Seeds Are Sprouting, Keeping Records, &Planning For Succession Planting (Bonus Mini-Podcast)

To listen to Karen Lynn’s thoughts on this post click on the short podcast below!

Hi ya’ll!  It’s crazy to me that February is flying by so fast…..am I the only one who thinks so?  That being said I can’t wait to talk seeds with all of you.  I don’t know about you but I get so excited when I see all my hard work with the seed sprouting and effort pay off. A week ago I started 142 seeds and they are already starting to come up! I also implemented a new record keeping system and am taking much more time for detail and planning and I am so excited to share it with all of you! This year I have completely changed my game…don’t get me wrong I love gardening but I don’t always do my due diligence and research companion and succession planting like I should but this year I’m all in to the garden and we are taking our gardening at Lil’ Suburban Homestead to new levels!  This year not only are we putting our seeds in, but we are establishing a grow light set up (new for us – blog post coming soon.)  

Our seed trials went “just” okay but because each seed category needed different levels of attention they did not go over so well so I told the Viking I’m just starting the seeds and that is that.  We decided we were going to have to have very accurate seed starting records so I have set up a new notebook and I am almost done completely reorganizing our seeds.  I can’t wait to show you my new system that I have come up with.  Our friend Thom inspired me for the main part of the system….he is a member of our Lil’ Suburban Homestead and has a farm up in New York…you see we are all learning from each other on the journey.  

The wonderful thing about gardening though is that you get to create your own systems and find what works for you!  We planted a very large variety and I also visited our local agriculture site to make sure I was on time with different seeds and some I started a little early because I can move them into the greenhouse and start more seeds.   Succession planting is a big goal this year so instead of having 4 seasons of gardening we could essentially have 9 time periods not so much seasons but take advantage of our mild weather and look for larger yields. (yes we basically can garden year round here) I really want to have Early Spring, Spring, Late Spring, Early Summer, Mid Summer, Late Summer, and Fall, and Late fall, and Winter.  I also want to study up and share more with all of you about companion planting; an area we would really like to improve on.

We are so excited to plant cardoon this year ( a green) that tastes like artichoke…Oh YUM!  We are also adding summer spinach and basically both of these plants thrive on being neglected….this sounds like a perfect match for me!  

I have two exciting posts coming this week…one is a meatless meal feature and another one is all the fun The Viking and I had volunteering at Feast Down East!  So hope you come back and look for those!  Yes meatless meals can be yummy!  

I wish you all a beautiful week….until next time!

Fondly,