Let's talk garden <3
This is going to be our second year growing a garden, it is such a reward seeing all the hard work come to fruition.
All I can tell you is, DO NOT WAIT, I wish I would have tried to do something sooner.
Starting a garden big or small, in-ground or container...you will continuously learn, that is what I wish I started sooner...learning.
The first thing to know about starting a garden: If you want an earlier harvest, or more time with a working garden each year, indoor seed starting is a great way to achieve that! Starting seeds in February instead of April/May gives you a 3–4-month head start and depending on the plant...you can get at least two large harvests if you do succession planting.
These seedlings were planted February 15th and they are already this big and ready to go outside!!
When we moved into this house a year ago, the main goal for us was to have a garden. The first investment towards that goal was grow lights. Currently I have 648 seeds started for our garden this year. This is actually the first time I have done the math on that and wow!
You do not need a grow light to start seeds, just find a south-facing window in your home and set up a table for you seed flats!
Here are a few of our seedlings planted 2/15 (This pic is about a month after planting (March 10th):
In this picture, we have 72 Roma tomatoes on the left.
The middle tray, pictured above, has cabbage, kale, mustard, buttercrunch lettuce and collards!
The tray on the right has Jalapeños, some sweet peppers, spinach, cabbage, beefsteak & cherry tomatoes!
The one thing I was most excited about last year, but failed, were my Strawberries. I am determined to have a 15'X5' strawberry bed and I will get that started this year if it is the only thing I do right!! Last year I bought 20 strawberry roots and only half were alive, and about 4 made it outside and into the garden. Ultimately, they all died, major fail.
This year I started 20 strawberry plants by seed and so far they have all sprouted except maybe 5. Since I had such a terrible outcome with the roots last year, I really didn't want to try them again for the 2023 season. However, I saw some at walmart with tons of green on them, so I paid $5 and decided to try it again, this time so far I have had some good success with the strawberry roots!
The light green plants + the top right one, are all from seeds. The dark green and older-looking ones are from the roots (still a half survival rate). So, as you can see, I've narrowed down to 15 plants, but I could still only end up with 10 in the garden.
Why don't I just buy whole strawberry plants from the store?
Well, they are at least $5 each and I can't find it in my heart to spend that much if I can grow them myself!
I will say, if I do not have success with these again this year, my last-ditch effort on my dream strawberry patch is to buy the plants.
My strawberry bed can hold 30 strawberry plants, and that is a lot of money if I decided not to seed start!!
This is my current light set-up. For now, it works, but that is because I haven't been growing flowers like I want to!! By the time my shelves fill up, it is time to send some plants outside.
This pic is from last month, so the plants are just a little bigger :)
Many people start seedlings and just keep them in a very sunny window and have just as much success! Please do not think you HAVE to have a grow light to be successful at starting seeds, this is just how I do it.
As always, I am glad you took the time to read this post, if it gave you a little insight on how it is to seed start then it was a success! If you have some tips on growing flowers from seeds or a better success rate for strawberries, please comment below and let me know how your seed starting has gone!! Also, if you do not mind, please click the <3 button and leave me a little love :)
I look forward to showing you more about my plants and our garden, Talk to you again soon!
Comments