It may not be gardening weather outside, but inside where it’s warm and cozy the garden catalog season is in full bloom. Mailboxes are filling up with colorful garden catalogs, so now is the perfect time to relax in your most comfortable easy chair with a stack of colorful garden catalogs and spend some time dreaming about planting your spring garden.
It is no accident that January has officially been proclaimed National Mailorder Gardening Month by the Mailorder Gardening Association (www.mailordergardening.com), because the first of the year is traditionally when garden catalogs start arriving in mailboxes. Garden catalogs are filled with colorful pictures of new plants and blooming gardens, so they offer a much-needed emotional boost for gardeners who are longing to get their hands into garden soil and raise another crop of gorgeous flowers and delicious vegetables.
Brighten the coldest days of winter by looking through a stack of colorful mailorder garden catalogs (or visiting online websites) while planning your springtime garden.
To get the most from gardening catalogs and websites this season, follow this helpful advice from the Mailorder Gardening Association:
Use garden catalogs as planning tools for your spring garden. Flip through a few catalogs to see what kinds of new plants and products are being offered this year.
Mark the plants, seeds, preplanned gardens, tools and garden accessories that you’re interested in with sticky notes.
Go back through the catalogs and review everything you’ve flagged with a sticky note. Make a list of all of the plants and products that you simply must have.
Place your orders early. The most popular seeds, plants, and new products often sell out quickly. Seeds will usually be shipped early in the season to give you the option of starting them indoors. Plants will be shipped when it’s safe to plant them outdoors based upon your zip code.
Keep a list of all the orders you’ve placed so you can track the deliveries as they come in.
File the catalogs in a safe place so you can refer to them later, and you can easily contact each catalog company if questions about your purchases arise. Remember, too, that most garden catalogs and websites have helpful gardening experts that you can contact to get additional gardening information and advice.
The Mailorder Gardening Association (MGA) is the world’s largest nonprofit association of companies that sell garden products directly to consumers. For more information about mailorder gardening— including a list of mailorder gardening catalogs and websites, a glossary of gardening terms, smart shopper tips, and information about the winners of the annual MGA Green Thumb Awards— visit the MGA’s website at www.mailordergardening.com .
