I didn't get mine yet. I don't order from Johnny's every year, but they still send me a catalog yearly.

They send out the commercial catalog first. The regular catalog comes around the end of Dec., 1st of Jan. Usually.

Veilchen,

Thanks for your response. I will try to be patient. I wish I could qualify for Johnny's commercial catalog, but I'm not a commercial grower. Their commercial catalog has a lot more pages than their two home gardener catalogs, and it offers a significantly wider selection of varieties. I think Johnny's must actually cater to the commercial growers.

MM

My Johnny's Catalogue came today along with Jung's...the reading and planning begins! I struggled to pull the last of my leeks today, Snow and leaf mulch enabled most to be pulled fairly easily but a few broke off in the already frozen ground, I am having some tonight baked with sweet potatoes and cream, both thinly sliced. Made a pot of kale soup yesterday with some just picked kale. I love the fact that I can still go into the garden for veggies...or the basement for potatoes, squash, onions and garlic! It was a good garden year and the over 200 jars of various canned items are going to be enjoyed all winter! Pulled a blueberry pie from the freezer for tonight...have some home grown sweet potatoes in pies for Christmas dinner

Enjoy your holidays and your own graden bounty, fellow Mainers!

My Johnny's catalog also came, along with Jung's and Tomato Growers Supply. All good looking catalogs, and they make me wish we had a bigger garden to try all the new stuff. I think I will expand our garden a little this year. If it weren't for our sloping terrain, I would expand it a lot. My Merry Tiller is pretty good at chewing up new ground, despite the rocks.

Johnny's catalog is a lot bigger this year. I like that. If I had the money I could easily spend a thousand dollars in that catalog. They've got some great garden tools and growing accessories, in addition to a fine selection of seeds.

It's impressive that Rob Johnston and Janika Eckert, plant breeders and owners of Johnny's, have bred the new 2006 All-America Selections Carmen pepper. Congratulations, Johnny's! I will definitely have to grow that Carmen pepper this year. I really like to eat peppers: raw, fried, baked, stewed, stuffed, whatever.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

MM

Merry Christmas from me too!

I got my Johnny's catalog as well but haven't had time to look at it. Two parties over 3 days and all.

I love to grow peppers too. I have better luck with them than tomatoes. Unfortunately, I made a decision that my 2006 vegetable garden will be seriously downsized. We had an addition built (actually the size of our house doubled)and will be doing all the finish work ourselves. Because of the excavation work, I had to move a lot of my perennial garden--which gave me the idea to rework the entire garden into something new (except the vegetable raised beds). So all the perennials are being moved to a new garden in front of addition (which still needs major excavation work and paving) and I will be installing a rose garden in their place.

I am crossing my fingers that the excavators get to work as soon as the ground thaws come spring, so I can get to work moving plants.

With all this on my plate, and coming to the determination that the vegetable garden takes up the majority of my time spring and summer (sowing seeds, weeding, watering, fighting pests, harvesting, etc.), I need to scale back. Otherwise I will drive myself crazy. I plan on using a few of my raised beds for easy crops like lettuce, bush beans, etc. But the rest will be sowed with alfalfa. Hopefully the new gardens will be complete by 2007 and I can resume filling all 18 raised beds with vegetables.

Veilchen,

Congratulations on the big new addition! That finish work should keep you busy for a while. The alfalfa will be a good soil builder, and when it blooms it should attract a lot of honeybees.

MM