DEAR HAMMER: Why do seed companies — those selling small amounts of seeds to backyard gardeners like me — send their catalogs so early? I started receiving them at the end of December. — Darla J., Cleveland

DEAR DARLA: Catalogs are sent early to give you plenty of time to plan this year’s garden and order your seeds, of course. While we tend to be preoccupied in January and February with shoveling snow and staying warm, February is prime time for ordering seeds. Most companies make their shipments this month. It’s also just a nice, quiet time of year for most homeowners, right after the holidays and before spring lawn care and exterior house repairs gear up. So this is a great time to sit down with your catalogs or browse the Web looking for ideas on things to grow and ways to configure your garden. One of my favorite Web sites is A Way to Garden (http://awaytogarden.com), which features plenty of advice for gardeners of all levels, as well as video and pictorial instructions, podcasts and other fun. It’s a good place to start if you’re new to researching gardening and seeds on the Web. If you want to do something more than sowing herbs or struggling with tomatoes (not saying other people struggle to get big red tomatoes, but I sure do), look into planting vegetables or flowers native to your area. For example, residents of coastal Virginia or Maryland might want to look at Annapolis Seeds (http://www.annapolisseeds.com/), which produces seeds native to the Maritimes. A number of online garden planners also are out there. These can help you lay out and plan your outdoor garden, offer hints and ideas, and generally make this stage of gardening more fun, or as fun as it can be when you’re anxious to get outside and start turning over dirt.