While it's not officially winter yet, seed catalogs have begun arriving in the mail and gardeners are already making plans for 2005. Gardeners can purchase seeds at local garden centers and mail-order companies. Most mail-order seed companies will automatically send catalogs to individuals who have purchased products from their business in recent years. New customers can obtain catalogs by mail or computer via the web. Most catalogs are free.

For your convenience, the mailing addresses and Web sites of several mail-order seed companies are provided. (No endorsement of companies is intended in this listing, nor is criticism implied of similar companies that are not shown.) See list of catalogs .

This article originally appeared in the 12/12/2004 issue.