The seed catalogs have been thumbed through, pages have corners turned down, order blanks have a few tentative lines filled in, but the past six weeks or so have not been encouraging. We have put off starting those first seedlings in the greenhouse, sun porch, or under plant lights in the basement. Not long ago, we looked out the window at the patch of earth we’d hoped to have already tilled and partially planted and what did we see? Snow. Not in piles, granted, but lurking in chilly little patches where the meager sun seldom reaches.