Seed Ordering Time -- Hurrah!!

Some people play fantasy games on the Internet, others create fantasy sports teams. Neither interest me. But give me a pile of brand new seed catalogs and I can become totally immersed in planning my ultimate fantasy garden. Now you talk about a great rainy day activity. Right on!

With the arrival of each new catalog, the imaginary garden grows. If I actually ordered and planted every one of the varieties I select, then I guess I'd need a 5 acre garden. Maybe even double that because this year I've taken a fancy to grains. Wow, look at all those different types of corn. Sweet. Heirlooms. Dent. Flour. Ornamental. Popcorn. And sorghum....must be a dozen interesting kinds. Rice, I'd like to give that a try. And there are plenty of varieties to choose from.  Why not wheat? And barley while I'm at it. Teff sounds different. And quinoa. Amaranth for grain might be fun. I haven't tried flax yet, but why not give it a go? And buckwheat. See? Things just snowball. But luckily it's all for the fantasy garden. I don't think I'd even have the time to actually plant all that stuff, let alone care for and harvest it. 

But there's something enjoyable about scanning through the tomato listings and picking out the best sounding red ones, those pretty pinks, the bold oranges, and fun yellows. White and green ones could be interesting. And look here, there's more than one color of stuffer types. This year there are lots of black ones listed, in addition to the striped and multi-colored tomatoes. And all sorts of shapes and sizes. In order to have just one of each kind I'd have to devote an acre to just tomatoes! 

Squash. Just when you finally have the tomatoes sorted out, you sneak a peek at the new squashes. Before long squash has taken over. There's more shapes, colors, and sizes than tomatoes! And since many have giant vines (catalogs describe them as vigorous), I'd need two acres just for all the squashes! Squashes lead to the pumpkin listings, then to gourds. So much to choose from! Wow, this is getting to be fun. 

The imaginary garden is rapidly growing in size. Things are getting confusing, so I start going down the alphabet. A. Artichoke. Two kinds would look nice together. One silvery green, the other purple. Whew, that was simple. Next, asparagus. An all male variety sounds good. But that purple one would be pretty, so add that too. Oops, forgot the amaranth. O-o. Lots of varieties to pick from. Green. Red. Multi color. Grain type, leaf type. These choices are gonna be a bit tougher, require more thought. Uuuhhh. Better increase the size of the fantasy garden. 

And so it goes. 

Just when I'm satisfied with my fantasy creation, another catalog shows up! Here we go again!