It's about this time of year, when snow covers the earth and cold winds blow while temperatures hover in the teens, when our minds turn to thoughts of spring. Longer days are more noticeable and the sun will begin its upward climb towards warmer temperatures. It may take awhile, but it will happen.It's also the time of year when seed catalogs arrive by droves in the mailbox. With their colorful pictures and huge inventories of possibilities, one can spend time planning that perfect garden. Well, it wasn't always so. If you did not plan ahead the year before, you would not have had a garden the next year.As immigrants left their home countries they brought seeds and slips of plants or tiny trees to begin their gardens in the new land. Most of these were heirloom varieties that had been kept from generation to generation.As garden annuals went to seed, the gardener would collect them in small packages, label them and keep them in a dry place until the next year. This was somewhat of a challenge and took some forethought.As time went on, gardeners shared with others so the rich diversity of garden plants was born. These were not the hybrid varieties we see today, but plant heirlooms that had been keep by families for years. Each heirloom had its unique characteristics.So added to the many tasks of our ancestors was that of keeping seeds from year to year. Sound easy? Well, it's not. If one had a bad year or if something did not germinate you may have found yourself without, but, other family members or neighbors would have been able to replace the plant.As a gardener you know how easy it is to gather the seeds of lettuce and radishes which so easily go to seed in the garden. I have benefited each fall by this abundance of volunteer plants that come up and give me a late crop of lettuce and radishes. But those seeds could easily be saved for spring, just as our ancestors did many years ago.Sometimes, due to the problem of cross pollination, Pollination was done by hand to ensure the best parents for the plant seeds. Some plants are easier to gain seeds for the next year than others. Take beans and peas, as long as you separate the varieties by about 25 feet or so, they should remain true to form.Tomatoes are pretty easy as well and if separated by that same 25 feet should stay true to form. The heirloom tomato I grow I keep even further apart from others in my garden closer to the house. I take the seed from a good producing plant and smear them across a paper towel, dry them and fold the towel. I plant them in starter pots with the towel attached. It soon disintegrates but will allow tiny roots to grow through it.Biannual plants, those which take two years to go to seed, took a bit more care. Cabbage had to be kept in a cool area with its roots in soil or sand. Replanted the next spring, it was sliced on the top and the tall seed plant would emerge that second year to reproduce sees for the next crop.Potatoes were pretty easy as the potato itself was cut into sections, each having at least two eyes, or dimples where sprouts would appear. Each of these sections was planted and grew for the new year's crop.So, it took some planning, especially with plants such as carrots for they would cross easily with their wild cousin, Queen Anne's Lace. Though distance and sometimes cages, the plants were kept true to their variety. If you did not take the time to do this work, you would have one less type of vegetable in your garden the following year.Flowers were the same, some were biannual, some were bulbs that must be dug to ensure their life for the next year, while some were perennial and hardy for the area.Once nurseries became more prevalent, seeds could be purchased, so the nurseryman would do the work that was done by the individual gardener. Now many hybrids are available which do not breed true. Many hybrids were bred for specific characteristics such as shipping stamina, uniformity of size or color or so they would ripen all at once. In the process other traits were lost, such as flavor, the ability to do well in its own ecosystem, uniqueness, even nutrition, some believe.That is why heirloom vegetables have gained such popularity in late years. And, many seed catalogs are stocking these varieties. Gardeners want to preserve the rich species and genetic diversity that has sustained the peoples of the world for hundreds of years. We need to keep that diversity, especially the way plants are now genetically modified. Plus there is something truly wonderful about knowing that the seeds you are planting have been preserved from one generation for another and would be familiar to our great- great-grandparents.---Jeannine Roediger has lived on a family farm all her life, first as a farmer's daughter and now as a farmer's wife. She writes weekly for the Times-Bulletin and enjoys gardening, quilting, cooking, bird watching and writing.