Starting your plants

Even though there is snow and ice on the ground, and spring seems far off, the key to a good garden is planning, planning, planning. This is also a good temporary cure for what my wife calls cabin fever. So, what to plant that is the question. As you look at all the seed catalogs that are on your pile of mail or if you have gone to your local garden center the amount of seeds stacked on the wall can be over whelming. WOW hundreds of seed packets, so many varieties and colors makes you feel lost as what to do or how to start.  Before you spend 20 bucks on seeds you have no idea if you can even grow or how long before they start to produce you need to plan.  First you need to decide on the size of your garden and how you are going to grow it.  Are you just putting in the ground, square bale, container or raised bed?  We are expanding our garden from 1100sq feet to 1800sq feet as well as adding square bales and containers. We are also putting in a square bale garden at my sister in laws home. Ok now you know how big your garden will be based on that now you can pick what you want to plant. The best way to figure out what to plant is what your need is.  We plant a ton of tomatoes because we love them and we can use them for canning.  Same with peppers and cucumbers.  We planted okra last year but will not be planting it this year because we are not too fond of it. Now that you know what you want to plant it is time to plan some more. On the back of most seed packets there is a graph or grid of when to plant that item in your zone outdoors or to start indoors near a window or under growing lights. Some seed companies and stores have sales on seeds right now so take a look online. We've found deals such as 30% off, free shipping, even  $25 off a $50.00 order. For us we like to start anything we can from seeds because we feel more in control with this. Right now we have started onions, leeks, and potatoes.  We started the potatoes from actual potato seeds.  This is something we are experimenting with because we have the time and space.  If your time and space is limited then just plant what you need. Theres a lot of great resources out there.  As you look online or check out books it is good to keep track of that information for further use.  We will print things off the internet or make copies from books and put it in a binder.  This is helpful because we can refer back to it and not have to try to remember which website we found it on, or what the name of the book was.  Please keep in mind to look for answers that are within your planting zone.  You can find all the answers of how to grow a garden in Florida, but if you're in northern Wisconsin it serves you no purpose. I really hope this helps and now you can begin to plan for your garden.  If you have any questions or comments feel free to let us know.


- Joey