The Spring Seed Catalogs Are Here

by A.J. Coltrane

Territorial Seed sent a 2nd Spring Catalog. NW Edible just posted “To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: February 2015”.

I am *so* not ready for spring.

Maybe eventually I’ll stop being surprised by the seed catalog and instead view it as the first sign of the changing of the seasons. As of right now we have zero seedlings started inside, though almost all of the EarthBoxes contain cool-season greens and vegetables. The planned winter harvest never happened. Very few of the plants grew large enough to be useful, and I’ve learned that I’m not real inclined to go tromping out into the cold and rain to gather a few spinach leaves or whatever. The upshot is that we now have many plants in varying stages of development, and I’m hoping that they’ll go nuts over the next few weeks.

What will we plant this spring? The leftover seed from 2014. Last January we spent around $50 on seeds. As everyone but me was aware, that’s a lot of seed. I’d guess half of it is still stored in the wine refrigerator. We’ll need to figure out where there’s room to sow — the overwintered plants include cilantro, parsley, pak choi, spinach, mache, scallions, garlic, arugula, and a hodge-podge of other stuff. A few carrots and maybe some radishes overwintered as well. At this point I’m inclined to give the overwintering plants and dormant seeds until around late February to start doing something. At that point we’ll plant as much of the remaining seed as will fit.

On the bright side, there’s no shortage of seed to fill the containers.