The thought of my spring garden is filling these bleak winter days with hope. Winter will be soon be over and little sprouts will shoot up once again! I spent some time in January planning for our ’22 garden and now a few steps can begin to happen such as starting seedlings indoors.
Read more about the early stages of spring planting in these posts: The Basics to Starting Seeds Indoors, 5 Tips for Transplanting Seedlings to the Garden, How to Harden Off Seedlings, A Guide to Caring for Indoor Seedlings, and much more!
We are planning our garden here on the hilltop for 2022, and its forethought brings me a lot of joy during bleak winter days. Drawing blueprints, ordering seeds, planting starts indoors, gathering canning supplies…all reminders that spring is soon upon us. Take a look at our garden plans and perhaps find a little inspiration for your our garden endeavors this year!
What We are Planting
Herbs:
I have big plans for adding to my herb garden this year. I strongly desire to supply my family with all kinds of medicinal tinctures, beneficial teas, and dried herbs for recipes. I’ve added a few more plants to my herb garden each year, but this year I’m really striving to go bigger. Something about these past two years have motivated me towards stocking my family’s medicine cabinet with natural remedies instead of simply relying on drugstore products for everything. Here are the new herbs coming to my garden in 2022:
- Thyme
- Chives
- Lemon Balm
- Bee Balm
- Echinacea
Flowers:
Since we live in a rental property, it is hard for me to decide just how much time and money to put into creating flower beds. I desire to have flowers all over our yard and peaceful little spaces to sit and admire nature, but how does one accomplish that in a home they’re not sure they’ll be in long? I’ve yet to answer that question well, but that won’t stop me from planting at least a few new flowers each spring! I have the seeds for these flowers this year:
- Chocolate Cherry Sunflower
- Autumn Beauty Sunflower
- Henry Wilde Sunflower
- Cosmos
- Dahlia
- Bachelor’s Button
- Gomphrena
Vegetables:
Many of the vegetables heading to our ’22 garden are the same from previous years, but we do have a few newbies to try our hand at too!
- Jarrahdale Squash
- Pie Pumpkin
- Swiss Chard
- Merlot Lettuce
- Bok Choy
- Amish Paste Tomato
- Black Cherry Tomato
- Brandywine Tomato
- Popcorn
- Bell Pepper
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Sweet Corn
- Onions
Seed Preparation
There is still time before starting seeds indoors, but I have marked the planting dates on the calendar. Indoor transplants include tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and a few flowers. I share more details on starting seeds indoors in this blog post: The Basics to Starting Seeds Indoors.
What I Have:
- Seeds
- Grow light
- Seed starting tray
What I Need:
- 2-3 more seed trays
- 1-2 more grow lights
- A baby-proof space to set my seedlings up
Blueprints
Next on the list is planning out where we want to plant everything. I call these blueprints, but they really aren’t that fancy! We look at the spacing each plant needs, determine how many of each plant we want, draw up a rough sketch, and wait for planting time!
Canning Preparation
What I Have:
- Pressure Canner
- Mason Jars
- Rings
What I Need:
- Lids
- Adequate storage space for canned goods. We have plans to build a large shelving system for the food we preserve in jars.
I Plan to Preserve:
- Tomato sauce
- Salsa
- Sweet corn
- Applesauce
- Pumpkin puree
- Soups
- Jams and jellies
- Pear slices
More on Gardening
- How to Save Tomato Seeds for Next Year
- 5 Tips for Transplanting Seedlings to the Garden
- How to Harden Off Seedlings
- A Guide to Caring for Indoor Seedlings
- The Basics to Starting Seeds Indoors
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