-Advertisement- Gardenerâs Winter Ritual: Seed Selection, Catalog Combing and Garden Planning (with List of Favored Seed Companies) Reader Contribution . In January and February, with holiday traditions celebrated and New Year’s resolutions ushering in a new cycle, we collectively exhale. And despite the bleak pallet and chilled days, the clean-slate months of a new year present gardeners solid ground on which to lay plans and hopes for a successful growing season. While the garden sleeps, the gardener schemes and dreams. Now is the time we relish the ritual of seed selection and garden planning. We watch our mailboxes and wring our hands in anticipation of seed catalogs and when they arrive, we welcome them like old friends. The spectrum of colors alone is enough to brighten our days. Striking photos of thriving plants stir our spirits, evoke visions and invite us to reminisce. Each year, despite the bounty or heartbreak of previous harvests, seed catalogs provide us with page after page of beginner’s sight. They renew us with the promise of this year’s garden.