"S" Is For Seeds...

"S" is for Seeds...such a simple little word - for such a miracle. If you are a gardener, the weeks following Christmas & New Years can be magical  in its own way. Each day might bring another seed catalog to the mailbox. Perhaps a favorite company that you return to year after year, perhaps a brand new name which has you eagerly exploring the glossy pages. For those of us in northern climates, it can be "the dream time." While the snow piles up outside and adds layers to the gardening beds, we gather up the newly arrived publications, a cup of something warm and comforting and find a comfy chair by the fire. A red marking pencil is clutched in our hands and the journey begins. 

Each page reveals wonders - packets of seeds in sizes that will be more than adequate for the home gardener with a small area, to seeds by the pound for those who take their harvests to a local Farmers Market come summer. From January to March, the winter-bound gardener knows that all things are possible - every seed planted will yield flowers and vegetables beyond our wildest dreams....one just has to read the descriptions to know that is true.

"I don't believe the half I hear,
Nor the quarter of what I see!
But I have one faith, sublime and true,
That nothing can shake or slay;
Each Spring I firmly believe anew
All the seed catalogs say!"

(Carolyn Wells)


"A masterpiece of size and flavor..."
"Blooms like big pink snowballs..."

A winter squash called Amazonka that "behaves decorously in the garden..."
Mizuna - "light & graceful, these feathery mustards float in the slightest breeze, the garden's corps of ballet dancers..."
An imported Asian cucumber that is "demurely burpless...:"

My red marking pencil goes to town...I certainly want my squash to behave decorously!
Just yesterday, the first seed order has arrived...what potential awaits...

Webster defines the word seed as - that part of a plant from which a new one will grow. How mundane a description for the life contained within its protective shell.  To plant a little seed in its own tiny pot or to sow a row in a raised bed, is to connect with our earth on such a basic level. We mark the newly planted pot or area and wait for the time when that first little break in the soil appears. Then the new seedling puts forth its first set of true leaves and we hover over it like a mother watching her newborn.We water, weed and guard these young plants knowing that the harvesting will repay us many times over.

Seeds - such a simple word - for such a miracle

"The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies..."
(Gertrude Jekyll)

Thank you for dropping by today - I hope you enjoyed your visit!
Be sure to visit all the other "S" posts over at Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.