The beginning of the year is always so exciting for me. It has nothing to do with making resolutions. It has everything to do with seeds!! In January, I start making a list of the plants we want to grow, and start sowing seeds indoors in anticipation of the upcoming growing season. In the past, I have started tomatoes, jalapeños, red/yellow peppers, and eggplant from seed indoors in February, so the plants would be ready for transplanting outdoors in spring. Our home always looks like a jungle when April comes around with all of the plants placed on any available surface. It never fails to make my heart pump a little faster when I see a seed germinate and grow into a beautiful, bountiful plant.
I absolutely love harvesting the veg or fruit, and love it even more when I see my family loving the awesome taste. Our daughter would “graze” from one side of our yard to the other. She’d start with the raspberries and slowly meander across the garden picking and eating everything that she could until she got to the other side.
I also sow the seeds of lettuces, greens, radishes, beets, carrots, potato, squashes, and beans directly in the garden beds. We use our compost to enrich the soil, but also have to purchase more compost because we don’t make enough for all of our beds. We used to have 7 beds, but we are down to four because of one of our latest projects. We added an addition to our house and had to take out three beds during the construction.
We order our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Their website is rareseeds.com. They have a great selection of heirloom seeds and have had great success with their seeds. You will be amazed at how many varieties of vegetables and fruit there actually are. I love reading from where these seeds come from. I know, I nerd really hard sometimes!
You don’t need to buy heirloom seeds/plants to have a successful garden. You need good soil, water regularly, good sun, and commitment. Of course, nothing is fool proof, but you learn by doing. I have had some great harvests and other times I am left scratching my head at what the hell went wrong. It’s nature. What can you say?
We’ll be keeping you posted on our progress this season. With the construction and everything else going on, this year I am opting the buy the tomato, pepper, and squash seedlings from our local gardening center. They too sell heirloom varieties. I have already planted potatoes, and pea and Swiss chard seeds directly. We just received our order from Baker Creek yesterday for the other seeds. Can’t wait to see what happens!
Happy planting!!
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