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Topic: Flowers, Seeds, Vegetables

So it begins. My New Year's Resolution to start everything in my garden from seed, except for a few annual plants.

Recap about why I'm doing this: the plants I grow from seed do better in my garden. Whether it's because of my soil, because I pay more attention to them, or because they don't have growth regulators sprayed on them, I'm not sure. What I do know for sure is that starting from seed will save me money!

I'm not planning to start things indoors under grow lights. (I'm even going to direct-sow tomatoes into the garden because it's warm enough where I live to do that.) However, if I get bored in March, there's no telling what I'll do. Last year, I planted an entire terrarium farm.

First Things First: Getting Organized

What you're looking at there is the pile of seeds that I have left over from last year. I'm also fairly certain that I have a bunch more lurking in drawers, closets, and the garage. I'm a compulsive seed buyer. As such, there's a chance I won't even need to go shopping for seeds for the time being.

You might ask yourself (especially if you're a new gardener) what about the expiration date? Well, there might be fewer plants that sprout, but by and large, seeds I bought last year should be fine to plant this year. Seeds can last a LONG time, especially if they're stored in a cool, dry place.

My Plan of Attack for this Week

I'm going to sort my seeds and organize them into my seed keeper from the Seed Keeper Company. The nice ladies who created that handy tool gave me one at the IGC show last summer. Now's the perfect time to use it. By organizing everything, I'll be able to plan what I need to plant, when. That will be helpful because that is a big problem for me. That's how I end up with this many seed packets at the end of a growing season.

Planning helps in other ways, too:

• It will help me plant early crops and flowers early enough. I ALWAYS miss the window for things like poppies because I'm unorganized about gardening.
• It will help me plant a steady rotation of crops that need to be sown on two or three week intervals. (Which, in turn, will give me radishes throughout the spring instead of 200 at once.)
• It will help me budget.

So, I'll report back next week about how I did with my first "to do."

What's happening in your gardening world this week?

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Greenland Garden of the Week!

Aziem K.