The Delights of Fantasy
Excerpt from Simple Pleasures by Susannah Seton

Winter can be hard on gardening fanatics, forced indoors to attend only to the houseplants. So I always cheer myself up by collecting all the bulb and seed catalogs that come throughout the year and saving them for a dreary January weekend. I sit down at the kitchen table with them all spread out in front of me. First I pore over the beautiful color pictures and the accompanying descriptions, fantasizing about the incredible garden I could have if money, time, and weather conditions were no object: Shirley tulips "ivory white with purple pictee edge," a one-of-a-kind Batik Iris that has "dramatic white spatters and streaks against a royal purple ground," alboplenum, "doubly rare for being both multi-petaled and white."

After I have completely satisfied my eyes, I get real. I make a map of my vegetable and flower gardens, check out what seeds I have left from last year, and plot out what I want to plant. Then I go back over the catalogs again with a more selective eye and choose what I really need. Often this process goes over many days and both parts give me great pleasure: the indulging of my wildest gardening fantasies, and the anticipation of color beauty, and form in my actual garden.
Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilarate the spirit and restore
The tone of languid nature.
— William Cowper

Great Catalogs

Great, free vegetable-garden catalogs abound. Good general ones include Park Seed (800-845-3369), The Seed Catalog (800-274-7333) and The Cook's Garden (802-824-3400). More specialized ones include: Tomato Growers Supply Company (813-768-1119), Johnny's Selected Seeds (207-437-4301) and, my personal favorite, Shepherd's Garden Seeds (in the east, 860-482-3638; in the west, 408-335-6910), which has a wide selection of unusual, easy-to-grow, disease-resistant vegetables, and lots of old-fashioned flower strains. A wonderful resource for organic gardening items including fruits, vegetables, and even weed control items, is Gardens Alive! To receive a catalog, call (812-537-8650). Other good sources for organic gardeners are Harmony Farm Supply (707-823-9125, catalog costs $2) and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (916-272-4769).

Gardener's Supply Company (800-863-1700) has wonderfully fun things for green thumbs, including kits for baking bread in terra-cotta pots, and mushroom kits. My favorite is the Vermont-Grown Kitchen Garden, which delivers an entire garden's worth of top-quality plants to your door. The set contains 71 vegetables and 27 herbs, specially selected for performance and flavor, and includes 3 each of 3 tomato varieties, 12 early and 12 late lettuces, 3 asparagus, and 9 sweet peppers. Also wonderful is White Flower Farm (800-503-9624), which carries seasonal wreaths, unique plants, and other great stuff.

Youth of the Month - Calvin Peterson