The pages are cool to the touch reminding you of the cool dirt you’ll be digging in when spring is here. The pictures get your heart pumping as you imagine your garden bearing delightful edibles. You read each and every little editorial to learn how it grows and how well it produces. You’ve gone through the catalog twice now dreaming of planting. Finally it’s time to make a list of the seeds you want to buy.
You make little X’s by the seeds you want to try and before you know it most of the book is marked with X’s. You can’t place an order that big nor do you have that much space to plant all those seeds. So you go through it again, trying to eliminate what you can live without. It is a hard chore because you want it all. Perhaps it would be best to come back another day to make the final decision.
Many days have passed and the magazine is now showing signs of wear. Pages are dog-eared, X’s have been scribbled out and new ones have appeared. But you feel you know what you want so you make a written list on notebook paper because you’re not ready to commit yet by filing out the order form. Once again the list is long and the cost would be a month’s pay so you whittle it down some more. The list gets folded and placed in the catalog for another day. This process repeats many times. And before you know it spring is here and you stop at the local garden store and buy plants to put in the ground. You promise yourself that next year will be the year you order the seeds and start them early. But for now you’re happy to be digging in the dirt.