Seed Catalogs

Why Gardeners in Texas Are Skipping Seed Catalogs This Year—and What They’re Doing Instead

January 17, 2026 by Brandon Marcus Leave a Comment

The mailbox used to be the most exciting place for a Texas gardener in winter. Glossy seed catalogs promised perfect tomatoes, flawless zinnias, and harvests so abundant they bordered on fantasy. This year, though, something wild is happening across the Lone Star State. Those catalogs are piling up unopened, while gardeners are busy doing something…

A Wealth of Information: 4 Great Reasons to Order & Keep Seed Catalogs

January 6, 2025 by Steph Coelho Leave a Comment

Have you started receiving your seed catalogs yet? Mine have indeed begun arriving in my mailbox! I’ve set the pile aside during the holidays — I’ve been too busy cleaning, cooking, and entertaining to peruse them, but I look forward to when I have a chance to flip through the pages of delicious-looking produce. …

How To Get Free Seeds From The Government by Amanda Blankenship Seeds might seem like a small expense, but any seasoned…
Should I Use Enviro Ice On My Plants? by Kathryn Vercillo Every week, I receive food from Hungryroot. It's a great…
From Trash to Treasure: Transform Shredded Paper Into Garden Gold by Amanda Blankenship Should you use shredded paper as garden mulch? It might…
What Happens to Plants If You Use Enviro Ice on Them? by Amanda Blankenship About a year ago, I wrote our first article about…

How to Save Pepper Seeds Before Frost Damages the Plants

When frost threatens your pepper plants, most gardeners immediately think about harvesting the peppers—but this may also be your last chance to collect next year’s seeds. Saving seeds from a favorite plant costs practically nothing and can turn one successful pepper into dozens of potential plants next season. The catch is that saving pepper seeds…

What to Do With Tomato Plants After the Final Harvest

That last tomato may be off the vine, but your tomato season isn’t quite finished. What you do with those tired, brown plants now can affect disease pressure, garden cleanup, and even where you should plant next year’s crop. Simply leaving old vines sprawled across the bed until spring may allow infected plant debris to…

How to Clean Up Garden Beds Without Removing Every Habitat

Fall garden cleanup used to mean cutting every perennial to the ground, raking out every leaf, and leaving beds nearly bare before winter. We now know that some of what looks like garden debris is actually valuable shelter for bees, butterflies, moths and other beneficial insects spending winter in our yards. That doesn’t mean you…

Bulbs That Need Chilling Time Before Spring Blooms

Those bags of tulips, daffodils, and crocuses appearing in garden centers every fall aren’t being sold months early by accident. Many familiar spring-flowering bulbs actually need an extended period of cold before they’ll develop and bloom properly, which is why gardeners traditionally put them into the ground before winter rather than waiting for spring. The…