I just love getting new seed catalogs!
This year we received some catalogs in the mail, but many Hannah and I were able to pick up at the farm conference we attended back in December. Opening up those catalogs kind of felt like opening our Christmas presents early!
In the past couple of years the catalogs have started to arrive in late December and I love opening the mailbox and finding a new glossy, colorful seed catalog. I can’t resist the beautiful pictures of all the vegetables, fruits, and flowers, especially during the dreary winter days in Michigan. So many choices!
Looking ahead to a new year of growing I’m filled with all kinds of ideas and I want to try one of every type. It’s so hard to narrow down our options to a manageable number.
So how am I deciding what to grow this year? I have a stack of catalogs, crop plans, spreadsheets, and miscellaneous notes on our dining room table in an effort to determine this.
Since this will be our first season growing on a larger scale, I’m trying to keep the number of different crops down to only about 25-30 different kinds of vegetables. And those vegetables will be ones that we are confident in growing and have had success with in the past. For us that means no cauliflower or parsnips. I have yet to master those crops!
We will however be trialing some crops that we’ve never grown before such as celery, Chinese cabbages, and radicchio. And I’m determined to figure out how to grow parsnips and cauliflower!
I also really want to grow cutting flowers, but we are focusing on flowers that can be direct seeded. We have enough to transplant this year without adding flowers too! I just love sunflowers and plan to have a steady supply for late summer into fall.
The one crop where Hannah and I went a little catalog crazy is pumpkins. There are so many cool pumpkins to choose from so we have a rather long list of types we want to try. Are we being a little too optimistic? Perhaps, but we’re going for it! Just look at these beauties! We particularly want to try some of the ornamental varieties.
I need to finalize all my crop plans and get my seed orders compiled this week. It’s so exciting to be making plans for our first season.
Do you enjoy perusing seed catalogs or gardening? What vegetables, fruits, or flowers do you think we should grow in our first year?