Planting Seeds of Dreams

I received three seed catalogs in the mail just days after Christmas. Seed companies know what they are doing riding the coattails of the season. Still fresh in our memories are the faces of children with their toys under the tree. They are planting in our heads the seeds of dreams.

Photograph from eBay

Seed catalogs have rooted themselves into the furrow plowed by the dream catalog of childhood:The Sears Roebuck Christmas Catalog. Unlike Clement Moore, of sugar plums we never dreamed. We dreamed of toys. Toy in the Sears Wish Book. We revered that dream filled catalog like a sacred magical book. Every page was fingered hundreds, maybe, thousands of times before our eyes closed the night before Christmas. The pages were dogeared. The photographs circled. They were by our sides until we dropped off to sleep.

Photo from eBay

Photo from eBay

Of all the toys we chose, our families purchased just a few. If any. This time around we are the ones making the purchases. We can purchase as many seed packets as we can afford. Seeds that may never see the light of day, breathe fresh air or feel warm damp soil. For it is not the flowers and vegetables that are being sold. Seeds, desires and dreams of flowers and vegetables are what these catalogs are selling.

As before, I'll carry these catalogs with me to work. I will take them to the toilet. I will take them to bed. Soon, it will be time to decide which seeds to order from circled photographs on those dogeared pages. Then stacks of seed packets will spill across my kitchen table. Packets containing potential flowers and vegetables that may grow in my garden. Maybe, they will just remain beautiful seeds of dreams.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Behind In My Gardening

The weather has me behind schedule in my garden. Well, if I had a schedule, I would be behind.

There is a folk truism in this part of the world that says you plant onions and peas on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I didn't even have my garden ready for planting on St. Patrick's Day. I still don't have it ready and it is almost April.

This year I want to actually raise my square foot garden. I want to get some real drip irrigation with metered emitters, not the weeping hose I have been using. Plus I want to put down 1 mil plastic mulch over the drip system to try and eliminate weeding, increase soil temperature and retain moisture.

Ten days after the pea planting target date, I ordered online a 30'/ 9.1m roll of 1 mil red plastic mulch that is 4'/ 1.2m wide. I plan on making two 4' x 4' (1.2m x 1.2m) raised beds. So I should have enough mulch to cover both beds, almost completely, four times.

To get the order minimum up to $40 in order to use a discount coupon I received in the mail, I ordered some packets of Zinnias from W. Atlee Burpee. Burpee was a Philadelphia company that I remember visiting thirty-five years ago on Clarissa St. just NW of W. Hunting Park Ave. They are now in Bucks County, PA in Warminster, PA where you can still visit their store.


I love the ease of growing Zinnias. Beside their beauty, zinnias attract bees, butterflies and goldfinch love the mature seeds. All three creatures are a pleasant plus to the garden experience.

I hope my order ships really soon. In the mean time, I need to get some 2" x 12"/ 5cm x 30cm boards and a 2"x 4"/ 5cm x 20cm board or two for the corners of the bed frames and some exterior screws with which to fasten them.

Then there is the peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for the soilless growing medium.

The vegetable seeds to buy. 

The potato towers to erect.

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I love the growing season!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved - Photographs from Burpee.com