Barry Fugatt: Delight found amid pages of seed catalogs
BY BARRY FUGATT Garden World
Saturday, December 29, 2012
12/29/12 at 6:00 AM
It was a simple prayer.
"Dear Lord, prince of peace, grant me a moment of peace amid the frantic hustle and bustle of the holidays."
The answer came quickly. Moments later, I was curled up - mercifully not in a fetal position - on a comfortable sofa deeply absorbed in the lush images of a rustic seed catalog, page after page of spring's promise.
Messiah speaks in many ways, even from the pages of a seed catalog. And that makes perfect sense. He was, after all, the first gardener.
"In the beginning," the Bible says, "God created a garden east of Eden. And he placed man in the garden and told him to care for it." That makes God the first gardener and gardening - not tax collecting, not that other ancient profession - the world's oldest profession. Gardening is the language of heaven. Listen closely and you'll hear it spoken in every leaf and flower.
Sir Francis Bacon, the great English scholar of the 17th century, may have said it best: "God Almighty created the first garden, and, indeed, gardening is the purest of all human delights." Perhaps that's why many of life's problems seem a little less daunting from a garden perspective.
I'll receive enough seed catalogs over the coming weeks to fill a boxcar. They're all wonderful epistles of hope, filled with endless shots of digitally enhanced fruits and veggies that would cause any gardener to pop his suspenders. My favorite, however, is the big hefty catalog from Seed Saver's Exchange.
Founded in 1975, Seed Saver's Exchange (SSE) is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to conserving and promoting heirloom vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs. It's headquartered in Decorah, Iowa, and operates Heritage Farm, an 890-acre, certified-organic farm with more than 25,000 fruit, veggie and plant varieties. SSE also offers educational programs, exhibits and library. The farm is open to visitors April through December.
Joining SSE may bless your gardening experience. The 2013 SSE Yearbook (catalog) contains more than 13,000 plant varieties. SSE members also receive a spring, summer, fall and winter color magazine filled with practical gardening information.
Gardeners may enroll at seedsavers.org. Mailing address is 3094 N. Winn Road, Decorah, IA 52101. A membership is $40.
Enjoy the holidays. Try not to stress out over soon arriving bills. And keep several garden catalogs close at hand.
Original Print Headline: Gardener delights in pages of seed catalogs
Barry Fugatt is director of horticulture at the Tulsa Garden Center/Linnaeus Teaching Garden. He can be reached at 918-746-5125 or bfugatt@tulsagardencenter.com.
Associated Images:
The 2013 Seed Savers Exchange catalog contains more than 13,000 plant varieties. Courtesy
|
