In case anyone has forgotten how overwhelmed the seed companies were last winter, how slowly they were filling orders and how many seed varieties were back-ordered and even slower to arrive, I thought I'd post this friendly reminder. Order your seeds soon!

There. You have been reminded.

Seed catalogs are arriving here at the leisurely pace of 1 or 2 per week, and I am going straight to the websites and ordering what I want ASAP.

This week, after Jay posted that Totally Tomatoes had updated their website for 2010, I went right to it and ordered without even waiting for a hard-copy of the catalog to arrive. I think I ordered on Tues. although maybe it was Wed., and my seeds already have arrived. (Although....two of the new Brandywine cousins I ordered are back-ordered and didn't come with the rest of the seeds, but I expect they'll arrive here sooner or later.) I'd rather be waiting for back-ordered seeds in December than in February or March.

I have almost everything I want and need, and of course, there undoubtedly will be some seed packets from this forum's seed swap that I'll make space to plant this spring.

The only thing I am still undecided about is which potato varieties to plant. I have been rototilling and enriching a bit of our small band of sandy soil (wish I had a whole lot more sandy soil, but any is better than none) to make a dedicated potato garden so I can plant oodles and oodles of potatoes. I know I want lots of regular varieties, but also a bunch of fingerlings too. A lot of my seed potato choices will depend on what I find at Central Market and Whole Foods in the D-FW metroplex, because I buy regular organic potatoes there in December and put them in my tornado shelter so they can start sprouting before potato planting time arrives.

I suppose if there is a variety or two of unique heirlooms that I feel we simply must have, I'll order them from Ronningers or Wood Prairie Farm or somebody who ships seed potatoes reasonably early, but after last year's late blight hit the east coast and northeastern U.S. so hard, I have some concern about this year's seed potato supplies. I do have enough Yukon Golds and Kennebec Whites saved from this year's potato crop that I won't have to buy any seed potatoes for those varieties.

So, don't forget to order early. A lot of the seed companies are insisting they are better prepared for increased demand this spring than they were last spring, but who knows if they really are?

There is some truth in that 'early bird gets the worm' saying. The companies that are earlier to update their websites are the ones getting my business so far.

Dawn