Weathering Winter extends the spring-to-fall narrative that you gave us in My Vegetable Love into the winter months, not traditionally seen as active gardening months. Tell us why it was important to you to write about the winter months.
The put-downs of winter are so legion, I thought it was time to give the season a fair shake—time to challenge Shelley’s dismissive proclamation that “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” As if winter had nothing to offer in its own right except as a prelude to spring. In other words, I wanted to take stock of its distinctive sights and sounds—the snow falling, the birds flocking at the feeders, the icicles forming and melting. I also wanted to challenge the commonplace notion that a gardener’s life in the Upper Midwest begins in the spring and ends in the fall, as if the itch to grow and tend things depended on a rising or falling thermometer. Gardening, after all, goes on throughout the winter months—under cloth, under straw, under snow, in seed trays, in cold frames, and in greenhouses as well as in the dreams and plans of gardeners galore.
Seed catalogs are a sign that winter may not last forever. What are some of your favorite catalogs? How do you decide which seeds to order?
The opening sentence of this question exemplifies the habitual tendency to think of winter as a season to be endured rather than enjoyed—and therefore to regard seed catalogs as an aid to endurance rather than a genuine source of information and pleasure. I usually receive about two dozen catalogs and skim through most of them to discover new herb, vegetable, and flower varieties as well as new aids to gardening and sometimes even new gardening techniques. But when it comes time to order, I generally favor a handful of catalogs, namely Johnny’s Selected Seeds (located in Maine), Vermont Bean Seed, Gardener’s Supply (in Vermont), Seed Savers (in Iowa), Jung Seeds (in Wisconsin), and Territorial Seed (in Washington). My seed-ordering decisions are based largely on past experience—i.e., on records of how individual varieties have performed in my garden and of how they taste to my palate. So, having gardened in my present spot for more than forty years, I’m inclined to rely mostly on my tried and true favorites, particularly given the idiosyncrasies of my soil and my salivary glands. But I always try a handful of new varieties, just for the pleasure of a surprise and a possible favorite in future years.
Carl H. Klaus,
Weathering Winter: A Gardener’s Daybook
