It's been a very long winter here in the northeast. The snows kept coming, the temperature stayed freezing, the winter wonderland turned into black ice, crusted 3' snow mounds and a desire to never see the color white again. There's still snow on the ground and another storm coming, but a good way to stave off the urge to throttle winter, is to plan for spring.

First, you need to decide what you want to grow this year. Take into consideration how much space you have, as well as how much room the plants you want to grow need. If you have one 8' x 4' bed and are thinking of growing squash, you might want to rethink that, unless that's all you want to grow! Most squash vines spread at least 10' and would smother other plants too close to them. Tomatoes need a foot of space on every side, pepper need 10" - 12" of space... You need to think about that when you decide what you want in your garden. Most seed packets but especially good seed catalogs will tell you that kind of information.

I use mostly Johnny's and Fedco. Both are great seed companies (both employee owned) and both catalogs will give you a wealth of information. Whether you should start indoors or direct seed, what soil and/or nutrients the plant needs, how long to germinate and harvest, what pests and diseases the plant is susceptible to... and lots more. These catalogs are a great resource guide, as most reputable and respected ones are.

It's always a good idea to use seed catalogs from the area you are in. All the info will pertain to the growing conditions in your particular area. Weather, typical soil, planting dates, pest and disease problems, all of these vary widely even with a single state. It's good to have information that's pertinent to the area you'll be growing in. Another benefit, most of the good catalogs either get seed from around their area or grow it themselves. This means the seeds are right for your climate, your area and will do better for you than seed from a different part of the country.

When ordering your seeds, keep in mind multiple crops. If you want to grow beets, lettuce, carrots and peas, but only have the space for 2 of those, remember beets only take 30-40 days to mature. Peas are out by mid/late June (least here in CT), that leaves plenty of time to put in other crops. This maximizes your growing potential, even in smaller spaces.

Next i'll post a couple of garden planners. It's useful to mark things down to refer to, so you can plan your garden all season long.

Have fun going through all those seed catalogs!