Anchorage Daily News

OK, January is here and for the gardener this means it is catalog time. For the next few weeks, as has become tradition, this column will concentrate on gardening catalogs.

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Gardening calendar

Happy New Year to you and your plants: Make this year’s first resolution to get a set of lights for winter growing.

Recycle that Christmas tree: It is that time. Go to designated locations only in Carrs lots. Wasilla must use the Palmer Carrs. You know the rules: no ornaments or stands or bags. If you want to keep the limbs or boughs, they make great mulch, especially when there is no snow.

Poinsettias: Continue to care for yours. Cut back by a third once all the bracts have dropped off. Stop the “leaking” of sap with a match or lighter.

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All gardeners should have a few at hand. When I started writing these columns 30-plus years ago, the only way to do this was to get the snail-mail variety. Today, of course, many sources only have a Web version, aka "webalogs," having dropped the paper version in a wave to modernism.

There are three rules the Alaska gardener needs to follow here. First, while a few hard-copy catalogs are useful -- even necessary, I would argue -- the use of the Web versions is encouraged, as the practice will foster a bit of sustainability. Seed catalogs can pile up like Southcentral phone books if you are not careful.

Second, while society is buying more stuff via the Internet, here in Alaska -- specifically when it comes to gardening items -- there is almost no necessity. We have the finest retail nurseries in the United States. Almost everything you need gardening-wise is available right here. Sustainability includes keeping local businesses healthy by buying locally.

Finally, seed catalogs, like seed racks, can be very dangerous. Combine the right ones with a long winter night and you can end up with an order large enough to stock a small developing nation. Don't get carried away. You don't have the time or the space to grow more than a dozen or so things from seed unless you have a really large, winter-heated greenhouse.

OK, right off the bat, let's get the "must have" catalogs out of the way. Well, not out of the way, but on the table. If you get hard copies, these are the ones: Nichols Garden Nursery (www.nicholsgardennursery.com) and Territorial Seed Co. (www. territorialseed.com), both located in Oregon, and Johnny's Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) from Albion, Maine.

These supply short-season, hardy seeds and plants that do well here. Each features organic material and each of these catalogs is full of pictures and cultural information that will help you be a better gardener in our short-season garden home. Their employees treat Alaska gardeners very well. Their service is excellent. Unless you can convince me otherwise, these are the Alaska gardener's "must haves."

Where is Thompson and Morgan (www.thompson-morgan.com), the picture bible catalog for annual growers? How about Bluestone Perennials (www.bluestoneperennials.com),with its great selection of perennals? Shouldn't Renee's Garden Seeds (www.reneesgarden.com) be included because of her can't-be-beat selection of sweet-peas? Some vegetable growers will question the missing Stokes Seeds (www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront), with its Canadian cold-weather expertise. I know I am going to get some arguments (and I hope I do, directed to Jeff@gardener.com) that others should be at least considered for the "must have" list.

For example, given my conviction that we must drop the chemical part of the home gardening equation and become better organic gardeners -- indeed, scientific ones -- I surely should have some catalogs from companies that are not only sustainable, as are the three already in the "must have" category, but also promote other values.

How about, for good example, Seeds of Change (www.seeds ofchange.com) of Santa Fe, N.M. Seeds of Change is a leader in supplying certified organic seed that are "heirloom" and "traditional," an important effort given the Monsanto-led trend of limiting seed varieties so we can spray everything with RoundUp. Once an heirloom seed is lost, it is gone. I can't imagine a world without Brandywine tomatoes, can you?

Or how about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com), based in the Ozarks in southern Missouri. Baker Creek too specializes in open-pollinated, heirloom seeds collected from 70 countries. This is said to be the largest commercially available collection. While you are at the computer looking over Baker Creek's site, check out heirloomseedsmen.com, which they set up to display seed catalogs of yore.

Finally, Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply (www.groworganic.com) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, is one of the original organic seed suppliers. They have a complete line of goods from books to fertilizers. And they walk the talk (as do all of the vendors in this column); no nasty Styrofoam peanuts in their packing detritus. All their packing material is 100 percent recycled, as it should be.

Check out these gardening "webalogs" when you get a few moments. It is what gardeners do this time of year, as noted. By the same token, I can assure you I will do the same for any suggestions you pass on to me of your "must have" catalogs and "must bookmark" webalogs. Who knows, they may be worth writing about.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at home.gci.net/~jeff/gardener or by joining the "Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.

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