We're back from a wonderful trip to Germany & Italy!  Had a lovely visit with our family there and saw lots of interesting things.  I'll try to get some of it into article form and put it on the website soon.

     Coming back to reality (that is, leaving the kids and grandkids!) is always difficult, but at least on the flight home, I was already anticipating a mailbox filled with seed catalogs.  They always seem to arrive just before THanksgiving--those tempters, when one should be thinking about grocery shopping, cooking, baking and cleaning.  I wasn't disappointed.  Fourteen seed catalogs awaited me, and, yes, I'm guilty of yielding to temptation.  I made a pot of tea, grabbed the nearest pen, my clipboard, and started flipping pages.

     I have a system for going through catalogs.  First I study the "new offerings" to see if there are any introductions that I should mark with a "*."  Then I go through the entire catalog page by page, folding down the corners of pages with varieties that interest me.  I mark varieties I must have with a "*"; varieties I might want with a "?"' and varieties that I need to research more with a circle.  I do this with each catalog, and by the time I'm finished I have a pretty good idea of what's available, how many companies are offering it, and what the "trends" are.  Then I set them all aside and let the information waft around in my head for a few days.

     This "wafting" period is necessary, because I can't afford to order everything I've marked.  First of all, it's not in the budget.  Secondly, we wouldn't have the space to grow them all, and thirdly, I don't have the time or energy.  I do have to be reasonable, which is often difficult.  So, I mentally group them into catagories.  A category might be grouped by color....for instance one year we did a display based on "Provence" which featured plants with blue or yellow blooms.  Some years, I want to broaden our offerings of fragrant plants, or deer resistant plants, or native plants.  I have to think in terms of what our customers want, what I want to grow for my own gardens, and how they will fit into proposed displays and events at the farm.  I only allow myself 6 plants that do not fit in a category.  Even at that, we generally add over 100 new varieties each year!

     Once I've picked my categories, I open the spreadsheet in my laptop and go through the catalogs again.  The spreadsheet already contains info for the seed orders sent in August, some of which are already planted in seedling flats. This time, I enter into the columns the plant name, company name, amount, price, category, and a short note about color, size, or any other special quality.  Then I go through the next catalog, doing the same task.  If more than one company offers a selected variety, I highlight the least expensive one.  When all the catalogs are completed, I can sort by category.  If there are not enough plants to do a good display (adding the ones we already grow) I know I need to delete the entire category, or rethink it.  If there are way too many in one category, I need to edit that list, or see if come of the entries will fit into another category.   Next, I sort by company.  Obviously, if there are only 1 or 2 packets listed, the shipping costs would be too dear.  Eventually, I whittle it down to five or six orders.

     Right now, I'm in the "wafting" stage, which could also be termed the "dreaming" stage.  Everything seems possible, all the displays in my mind are beautiful and effective, and all the promises in the seed catalogs seem absolutely true!  It's a wonderful way to spend the holidays!  

November!  How can the season be over?  It seems as if we only filled the outdoor displays and moved plants from the coldframe a few weeks ago to begin the season.  How can it be time to move them all back inside?  Of course, we've put the frost-tender plants into the greenhouse earlier, and taken cuttings in preparation for the cold, but still, it just doesn't FEEL like it should be over already.

     Of course, I'd noticed the signs....the disappearance of the butterflies and hummingbirds and the mad activity of the squirrels.  The annual flowers that always become brighter and stronger in color, in a last attempt to attract a pollinator before they succumb to the frost.  The changing color of the leaves, and then the skeletons of empty trees are sure signs of the end.  Soaring hawks overhead, like kites on strings above harvested grain fields and V's of fowl heading south are indicators of winter's approach.  Yet, with all this, somehow, the end of the growing season always takes me by surprise and sends me into melancholy.

     The summer bulbs have been dug, and into the holes went a sprinkling of fertilizer and handfuls of colorful tulips, grape hyacinths, crocuses, or daffodils.  This week, we'll gather the fairy houses, statues, and signs and put them into storage.  Plants will be trimmed, divided if needed, and moved into the coldframe for a long winter's nap.  Flats of cuttings will be moved into the greenhouse floor, where they will be potted on sunny days in the dreary months to come.  And, the gardens will be given a final weeding, so those invasive roots cannot expand and thrive over the winter, becoming more abundant and difficult to remove next spring. 

     The dozens of envelopes of seed that I've collected over the season will need to be organized by planting time and placed into plastic shoe boxes that are clearly labeled.  "Early perennials" will be sown yet this month and into January so they get a good start.  Then "Early annuals" that take a long germination or growing time will be seeded in February.  "Midseason" seeds will go into flats in March, and "Late annuals" will be planted in April and May.  I've developed a calendar with varieties that get seeded each week over years of trial and error, so it's pretty easy now.  Only new varieties need to get fitted into the schedule.  Within the boxes, the envelopes are alphabetized; a task that is easily done as I watch football, as are sorting labels and signs.  Anything that I can do in fall to make the hectic spring season more easily accomplished is a positive.

     It's always sad to see the season end.  The gray days of November are here again.  Thank goodness the seed catalogs will be arriving soon, so dreams of the next season can begin!