December 20, 2020

It is December and we are experiencing freezing nights and short days, but I (Katie) am dreaming about and planning our 2021 garden!

Last year, we hurriedly put up a 15×15 garden. My father is a Master Gardner, but I don’t know if he’d be mortified, or impressed! At least we did SOMETHING! We planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, bush beans and a few flowers.  For the amount of prep work we did, I think it was a success.  We were able to eat the fruit of our labors, but we did not grow enough to process and keep for the future.  Next year will be different.

I made long lists of what we wanted to grow next year.  In complete nerdy fashion that would make my sons proud, I created a spreadsheet showing when to plant each item on my list, whether it should be started inside or outside, the optimum soil temp for germination, days to harvest, size of finished plants, and best companion plants.

Next year, we plan to grow over 45 different vegetables, including 5 varieties of peppers, 3 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of onions, 3 varieties of lettuces, more than 25 different medicinal and culinary herbs!  We are also going to grow some specific vegetables that we will be able to feed to our animals (we hope to get pigs next year and our chickens love garden scraps). We want to grow at least 50% of the vegetables we eat.

After the list of plants was finalized, I used the garden planning tool at Farmer’s Almanac to plot where each plant would go. It was challenging making sure there was plenty of space between the different varieties, such as peppers, so they would not cross pollinate. We hope to harvest our own seeds from the heirloom plants to continue our garden in future years. I also wanted to be sure I had plants that would help ward off the many pests we have to deal with here in southern Missouri. We ended up with 8 raised beds that will be 12’x4’, an herb garden that will be 13’x13’, a kitchen herb garden near the house, plus beds for things that like to sprawl like pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

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Then I ordered seeds! I can’t even explain how much fun I had looking through old catalogs and websites.  I ended up buying seeds from 5 different companies because I wanted specific varieties.  Many of the seed companies had not restocked for the 2021 growing season, and surprisingly, a few companies said they would have limited quantities for some 2021 items!  As the seeds came in, I added the specific growing information from the seed packet onto my spreadsheet and filed the seeds in a notebook used to save baseball cards.  There are 3 sections: veggies, herbs, and ground covers.  I printed out cards with the growing information of each seed packet and put that in the pockets, too.  That way, the information I’m looking for is in the same location on each seed, so I don’t have to scour the various seed packets for the info.

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Searching Marketplace and Craigslist, I scored quite a few seed starting pots and trays. I stumbled on an end-of-season sale and purchased 4 huge bags of seed starting medium and purchased the last bag of peat moss from the garden center. I also found a saw mill that was getting rid of cedar cut-offs that we will use to build the garden beds. We will also use some of the wood we’ve taken out of the house to build more raised beds.

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It is such joy planning and preparing for the 2021 garden.  I don’t feel rushed, and I’m grateful for the extra time to get some seeds that were out of stock (cayenne peppers and sugar pie pumpkins), or I forgot (sunflowers and calendula). I have time to watch for sales so I can buy a few seed heat pads and grow lights.  I have plenty of time to build my raised beds (albeit in the cold weather), and continue to add to my compost pile.  I have a great sense of peace knowing that if even half of my plans work out, we will have some added food security for our family and not have to worry about chemicals (or other yucky things) that get on grocery store produce.

But there are some downsides to planning early.  Almost every day, my mailbox (virtual and physical) have ads for seeds. I love looking through seed catalogs and have to hold back on buying more.  My seed sewing eyes are definitely bigger than my fall processing eyes!  I am also impatient with the cold weather and pine for spring so I can get started.  Because of this, I miss the beauty of nature’s resting period. The biggest downside, however, has been that I’ve spent so much time planning the garden instead of working with John on the remodeling of the house.  We won’t have anywhere to process and store all that produce if we don’t finish the house!

I don’t know about you, though, I’ll take those downsides and will continue to dream about and plan the garden. And ultimately, John is happy I’m taking over the garden plans.

Have you started planning your garden yet? Seriously, if you are going to grow a garden next year, you should start buying your seeds now. Because of the pandemic and empty store shelves, so many people are getting into gardening – or starting again – that the supply companies are expecting seed and product shortages. Even if it is all back to normal by spring, having your supplies and seeds in place is a good plan!

Happy gardening!