Isn't It Time To Curl Up With a Good Seed Catalog?

NOB HILL--Time to use that cold frame and plant some seeds! Yesterday I planted beets, snow peas, carrots, chard, radishes, and winter lettuce. I got these seeds from three sources:

1. Pika generously gave me six different varieties of seeds from her own personal stock. We sure looked funny in the Flying Star sorting out these tiny tiny things and folding them up in pieces of a paper menu. Thanks Pika. This sort of spontaneous offering goes right along with your blog...so positive, so alive, so ardent in your quest for the best seed.
2. Bob Evans, my Tuesday/Thursday riding partner gave me some snow peas and borrowed my chard! Now this particular variety of chard is called "Bright Lights." Pika said it was so beautiful that in Chicago they planted it in the median of Michigan Avenue! "The Magnificent Mile, for crying out loud." It has gorgeous red stems and bright green leaves.
3. Pinetree Seeds is a wonderful CHEAP place to buy all kinds of seeds and things. They carry a lot of heirloom and "open polinating" varieties as well as hybrids. Let me quote from their catalog regarding "Bright Lights" chard:

   94. BRIGHT LIGHTS (50 days)
   A 1998 All-America Award Winner. Bright Lights is almost neon in appearance and has been the talk of our trial gardens. The leaves are green, moderately savoyed with veins of vibrant color, red, orange, or yellow running through them. The contrast is outstanding. Use young raw leaves in a salad (30 days) or briefly cook mature leaves (50 days) to maintain their color. If started indoors 5-6 weeks before setting out they can be planted by color for effect in an ornamental edible garden. Developed by Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

Well, nothing makes you feel better than going on-line and ordering a seed catalog. Oh yeah.