March 9 column: Seed catalogs

Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Explore seed catalogs for veggie varieties. As you know, we gardeners receive plenty of seed catalogs in the mail that inspire us to purchase seeds for the coming year’s garden. Today’s column is about some of the newest varieties of vegetables that I think are worth knowing about.

I’ve included an information box with the column that lists seed sources for the ones I’ve highlighted.

One veggie, if you can call it one, that I didn’t have room for is the Mini Pumpkin on a Stick/Ornamental Eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum). I saw it in the Botanical Interests catalog and couldn’t help but be intrigued. This is a miniature orange eggplant that is used for fall decor because they look like little pumpkins. Interesting, eh? I found seeds for these at Northwest Seed & Pet; the seed brand is Livingston Seed although I just remembered that they carry Botanical Interests seeds as well. Refer to my recent blog post on Seed Sources for a list of the seed suppliers Northwest Seed stocks on their shelves.

Next Sunday’s topic is exceptional annual flower varieties that I thought you’d like to know about.

Happy reading, dreaming and planning!