January produces the “Winter Blues” in many people. I am not talking about music here. The general feeling of being down or discontented by the inability to get outside and dig in the dirt is even more pronounced in those who love to spend time in their gardens.
Imagine feeling irritable, blue, longingly looking out the window to the barren tundra and wishing you were able to be outside with your plants. And then, something magical happens... the mail person leaves a big stack of seed and plant catalogs. Oh, you thick, glossy, full color beauties filled with new and exotic plants to shop for! Come to Mama! Suddenly, holding your stack of catalogs in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, you aren’t so blue anymore. Shopping and plants all rolled into one afternoon. Could anything be better? You sense that there is hope that spring WILL arrive, after all.
You may be saying, “Well, that sounds great, Rita! I need a little fix for my plant addiction.” You may also be asking, “How do I quickly and easily find nurseries that send these seed and plant catalogs?” Two years ago I stumbled onto the most amazing website. It is like the KAYAK.com of seed catalogs and nurseries. It aggregates them- pulls them from all sources into one site. You can happily just click on the catalogs that you are interested in, add your contact information and then wait until the snow flies to begin receiving your thick, full-color, mouth-watering pages of plants.
The Carnegie Library site offers this useful catalog database aggregation feature for home gardeners. Simply click on this link to get started.
Here’s to beating the winter blues with beautiful plant catalogs.
Happy gardening!