To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.

Audrey Hepburn

If you’ve been on this journey with me, you know that I didn’t get to have a garden last year because we were without property to put a garden on. If you’re new here…. I didn’t get to have a garden last year! To say that I am excited for this garden season is a drastic understatement. It may on be January, but if you are planning on having a garden this spring and summer you should be planning now. I am already behind a week because we’ve had a little oopsie with our greenhouse we inherited with our new homestead, but more on that later. I want to take a little time today to share with you how I am prepping for the season, and some things that you can and should be doing to get yourself ready as well.

What Are Your Goals?

Are you gardening for fun or to feed your family? Maybe both? Are you gardening to also share with friends and family? Knowing why you are starting a garden is the first step in planning.

For myself, I garden for the sheer joy it brings me, but also to feed my family. I love to can, even though it’s fairly new to me, and when planning my garden this year I kept that in mind. I need to plant more than my family will eat fresh in order to ensure that I have what is needed for my food storage. I also plan on sharing the abundance with my family, friends, and neighbors through a small farm stand here on our property.

Of course, produce is most delicious and nutritious when eaten fresh. You can’t beat the taste of a vegetable you pick and eat all in the same day. You simply can not compare the burst of flavor to anything you’ll buy in the store. One of my favorite childhood memories was my Papa’s garden. We would go out with him and he’d pull up a carrot, wipe the dirt off of it and hand it to us. We’d follow him around the rest of the garden chomping on our crisp, refreshing carrot.

The next best option to fresh is freshly canned or frozen. Yes, you can buy canned peaches at the store. I promise you they aren’t as tasty, and they will likely cost more than peaches you can at home. Also, the satisfaction that comes with learning that old time skill is something else!

I am fairly comfortable canning things like peaches and pears, but this year I plan on making my own salsas, ketchup, jams and jellies, and juice, on top of preserving veggies like corn, green beans, and peas. In order to make this happen, I have to plant A LOT of tomatoes, and tend to the health of the fruit trees that also came with our property in the hopes that I can get them to produce again. If not, they will need to be replaced. I need to take the time to go down the list of things I would like to preserve and plant my garden accordingly. To say you grew something from seed or from a start you get from the local nursery, to putting it in a jar and placing it on your pantry shelf is worthy of the bragging rights, in my opinion.

What Does Your Family Like?

Another thing you really need to sit down and think about while planning your garden is what are your family’s likes? What types of produce, either fresh, frozen, or canned, do you find yourself buying at the grocery store? Those are the veggies you want to plant. Of course some things won’t grow where you are, and we will get to that later, however to grow something your family doesn’t like is a huge waste of time and energy. Let’s be honest, while I love to garden and think that everyone who is able to have a garden should do so, it is a lot of work and commitment. To spend the season tending to a variety of produce that will end up going to waste would be heart breaking to me.

Know Your Zone

Every area has a gardening zone. For example, I live in the Pacific Northwest and I am in zone 8a. This is crucial for you to know before you start planting. If you need a little guidance finding your zone you can look it up at the USDA Plant Hardiness map. This will also help you find your last frost date, which is also something you need to know before you start planting.

Ok, in all honesty, I usually wing it with my gardening. It usually works out, but a lot of times my plants are ripe way to soon or not soon enough, so this season I am making informed decisions and planting according to my last frost date and my zone. I did this by looking up my last estimated frost date, which is May 5th in my area. I then looked at a calendar, marked back 12 weeks from May 5th, and started putting my seeds on the list in the appropriate week. Each seed packet with have the info needed to do this. Now I know exactly what I need to be getting in the soil in my greenhouse every week to ensure a good harvest. That’s the plan anyway… stick around as we do this together to see if it works!

Back to knowing your zone- some things simply won’t grow in certain areas, or they don’t perform well. You can always try to get some production, but you need to decide if you are willing to give up garden space to a “maybe” and also if you are willing to invest the time. A perfect example would be my huge effort to grow cantaloupe. I tried so hard! I had to restart my seeds twice, and when I finally got them in the garden and got a flower I was over the moon excited…. until nothing else happened haha! Know what grows where you are, and know when to start those little seeds. The things that you are unable to grow, can usually be purchased from a local farmer or at a farmer’s market, while in season.

Know What You Have

If you have gardened in the past, go through your seeds and see what you have. I have accumulated quite the collection of seeds due to not knowing what I already had. Seeds will last a couple years, sometimes longer if they are stored properly, so don’t throw out extras! I will be over planting seeds just in case mine don’t do as well germinating this season. I have some oldies in my stash, but I am going to give them a try!

Once you know what you have, it’s time to get out those seed catalogs, friends! I get so excited when the seed catalogs start showing up in my mail box. It is like the adult version of the Sears toy book that used to come at Christmas time, and I do get that happy to see it! Just remember to look back at your list of what you have, and your list of what you want to grow so that you don’t double up or over buy. Over buying is a small problem around here. Sometimes when my seed order shows up, it would appear that I was shopping for a 100 acre farm… oops!

Be Honest With Yourself

Like I said before, gardening, while usually promoted as hobby of leisure, really does take a lot of time and energy. It’s a busy time of the year for us aspiring farmer/gardener/homesteader types, and can be overwhelming. Be honest with yourself. How much of a commitment are you willing to make? How much time do you have to spare each day?

For me, I don’t work outside of our home, and garden season is kind of my time to shine! Our girls are still fairly small, so the activities are somewhat minimal, which helps a ton with time management. I love having my little helpers in the garden, but I’ll be completely honest, I also LOVE sneaking out early in the morning or later in the evening and soaking in the pure peace that my garden has to offer.

Whether you garden to stock your pantry, or you garden for the peace and sense of accomplishment it brings; whether you have acres of produce growing or a few small pots on your back patio (cucumbers do wonderful in hanging baskets in my experience!), I hope you are as excited for me for garden season to make her appearance. Happy growing, friends!

~Tara