I warm up in winter by dreaming of seedlings.
Come January, I’m scouring catalogs arriving in the mail for flowers and veggies to start indoors as seedlings, or to direct sow in the spring.
Choose from the available catalogs (many are free!) at Farmer’s Almanac List of Seed Catalogs.
I read all about the characteristics of new varietals and old heirlooms, leafing through pics of the colorful bounty I might raise for my family this year. Such fantasies satisfy my desire to be both a good gardener and a good mom!
I also scour catalogs for tips about new – sometimes old – methods of gardening such as: interplanting, companion planting, succession planting, and no-dig gardening. Winter – the quiet, cozy-socked time of year – is an ideal season to read and learn more about gardening.
In my stack of seed catalogs, I circle all possible choices in excitable red sharpie, eventually winnowing to a reasonable number, and crossing out rejects in black. Do I really need more than one variety of sun-kissed golden squash? No, I suppose I don’t….gah!
Stay Calm and Try to Be Sensible
Early on in my seed-starting adventures, I raised far too many varieties of tomatoes too close together in my enthusiasm (and cabin fever!)
I just adore the way tomato seedlings smell; warm and spicy, like the sun.
Later that season, I gave away so many tomato seedlings to neighbors, a local community garden, to the postman; anyone who would take them!
It hurt a bit to see them depart after weeks of tender care, but I didn’t have enough space in my garden, and I wanted each one to thrive. Having a few extra tomato seedlings to offer friends is one thing; raising an entire crop to give away is another.
Lesson learned.
Now I keep my seed selection to no more than 2 varietals per plant per year: 2 types of tomatoes, 2 types of peppers, 1 green and 1 yellow squash, 1 type of eggplant, etc. After all, I can always try new and tantalizing varieties next year!
Plus you may have seeds left over from the year before, which is a good thing to check BEFORE you go on a seed-buying spree.
Seeds can last well if stored in a cool, dry, dark location; an ideal temperature is 40-50 degrees F. Below is a ballpark list of how long seeds can last, if well-stored:
- 1 year: onions, parsnips, parsley, salsify, spinach
- 2 years: corn, peas, beans, chives, okra, dandelion
- 3 years: carrots, leeks, asparagus, turnips, rutabagas
- 4 years: peppers, chard, pumpkins, squash, watermelons, basil, artichokes
- 5 years: most brassicas, such as turnips, radish, kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, bok choy, collards, arugula, mustard greens, water cress, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts, as well as beets, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, muskmelons, celery, celeriac, lettuce, endive, chicory
(Sourced from Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
Make your Seed-Starting Plan
Creating a thoughtful seed-starting plan is rather hard for me. I’m a very in-the-moment kind of girl, with no gift for forward thinking.
But raising seeds requires strategic planning to stagger your tiny offspring into appropriate waves of maturity, and later, plant out the right seedlings at the right time, in the right place.
A key component is to start your seeds relative to the last frost date in your area. Farmer’s Almanac is an excellent resource and offers a free tool to find your last frost date by zip code.
Once you know your last frost date, plan your seed-starting by consulting the back of your seed packets for germination rates, i.e. 4-6 wks, 6-8 wks, 8-10 wks, etc. Stagger your seed starts to the appropriate number of weeks before your last frost date, keeping in mind a week or two for hardening-off.
You can write out your plan in a happily dirt-smudged yellow journal, as I do, or in an excel spreadsheet or a garden planning app. Whichever organizational tool makes your life pleasurable, because that’s what home gardening is all about!
Not all seeds wish to be started indoors. Some prefer to be direct-sowed at the correct time relative to your last frost date, such as pea, lettuce, spinach, radish, bean, carrot, beet, dill, cilantro; and especially squash, pumpkin, and cucumber, which don’t take kindly to even the gentlest transplanting.
Check the back of your seed packets for sowing recommendations. If you’re the organized type, you can cross-check your seed packets with the Farmer’s Almanac Planting Guide, a free tool that offers seed-starting, direct sowing & planting out times by zip code.
Consider Quantity as well as Timing
Now I’m careful with the number of seeds I start. I hew closely to what I’ll actually plant, so I might start 12 tomato seeds of a certain varietal in one go, and thin down to 6 healthy babies once the seedlings get going.
Trust me: 6 tomatoes of one type alongside 6 of another provides plenty of tomatoes for one small family. Throw in a couple of cherry tomato sets for kids to munch on and we’re set for summer (with plenty leftover for winter freezing too!)
If I plan on succession planting, I’ll have new seedlings ready only a couple of weeks later, just in case any of the first round fails to thrive.
Succession planting offers a few different routes to play with: you can raise another crop of the same vegetable a few weeks later for a longer, more continuous yield.
You can plant entirely new vegetables once your previous crop has slowed its yield; just pull out the old crop for the compost heap and remember to replenish your earth with compost & fertilizer for the newbies.
You can interplant, or companion plant, vegetables such as radishes and peas, or radishes and cucumbers. Their differing maturity rates allow them to yield in succession (radishes are fast growers) while benefitting each other along the way (radishes repel cucumber beetles.)
I love interplanting herbs and flowers, such as calendula or marigolds, between my veggies; they not only look so charming but also keep pests away! Here’s a link to Farmer’s Almanac’s guide to Companion Planting.
However you may picture your perfect garden, Winter is the season for dreaming about new growth.
So grab yourself a mug of hot cider, your sharpies and your seed catalogs; and dream a little dream of seedlings!