One of my neighbors is a young man from Germany who works odd hours. I sometimes carry his mail up to his house. I noticed he got one of those Whole Seed Catalog books. I didn't notice it was published by Baker Creek. I was thinking about ordering one of them, now I am pretty sure I will.

Today's arrival of the PHYSICAL Seeds-n-Such catalog puts The Gotch in the scoring column.

Those gosh dang product shots get more alluring each year, especially after our last "Fresh Tomato" Monday Mid-Morning "Fresh Tomato" BLTs were on November 15th.

The Gotch

I got my first one today! Tomato Growers Supply.

Seeds n Such arrived yesterday. I see that last year's flat shipping rate of $2.99 is now a flat $4.99. They've also moved to Augusta and I wonder if they allow order pickups.

Tomato Growers showed up yesterday.

I went to the Southern Exposure site yesterday to check on something and found this:

"We’ll be updating our website for 2022 varieties on Friday, Dec. 10th.
Our 2022 catalog has been held up by supply chain issues (paper shortage!). We hope to have it in the mail by mid to late December. "

That may be why I haven't received any more seed catalogs recently.

I've also had only a few catalogs, so far. I didn't know about a paper shortage, but I've noticed that many sites still have a lot of seeds "out of stock", so I figured they are waiting to see what they will eventually get in stock.

Seed catalogs create dissensions in my house. My wife of fifty three years has always maintained a perfectly clean, uncluttered floor in our house. I'm a gardener. I've never met a gardener with perfectly clean shoes and a neat stack of seed catalogs within arm reach of my recliner seems totally reasonable. She disagrees.

Still not many cat's. And I remember saving all of them, I think it was 3 years ago, "just to see", and I had about a foot deep of them by Christmas, and about twice that, by the time I tossed them. I remember a few I had ordered from by early December, and I got two more catalogs from the companies, by later spring.

I don't need much in the way of seed this year but am finalizing orders for what little I need. Last night I went online to Southern Exposure's site to check on something and noticed another catalog delivery change:

"Our 2022 catalog has been held up by supply chain issues (paper shortage!). We hope to have it in the mail by early January."

I received a Gurney's catalog today and initially I set it aside without really looking at it, because I don't think I've ever ordered from Gurney's before. There's no real reason for that, just that I think of them as the Indiana/Midwest version of Burpee and Park, and I already order from Burpee (Mid-Atlantic) and Park (Southeast), so I don't really need Gurney. Oddly enough, hope springs eternal for them, and they faithfully send me a catalog every year.

Anyway, when I looked at the catalog tonight, I noticed it's labeled as "Southern Grove Gardens Special Edition," and there's a message inside from Gurney's owner about the importance of finding varieties suitable for your specific region. Supposedly the varieties in this edition "have proven track records in warm-zone gardens." The intros to some of the different vegetable sections have tips and comments specifically about growing in the south. Did anyone else receive this southern edition, or perhaps an edition tailored to a different region?

There's a little picture of the owner standing in a grapevine (or possibly a berry bush), and he looks like a nice guy. I wonder if subconsciously that picture will make me want to buy seeds from him. Maybe they tested that in a focus group.

Unfortunately, the tomato section of the catalog is very small. Are tomatoes not a big thing for Gurney's? Here's what the southern edition includes:

Large & medium tomatoes: Gurney's Ruby Monster hybrid, Buffalosteak hybrid, Tasty Beef hybrid, Gurney Girl's Best hybrid, Heatmaster hybrid, Better Boy hybrid, Cherokee Carbon heirloom cross, Orange Jazz, Tasmanian Chocolate, Beefsteak. (I can attest that Better Boy and Cherokee Carbon both do great here in Virginia. I haven't tried the others.)

Cherry & Grape: Jelly Beans hybrid, Artisan Blush, San Vicente hybrid, Orange Sunshine hybrid

Paste/sauce: Easy Sauce hybrid, San Marzano, Roma.

There's a big berry & fruit tree section, including one variety of pawpaw! Also two varieties of jujubes.

Coupons on the front for $25 off a $50 purchase, $50 off $100, $100 off $200.

My catalog isn't on paper pages.

It's physical packs of seeds, that I attempt to mentally absorb between my ears. And, I can't dog ear anything, without pain.

Well, the Baker Creek catalog finally came. I don;'t need anything but Pickles has been busy picking out a few toys to play with. For one, that Python Snake Bean, for one. I can't wait (or maybe I can) to see what else catches her eye and wallet. LOL! Oh, whatever it is (or they are), it'll be fun.

Baker Creek finally arrived.

eyegrotom wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 5:54 pm

Tormato wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 5:40 pm I cut through the book/magazine aisle at WalMart today, and there it was staring back at me, Baker Creek's The Whole Seed Catalog.

I should be done with it in a few weeks. After that, I'll take usernames of those in the MMMM swap, put them in a hat, and pick out the one to send the catalog to. I'll post this over in the swap area, too.

Who's in?

You can put my Name in the hat.

Sending you a PM!