week 4: seed dreams
this week on the little dream farm
“Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream.” —Josephine Neuse
This is the time of year when all my favorite seed catalogs begin showing up in the mail!
In 2021 when we bout the farm and moved into the house, David left behind a giant stack of seed catalogs for me, and as his mail was still being sent here while he was figuring out where he’d like to live next, all his gardening catalogs arrived here that first winter season, too.
By January 2022 I had a giant stack of the very best catalogs of seeds from around this region and across the US—everything from fruit and veggie seeds to perennial plants to peonies to roses and more.
It took me back to when I was a kid and we’d get the Scholastic book catalogs at school and I’d get American Girl doll catalogs at home.
I used to sit in my room for hours curating my own collections, circling the things I wanted most, and then I’d hand write an itemized list with all the prices and a grand total, always having to re-do it and adjust it down a few times to the number I best felt I could convince my parents to agree with me on.
I found myself pouring through the pages of the seed catalogs that first winter, folding over pages and marking the things I was most interested to learn how to grow.
That first season I bought only a few packets of seeds because in addition to all the catalogs David left behind, he also came by the farm one day with two big shoeboxes filled with all of his seeds and gave us every last packet—it was the sweetest gesture and I spent an entire evening sorting through it all, organizing the packets, and putting them into the seed organizing totes I use to store my entire collection of seeds.
I think Little Sarah would find it so cool that Big Sarah has an entire seed collection—how cool!
The following year—the 2023 season—I scooped up all the seeds we used for the Cut Flower Patch from some of my favorite catalogs.
Then last year we took a break from seeds and focused on plant starts for our fruit and veggie garden and all the tubers we planted in the Dahlia Patch.
This year…we’re thinking about a combination of all of the above—replanting all of our dahlias (but not adding any news ones), using some of our favorite plant starts from Clear Brook Farm in Vermont, starting flower seeds we’ve got left over from the 2023 season…and new this year will be trying our hand at growing fruits and veggies from seed—something we’ve not done yet!
This week I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorite seed catalogs and supplies in case you’re dreaming about gardening or have the itch to begin planning your gardens for the 2025 season OR(!) are thinking about growing a garden this year.
Feel free to share some of your favorite seed/plant catalogs, gardening resources, YouTube channels, people you follow on IG, or gardening things you love in the comments today, too!
Here’s to dreaming of beautiful 2025 gardens!!
Sarah’s Favorite Seed/Plant Online Store + Catalogs
Bentley Seed Co - local to the LDF!
Hudson Valley Seed Co - great variety of seeds
High Mowing Organic Seeds - wonderful offering, based in Vermont
Fruition Seeds - new model/practice
Rare Seeds (also Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
Sarah’s Favorite Roots/Plant Online Store + Catalogs
Flowerwell Farm - great for dahlias
Fleur Flower Farm - great for dahlias
Mountain Flower Farm - great for peony roots
Bluestone Perennials - the best catalog and best selection of perennial plants
Menagerie Flower - great for roses
Sarah’s Favorite Seed Storage Supplies
I use these storage totes for my seed collection.
I use these labels for marking each little box with common seed types.
I use these markers for the labels.
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I work for a residential facility for kids with autism and we take some of the kids to a horse stable to help groom and lead. We also plant a garden during every season. We just harvested the hugest turnips and radishes, unfortunately the arugula wilted because of the winter storm we had. We also retrieved some peas and we are going to use the peas to start a new garden. Yesterday we put seed starters for flowers and a vegetable I forgot at the moment. I'm going to make mashed turnip with the kids and brought the radish to the kitchen for the salads at work. During the summer we had the biggest cucumbers I'd ever seen and they just kept coming. I taught the kids to make a creamy cucumber salad. The boys loved it, the girls not so much. I so look forward to your farm note. Thank you!
This year I started Viola from seeds. They are going great guns. No blooms, yet.
My favorite online gardening reference is Dave's Garden. It's everything from soup to nuts. davesgarden.com