Many of the best gardens are planned around the kitchen table on cold winter nights as people gather to page through the seed catalogs arriving now in stacks as deep as snowdrifts.

More than 24 million American households will spend an estimated $128 each on mail order seeds, plants, bulbs, garden tools and garden supplies in 2006, the Mailorder Gardening Association says. Yet the catalogs we see today, online and printed, are very different from yesteryear.

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The first mail order seed business in America opened in 1853 in Springfield Massachusetts. In those days, remember, supermarkets and freeways didn’t exist. What you ate, you grew or traded for it and seed catalogs were an overnight sensation. They also provided another service. Many of the first farm families were immigrants. To learn the English language, they turned to the Bible, Sears & Roebuck catalogs and seed catalogs.

Today, because of their illustrations -- many of them hand-done - -and the window into history they provide, these early seed catalogs are collectors’ items. You can find them at the Smithsonian and antique stores. Like this 1935 Burpee catalog I found in North Carolina. Pictures of large purple and pink petunias grace the cover, and on the back, hand-painted illustrations of tomatoes, peas and beans.

Inside, I counted 182 varieties of sweet peas, 10 kinds of turnips and Chicken lettuce, described as “quite different from those used for human food.” At ten cents for a packet of seeds, it was a bargain. Seeds are still one of the biggest bargains in gardening. And flipping through the pages of a seed catalog is wonderful way to pass a wintery day, don't you think?

FUN AND HELPFUL RESOURCES:
Renee's Garden: Do you like sweet peas? You'll find 'em here.

The Garden Watchdog Guide to Gardening by Mail The most complete directory of gardening sources featuring 4,671 gardening vendors. This directory makes it easy to find and contact them. Our name sums up our mission: we're here to protect and serve consumers by providing information on gardening companies.

Seed Savers Exchange:  Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations. When people grow and save seeds, they join an ancient tradition as stewards, nurturing our diverse, fragile, genetic and cultural heritage.

GREAT BOOK: "Seeds" by Peter Loewer (a fascinating account of seeds, the gardening industry in the U.S., food, Thomas Jefferson and his friends, and more.)