Evening star., 1950-02-06
This and That
By Charles E. TraceveU
Seed catalogues are easy reading.

Seed catalogues are easy reaQng.
That is because they are interesting.
Easy and interesting, surely good recon-
mendations for any reading, except, per-
haps, those that deal with atoms, etc.
Physics in the new style may be left to
physicists. (Say that last word aloud, for
some fun. Congressman once said 1t
sounded as if bottle were being openedJ
Seed catalogues may be left to every one.
That have been coming in at lively rate
to old and new gardeners alike.
Big colored pictures of the latest flowers
land the Oldest vegetables compete with
the reading matter.
**
1t is amazing how little it takes to excite
gardener.
He sees new petunia, one with crinkled
blossoms rather than the old straight edges.
did you see this?" he points.
One careful look, and there is another
enthusiast.
"We must have some of those"
And so it goes
The list is never ended, because one is al
ways adding something, striking something
out, adding something else.
Sometimes this sort of planning is called
f1reside gardening.
The phrase has good, homely sound but
in warm season it is not exactly necessary.
just plain mental gardening, if you will.
does very nicely.
Even the sketchiest garden does take q
little forethought.
1t Is always good thing to look over what
has been done in the past. to compare the
results with what one had hoped.
Somehow one never achieves exactly as
much as expected.
That Is one of the real charms of home
gardening.
Here. at least one may fail gracefully.
*x
There is no critic in gardening.
The structures that so often fall upon the
failure in other lines with all the appropriate
sounds of doom here seem to be little re-
sented.
No one criticizes another because q plant
fails to bloom.
It is overlooked, in a good way. There
will always be plants, and always time, in
the brave lexicon of the everyday, for the
second trial.
Here no need for stuffy admonitions Of
TRY, try again." Try only If you feel
like it! The seed catalogues are all pre-
pared for your failure and their own. All
OF them carry disclaimers as to the purity,
growth and any other matter. There are
so many factors involved that even the most
sterling seedsmen cannot guarantee any,
tlAiis. 1Acy put IL TaIneT legally, puC what
they mean is that they can't trust human
nature. They have been working with seeds
and people for scores and scores, some of
them for hundreds, of years, and they know
that there is a vast difference between the
seed in the ground and the flower in the
vase. They know that though they deliver
us packet Of perfect seed, almost 100 per
cent termination. it is up to us to plant them
properly. They can depend upon their seed,
but they cannot depend upon us. At the
very time their perfect little plants need
watering most, we may think the day too
hot and refuse to do what is demanded
We are not perfect gardeners no matter
how perfect their seed.
This is the charm of the catalogues, that
they do not expect too much of us. They
know that all men. and most women, are
human. The desire Of the gardener is for
perfection, but between the seed in the
ground and the bouquet there is range
Of human fallibility greater than the words
in the catalogue, wider than the seas and
harder to reach than the moon. It makes
no difference. Let us dream over the big
red tomatoes. Who cares If we plant none,
but continue to buy ours at the store? This
seed catalogue is dream come true, in itself
Good, bad, Indifferent gardener, in fact, here
we are all-perfect, all-wise, all-knowing. Be
fore we wake up. let us dream awhile.