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company with the lower price may have fewer seeds per envelope. That may be just fine if you're ordering tomato seeds and want only a few plants, but if you want a whole lot of corn and beans, it may make a difference.

Jot down the shipping costs for each company. You may save two dollars by buying some seeds from Company A and some from Company B, but if you end up spending $7 on shipping from each company, you're better off buying all of your seeds from one catalog.

Finally, delete the higher prices for each item and total up your costs for each catalog order and the total costs for all seeds and shipping. Still bigger than your budget? Now is the time to bite the bullet and realize you don't really need all six kinds of Cosmos, and no, you won't die if you don't grow that lime-green Dahlia that really doesn't fit with your garden design anyway. Weed your list down some more until it's affordable.

READ THE FINE PRINT
How long will it take to ship your order? Make sure you're ordering in time for planting season, but not so early in the year that delicate seeds will freeze during shipping, or so late that they'll roast in your mailbox before you get home. What about plants? Will they be shipped right away, or will the company delay shipping to make sure they arrive at an ideal planting time? Make sure the plants won't sit out in freezing weather or languish on your porch while you're out of town.

TIME TO ORDER
Ready? Have your final list ready? Then let's fill out that order form! If the company has an online form, this is often the best way to order. There's no worry that they'll misread your handwriting, and there will usually be fewer mistakes. A few catalogs, especially seed exchanges, still use only mail order forms. When filling these out, be sure to print everything clearly in large, plain letters. If your handwriting is less that perfectly readable, you may want to use a word processor to make an order form as similar to the official order form as possible and type in your order. Staple it to the official order form and send it in with your check or other form of payment.

Now sit back and wait for your order to arrive. But wait! There's one more task. Take those catalogs and run them through the paper shredder. They make great compost, and you'll resist the temptation to take one more peek and maybe order just one more, no make that two more, no wait, there's that lime-green Dahlia again and... oh, there goes the budget!

Learn more about this author, Karen Bledsoe.
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