Free Seed Catalogs from Mail Order Companies Can Help Plan Out Your New Garden

Your guide to hunting out the deals in seed catalogs

Once you have a garden design all planned out on paper and know how much of each variety you want to plant, the next step is to decide which vegetables you will seed and which ones you will grow from established plants and transplants. Of the transplants, decide which ones you'll start yourself from free seed catalogs from seed companies and which you'll buy at greenhouses or your local nursery. A number of garden seed catalogs now sell transplants, and will ship them to you just prior to the planting season beginning. In addition, most local nurseries and garden centers now stock a nice assortment of varieties of transplantable vegetables, which you can actually see, smell and touch. Local retailers also tend to stock varieties that do well in their local climate.

Even if you don't order free catalogs by mail through seed companies, you might find the gardening catalog to be a useful resource tool in planning what you will buy. Most of the catalogs also operate support web sites, which in theory eliminates the need for the paper versions of the seed companies' inventories for those that are more electronically inclined. However, nothing compares to being able to lay out your favorite catalogs side by side and comparing seed varieties and prices. The descriptions in the free seeds catalogs also contain much of the same information that appears on the actual seed packets so this kind of information is valuable when planning the next phase of your garden.

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