As gardeners curl up on the couch each January, dreaming of abundant summer, a war of words rages in that cozy corner of literature inhabited by seed catalogs. It’s your wits against those of seedsmen ...

The plant and seed catalogs are still dribbling in, and I’ll review all of them at some point, but for now I’m focusing on the companies from which I order vegetable seeds most frequently – Johnny’s ...

Most of the seeds originate with Dutch, British, Italian, Thai, American and Japanese seed growers. Many are heirloom seeds. They include advice and instruction on how to grow plants from seed and how ...

Robins get all the credit for being a first sign of spring, but that’s not entirely true. For gardeners, a seed catalog arriving in the mailbox is the first proof that spring is on its way. Seed ...

The need for speed has finally caught up with that century-and-a-half-old slice of Americana, the seed catalog. The sale of garden supplies via the Internet will equal or exceed those from printed ...

If tending to gardens carried us through the pandemic, seed catalog are sparks of hope, carrying us through the long winter. Even if you order online, these catalogs can inspire, inform and, yes, ...

Gardeners have relied on the mail for centuries. Long before mail-order nurseries first sent their catalogs to customers, gardeners wrote to friends asking for a piece of a peony root, a tulip bulb or ...

There are certain vices in this world that draw our hands and minds, steal our concentration and ultimately consume us for an undetermined amount of time. Some of these habits are physically and ...

A seed catalog avalanche cascades into my mail box each winter. I stack them into a tower on the table next to my chair and thumb through them each night while watching NASCAR '"Preseason Thunder" and ...