Year Ahead Series 2017 | Get a Head Start on Spring/Summer Gardening!

Being a southern girl, my saving grace in the dead of winter is looking forward to the day when it's finally warm enough to break out my spade and blacken my hands with garden soil. That's my own personal official start of Spring, and it's easily my favorite day of the year.

January may seem a little early to be thinking about Spring and Summer veggies, but if you're starting seeds indoors, it's actually the perfect time to get a jump on things! I'll get to that later on in the post. First, I want to share a couple of really important tips that Ryan and I have learned through 6 years of gardening trial and error.

1. KEEP IT SMALL

It's so easy to get overly ambitious when seeds come in packets of 50. If you've ever planted more than 2 or 3 zucchini plants, you know exactly what I mean. First of all, they take up so much space. Then, you're overrun with zucchini by the end of the summer. You get sick of eating zucchini. It's no longer rewarding, seeing the fruits of your labor... it's just an annoying chore. You don't know what to do with all the zucchini. Freeze it? Make bread out of it? Give it away? Throw it in the compost pile? Whew, I think I needed to vent. Thanks.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that we've had huge gardens and we've had tiny ones and we've been happier with the tiny gardens every single time.

My advice is to err on the side of having too little and filling in with produce at the farmer's market. Don't take it upon yourself to plant all the veggies your family will need for the entire summer. That's a great way to get burnt out. We aren't doomsday prepping here. We're trying to have fun, soak up some Vitamin D, maybe learn a thing or two, and feel accomplished in providing something for our families out of our own yards.There's enough mom guilt in the world. We don't need plant mom guilt on top of it.

Whittle your garden down to just your favorites -- the things that are easy and fun to grow and that you know you'll eat. Because if it's not easy or fun you're not going to want to keep doing it. And if you won't actually eat this stuff, why the heck would you spend your precious time growing it?

Here's my list. It's admittedly short because I don't want to bite off more than I can chew (pardon the pun) and I'm following the rules I mentioned above.

Mixed radishes

These can be planted up to every two weeks for a fresh harvest throughout the spring and summer. They also make tasty micro greens to eat on top of avocado toast.

Chives

The chives, themselves, are great. But what I get most excited about are the blossoms that form once they've gone to seed. The pretty purple flowers make such a gorgeous presentation in a salad or on a flatbread.

Heirloom cherry tomatoes in a few different colors

I am never successful with larger tomatoes. Maybe I just don't water them enough but, again, I've learned that it's an issue for me so I just stick with what works. Cherry tomatoes are easier to grow, in my opinion. We also get more use out of them, since we appreciate tomatoes in salads more than having a huge slice on a sandwich. Feel free to give some larger heirlooms a try! I just know that mine will most likely end up with blossom end rot, so I don't even go there. When I do want to make fresh tomato sauce in the summer, I just grab big ones at the farmer's market.

Rainbow carrots

These are always a fun surprise for Julep to dig up. The girl LOVES carrots, and I love seeing her crunch on them straight out of the garden.

Culinary herbs

I do grow these in pots on my porch for easy access while I'm cooking, but we also mix them into our lansdscaping (see number 3) because I use enough of them to be worth it to have multiples.

Thyme

Rosemary

Lavender

Mint

Sage

2. TRY SOMETHING NEW

Every year that we have a garden, I like to try growing one or two new vegetables. Radishes started like this about 4 years ago and now they're my absolute favorite. One year it was fennel. We didn't eat very much of it, so I decided not to keep it on. This year, I'm going to try beets for sure -- Julep loved the ones we got in our CSA basket last year -- and I'm trying to decide whether to do mini cucumbers (Julep's favorite) or rainbow chard. I'll keep you posted.

3. DON'T DIG UP YOUR YARD

This is my husband's favorite tip because, well, it means he doesn't have to run a tiller. Something we've learned over time is that you don't need to have a dedicated garden plot to grow a substantial amount of produce or to somehow legitimize your garden. We've built raised beds. We've tilled up large sections of our yard. But to be honest, the most successful and least overwhelming garden we've ever had was the one we planted right in the midst of our landscaping. No plastic mesh. No roped off rows. We just found a good, bare, sunny spot amongst our plants that looked like it could use a little color and stuck our tomatoes there. Then we found a place along the edge where silvery blue leaves would be pretty and that's where we stuck our sage, and so-on.

My only warning when doing this is to be aware of any plants in your landscaping that may be poisonous if ingested and avoid those areas. Also, when planting crawling or wandering things, like mint, it's best to give them lots of space. Mint, especially, can be super invasive. We actually love it as a cheap and fast-growing ground cover in the summer. But if you don't want it to take over, be mindful of giving it a dedicated area (or even putting it in a pot, which would give you some pretty height variation within your landscaping!)

Ok! Now I have a confession.

I've never actually started my own seeds indoors.

I know.

I want to every year! Buuuut I get really intimidated by the whole process, and I freeze at the intimidated part, never moving on to the figuring-it-out part. The summer vegetables that can't be found as pre-potted plants, I just start from seed right in the ground in my garden plot and I've never had any issues. Tomatoes and herbs, though, have always started as baby plants from Home Depot. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing it that way, but there are so many more interesting heirloom and organic varietals available as seeds, especially concerning tomatoes. I think it'll also be the perfect cure to the Winter blues, seeing little sprouts shoot up, and it'll be a fun and educational activity to pass the time with my three-year-old.

So I'm gonna give it a go, and I hope you'll do it with me!

See, I have this crazy idea. What if we all start our seeds together and keep each other posted on how it's going? Let's start meaningful and helpful conversations about what we're growing and why -- what our struggles are, gardening triumphs we have... questions and answers, trial and error. We have a really great little community and I think this will be the perfect way to break the ice and get to know one another!

To get the ball rolling...

or should I say to get the ball dropping?!

I crack myself up.

Either way, I thought I'd have a Garden Planning Giveaway! You can win a sweet basket of seeds and one of my favorite cook books at the end of the week by following along right here and on social media. Head to THIS POST for all the details, and to enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter!

ENTER GIVEAWAY NOW!

If you're already signed up for e-mails, you'll receive a list from me including direct links to the seeds we're purchasing as a family, as well as our seed-starting shopping list and how-to's. There's still time to sign up before that one goes out, so make sure you do that if you haven't, already by CLICKING HERE!

See you back here tomorrow!