84. 2024 Seed Choices

Seed shopping season is in full swing! If you have ever shopped for seeds before then you probably know that this time of year is when you get tons of seed catalogs in your mailbox. While it’s easy to get carried away, make sure to make a plan first of what you plan to grow and what all seeds you currently have.

I had to think about things differently this year when it came to seed orders. Starting up any business can take funds and a flower farm is no different. I also have a pretty large stash of seeds already and don’t need to be wasteful in spending plus I don’t want to waste buying new seeds if I still have good ones available.

With all that said, I want to talk about my vegetable crop seeds first then we’ll look at flowers. Also, I purchased some seeds for the flower farm but then others I purchased as starts or “plugs”. I’ll go into more detail below on what I picked and why. I have linked everything with where and what I purchased.

Vegetables

Let’s start with some of the early crops I will plant in the ground in the spring. First up, I already have garlic in the ground that I planted last fall. This week, I started my celery and lettuce. I will also get a shipment of onions again this year probably in late February or early March. Growing these onions each season is usually enough to last my family for most of the year. I will also plant peas again this year and hope for the same or better results with the harvest.

I have two GreenStalks in my garden space that will both be filled with strawberries this year. I believe I will get them from my local nursery. I also have plans to get another one that I will put on my back deck and fill with lettuce greens and radishes. Having this on my deck will hopefully allow me to harvest easier when I need fresh salad greens.

The other seeds I will be directly sowing into the garden will be squash, zucchini, bush beans, cucumbers, melons and butternut squash. This isn’t as extensive as I have previously done simply to save space for the flowers.

I will also plant sweet potatoes again this year and I am trying to start my own slips this year. I tried a few years back without success so I figured I would try again and see how it goes.

Now the last section of veggies is peppers and tomatoes. If you’ve been around awhile then you know that I love to grow a lot of varieties of tomatoes each year. While I have paired down my list this year, I will still plant a lot of them. It really is a love of mine to grow a lot of different types of tomatoes. The list includes Alice’s Dream, Brown Sugar, Bread and Salt, Pomodero Squisito, Queen of the Night and Amish Paste. Peppers on the other hand I went more on the simple side. I decided on a few jalapenos, a few poblanos and a snacker pepper.

Flowers

When you are thinking about starting to sell flowers, you have to think about varieties and quantities. You don’t want to grow to many and end up with way too much left over but you also don’t want to not have enough. You also want to grow flowers that are striking and catch people’s attention. While we are hoping that we’ve done that this year, you never really know until you get into it.

Much like vegetable crops that can be separated by the ones that like cool weather and the ones that like warm weather, flowers can be the same way. For cool weather flowers, we will have ranunculus and anemones. Ranunculus are known as spring roses sometimes since their flower can sometimes take on a rose shape. We also plan to grow snapdragons. While these aren’t always a cool season flower, they can tolerate some cooler weather.

Moving into warmer weather, we will have sunflowers, zinnias, lisianthus and dahlias. Plus some fillers to add in bouquets like cress and flowering basil. We have decided to stick with a specific color palette this year in hopes that a cohesive look will allow for a more eye-catching bouquet.

As far as why I purchased plugs for some of these things, there are several reasons. I have thousands of flower starts coming to me in the spring. There is no way I could grow all those things to a mature enough state without some failure. It would also take a lot of grow room to get all of those plants under lights for 10-12 weeks and I just simply don’t have the space for all that. I have had great luck growing from plugs before and I feel like it gives you a jump start on things to start out this way.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what seeds I plan to grow this year and I hope it inspires you to grow something lovely this year in your gardens.

Until Next Time, Happy Gardening!

83. 2023 Year Review