Every day for the past couple of weeks I've eagerly checked the mailbox for the bubble mailers of seeds I've been expecting. I'm fortunate that most have been delivered - only once did I have to head into town to pick up a box that was too big for the mailbox.So here they are. Dozens of small envelopes housing my dreams of delicious green goodness. The photo is blown out behind the box because of all the snow that still covers the backyard and garden.
Yes, there are far too many packages for me to use on my own. I did go a bit crazy with the ordering, but it's impossible not to on a cold January day when one dreams of fresh peas. In my defence, I have been dividing them up to give away to family and friends who might not otherwise have planted heirloom (and sometimes rare) seeds.
Who wouldn't want to plant dry beans with names like Wild Goose and Ireland Creek Annie? Or Snap beans like Lazy Housewife, Tiger's Eye (can also be eaten dry) or Garden of Eden? Then there were new peas to try (in the past I've grown Laxton's Progress and Sugar Snap) such as Golden Sweet, Blue Capuchijners Soup, and Lincoln Shelling.
The carrots sound exciting - Atomic Red, Dragon, Cosmic Purple, and Lunar White. I sent my niece and nephew a pack of Little Fingers so they could grow their own mini carrots.
I'm giving Harris Model parsnips one last try - I've had limited success with them for the past 2 years but this is a new seed pack so maybe I'll have better luck with germination this time around. I only recently read that seed viability for parsnips dramatically reduces with "old" seeds, so I hope that this new pack contains fresh seeds.
Spending time going through seed catalogues is a really good time, and for me it doesn't matter if I'm doing it on-line or with a hard copy. The names are descriptive and often charming, and reading about the heritage of the variety is always interesting. It's more entertaining than I would ever have imagined, in my BG (before gardening) days.
And then the mailers arrive, all via Canada Post and all for a reasonable cost. It's much like Christmas, opening the envelopes and seeing the seed packages spill out. They are so unassuming, and yet hold such promise.
Another unexpected benefit of the seeds being mailed was the opportunity to talk with my post office lady about what seeds we were ordering and planting. This lead to shared tips on successes and failures in seasons past, which then lead into promises of seed exchanging. This is someone whose name I don't know, but who will be giving me some sun cherry seeds in exchange for Matt's Wild Cherry tomato seeds.
I've passed the Canada Post excitement forward - once a week I mail my sister, niece, nephew and some friends an envelope with some seeds. They in turn get the thrill of grabbing their mail and finding not only bills and junk mail, but dreams of the summer to come.
