Catalog Time!

One of the joys of my childhood was catalog shopping. Oh the excitement when we would get our Sears “Wish Book” For the Christmas Season! My mother received seasonal catalogs from Spiegel, JC Penny, and Montgomery Ward. We would find the toys and clothes we liked and point them out to mom.  She would either complete the order form or call the number on the catalog place it and then 4-6 weeks later…. Our items arrived! Fortunately, I was a slow growing child, and most of the clothes still fit.  In 1973, I waited 8 weeks for my blue jumpsuit with brown faux leather fringed belt which we ordered from Montgomery Wards…. It was back ordered then finally  the order was cancelled.  I was very disappointed, I thought I would look like just like Jan on the Brady Bunch.

I miss that.  I don’t enjoy online shopping, it is just not as cool and hard to “just browse”. How are you supposed to know you need a cookie jar decorated in mushrooms unless you see the picture first? Sorry Amazon.

 So, you can understand my delight to see that many seed companies do indeed still send out paper catalogs! Right now with my garden in the planning process, and it being too nasty to be outside I can just curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and browse the seed catalogs. 

This year, I will be getting guidance on my seed choices from Linda Stephenson, owner of L & S Gardens in Prineville, Oregon and author of “Cold Climate Gardening”. Linda has been gardening for years here in Central Oregon. She lived for many years in La Pine before re-locating to Prineville. This gal knows her stuff!

Per Linda, be sure your seeds are packed for the 2026 Season. Store the seeds in your vegetable drawer on your refrigerator. This keeps the seed viable longer.  She cautions on purchasing “SALE” Seeds as they are usually from the previous season and the germination rate will be less.

Linda's Seed Company recommendations are:

https://www.totallytomato.com/ecatalogs for  specialty tomatoes

https://www.gurneys.com cucumbers, zuchinni, corn

https://ferrymorse.com/ for seed packets.  She says, “They have “best germination of all she has tried and …More seeds per packet”.

Some other seed companies I have gotten catalogs from are:

                Territorial Seed Company territorialseed.com

                Baker Seeds      rareseeds.com

                JohnnysSeed      johnnyseed.com

In Linda’s book, which you can purchase from her-http://www.lsgardens.com/books-by-linda/   She lists varieties which do well in our climate. Armed with her list, I will be making choices for my garden near Post, Oregon. The elevation at this location is 4400 ft.  and has the additional challenge of being located in a dense mule deer population.

In a future blogs I will discuss fencing!