Christmas is over and a new year beckons with the promise of spring about the corner. Nevertheless, the garden is still gripped by winter climate - winds and rain, or frozen in the stillness of a difficult frost. As a gardener you are itching to be out there, frustratingly waiting for the initially bulbs to poke their heads through the challenging ground. Not substantially to be done in the garden, but you can console yourself with organizing for the year ahead in your garden with a good cup of tea and a seed catalogue. There are an abundance of really good seed catalogue companies and it is both enjoyable and enlightening to peruse new varieties in either hard copy catalogues or internet.
Seed and plant catalogues are a fantastic way of saving cash on each new varieties of plants and quantities - if you have a greenhouse or sunny window sill, developing from seed or plug plants is uncomplicated and rewarding. You can at all times swap surplus seedlings with buddies for varieties you haven't grown yourself.
The herbaceous border
Each year I try to take a look at at least a single prestigious flower show to gather concepts on new varieties of favourite perennials and even some I haven't heard of. Seed and plant catalogues are commonly a superior way to attempt out these new varieties to develop yourself at a fraction of the cost of buying them at a show. Catalogues will regularly categorise plants into useful collections to aid you program a new border or re-style an old a single. Categories such as cottage garden favourites, which includes plants like lupins, hollyhocks and delphiniums. Tall perennials such as penstemon, achillea, and Echinacea. Perpetual flowering varieties like oriental poppies, helenium and phlox. Ground cover perennials such as campanula and sedum, and dwarf varieties of favourites like monarda and geranium. Also new and unusual herbaceous plants. Catalogues will normally deliver you with a choice of acquiring plants either as seeds or as plug plants which can be without difficulty brought on in the greenhouse or on a sunny window sill till the weather improves and they are large sufficient to plant out.
Patios and annuals
Seed and plant catalogues are a fantastic way of getting 1 of the initially to have a new selection of annual in your garden. Opt for from beautiful new colours of spring pansies and violas, petunia and primula, sweet William and wallflower, as well as old favourite basket plants like lobelia, geranium and frushia. Way more unusual plants for your patio are also on deliver such as compact fruit trees and plants that look gorgeous when grown in , such as agapanthus and fragrant lily of the valley. You will also discover fantastic new varieties of summer bulbs such as lilies, eremurus and alliums.
The kitchen garden
Perhaps one of my most favourite seed catalogues are the kitchen garden catalogues, selling the most extraordinary varieties of vegetables each old and new. There is nothing at all quite as rewarding as growing your personal food from seed. Fantastic kitchen garden catalogues will produce valuable summaries of each and every variety, telling you how very easy they are to grow and the best conditions for a wholesome crop. Lots of of the varieties they give will be award winning, which means they are reliable, illness resistant or high yielding. Pick from the a large number of varieties of seed potato, when you have decided whether or not you are going to develop salad varieties, early potatoes or key crop. An A-Z list of vegetables will produce you with a option from beetroot to bean and brassicas to tomatoes. You will also uncover varieties of soft fruit and herb plants to complement your vegetables.
Hardware
Seed and plant catalogues aren't just about plants. Beneficial catalogue organisations will generally produce a selection of helpful tools and sundries such as fertiliser, frames, netting, frost protection fleece, as well as fantastic good quality forks, spades and trowels.
So, when it's cold and rainy outside, don't despair. Put the kettle on, grab a pile of seed catalogues, your gardener's journal and a pen, and start a list of what you will develop in your garden in the new season. Spring will be right here sooner than you think!
