's the red ones that jump off the catalog pages at me.
The Scarlet Runner Bean was a very satisfying vine last summer, growing quickly up the posts on the deck and flowering long into the fall. Just two plants covered about 8 feet of railing, hiding a less than great view from my chair.

photo: johnnysseeds.com

If I'm careful where I plant the Snapdragons, I get some beautiful plants that the hummingbirds visit all summer. It's too bad that "Snaps" are also deer candy or I'd put them all over the yard.  Their height and cheerful colors look so good spiking above the shorter annuals. This summer, they'll go in containers on the deck with some small variegated grasses around them and a trailing vine (maybe Creeping Charlie) at the base.

But how could I resist trying this eggplant, a container variety called "Little Prince" - slices dipped in egg, coated in bread crumbs and Parmesan and baked in a hot oven -  what could be better than home-grown Eggplant Parmesan? Or grilled alongside the summer corn? Or in a flavorful Ratatouille? mmmmmm.

reneesgarden.com

While I'm still salivating, I think I'll go order the vegetable and flower seeds I'll need this summer - since some of them can take up to 12 weeks to germinate and our last frost date is May 31, I'd better get shopping!
 

What will you be planting this summer? Tell us about your plans in the comments section below.