Please tell me how you keep for buying so many plants and seeds???

Hi All,
I have totally lost it! Just got my first mellingers catalogue and I just must have 25 or 30 plants or seed packets. This is better than when I was a kid and got Sears wishbook.LOL How do ya'll keep from spending too much? But they all look so good. Help!!! And they make it soo easy online ordering.LOL Please somebody throw bucket of ice cold water on me.
laylarose

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alas,I haven't anything to trade this year. Dirt bug bite me to late. But just watch out next year LOL

Hi Laylarose,
Those catalogs sure are addicting! When I see things in a catalog or even at Home Depot, I ask myself if I can get the seeds in trade..or even a plant in trade (if it's worth the shipping expense). For really hard-to-find specimens, I like to save my money for those, rather than impulse buy on more common items. I wait until the clearance for items I really want at Home Depot. I, though, like the challenge of germinating my own seeds, so I save BIGTIME this way, especially with perennials. I see my garden as an investment in its toddler state, so I save seeds and cuttings, divide bulbs, grasses, etc... Because of the generosity of other gardeners in trading with me (seeds mostly but also plants) and filling my SASEs, my garden so far this year rivals the gardens of professional landscapers in my area. Even my bonsai-collector mail carrier comments on the beauty of things just starting to flower in my garden. So, my thrifty nature and happiness in starting my own plants allows me to ohh and ahh at the catalogs but it also gives me the motivation to try it the slower way... seed saving, trading, and starting, then checking the home centers for their "damaged/unwanted" goods.
Trish

Gosh I went to home depot and they had huge pots of flowers they had killed and were priced $5.00 each poor things none of them could be saved i don't think at least not by me. lol
Yep i have been going the seed route too. My flower garden is where ever i can move my containers to. All my stuff is in pots and containers. LOL grandson and me have birdhouse gourds growing in old ice chest and they are thriving LOL

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Not yet Laylarose..but I will be! I really want to start a garden journal. I should get my bumm in gear, since Dave has such a terrific set up ! I am still new to the site..and the rain has stopped! So perhaps tomorrow I will go out and take pics of all the herb and flower babies...veggies can wait til they have produced something lol. And I will use the journal Dave has for us. The catalog idea is a great one tho

Kathie

I take my seed packets and cut in half and put picture on front of index card and directions on back and put in recipe box.