January is catalog time for Alaska gardeners, and that usually means going online

I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it’s consuming candy canes or those little mandarin oranges. Or maybe drinking eggnog causes it. I just don’t know, but in my experience, something happens to the gardener’s memory during the winter holiday season.

Somehow, everyone forgets last years’s garden and starts planning for this year’s. Everyone wants to order seeds and start plants. Just a month before, absolutely no one was interested. This phenomenon is why January is when seed sales take off even though most cannot plant until May rolls around.

To try to satisfy this craving, I usually write about catalogs and websites all through January. I now question if this is a practice worth repeating. There are a few new things to consider this year.

The first is the choice between paper catalogs and webalogs. For the first time, if you want to sell seeds, you need to have a website. You do not need a paper catalog. This is the new way of merchandising, a huge shift for gardeners, reflecting both a drop in the average age of gardeners and also an increase in the ability of older gardeners to navigate the web.

It occurred to me as I was contemplating the difference between the hard copy of the Territorial Seed catalog and the website that both offer the exact same seeds. I like the interactivity and cruise-ability of the website; my daughter likes the hard-copy catalog. Ironically, ordering the hard copy pretty much requires a computer.

I know many readers will argue otherwise, but I think the day of the hard-copy garden catalog should be over. (I remember listing dozens of snail mail catalog addresses in years past — not that long ago.) They are just not sustainable. It is prudent gardening practice to at least try to limit the number of trees that are needed in order for you to grow spring seeds.

I will admit the Territorial catalog is pretty darn nice to thumb through. So is the Baker Creek Heirloom seeds catalog. In fact, this seed house has two catalogs to order: the free one and the coffee table — what does that mean? — version, the full catalog, which costs 12 bucks or so and which I describe as pornography for gardeners. (Check them out here.) Before you order either, however, try mirroring the website on your high-resolution, big-screen TV. If you don’t know what mirroring is, perhaps you should order the hard copy.

Sometimes we don’t have a choice between hard copy and webalog. Denali Seeds does not have a print catalog. Go and look at what they have offer. If you are new to gardening in Alaska, this is a place to start without having to kill a tree. Owner Reg Yaple’s book, “Gardening From Seed in Arctic and Sub-arctic Areas,” is available only in a paper version, but it is usable year after year and even experts will get plenty from it.

In addition to the web-versus-paper issue, there is the question of whether there is a need to list particular seed houses every January? Given the power of internet search engines these days, isn’t a simple shove in the direction of a particular plant of type or garden all that the reader needs? If it is, considered yourself pushed.

Seed houses are pretty easy to find. All you need to do is use an internet search engine and poke around a bit. It is amazing how easy it is to not only find webalogs to peruse, but all manner of related information. From “seed catalogs for new gardeners” to “cold hardy perennials from seed” to “hardiness zone for growing licorice roots” to “figs in the North,” whatever you want is out there for the asking.

So, this year, instead of me listing a zillion websites to look at or for buying seeds, poke around on your computers and see what you want to see, not what I think you should see! I am still here for suggestions, sure, though the first one is that you buy seed from local outlets. You can find pretty much any seed you would want to germinate and grow in your garden right here at local nurseries. This is where you should get the majority if not all of your seeds.

Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar

Call for speakers: Alaska Botanical Garden Spring 2022 Conference: Friday and Saturday, March 11-12. This will be a virtual conference. Proposals must be submitted by Jan. 17 to ABG’s program director at stacey.shriner@alaskabg.org.

Christmas tree recycling: What are you waiting for? Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling tree recycling, in partnership with the Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services and Carrs/Safeway, runs through Jan. 15. Look for the signs and barriers at Anchorage, Eagle River and Palmer Carrs store parking lots.

Poinsettias: Decisions, decisions. To keep or toss. Keep if you have lights. Toss if you don’t, but keep the pot.