January means a lot to different people. In ancient Roman culture, Jānus was a god of doorways, beginnings, and the rising and setting of the sun. The meaning hasn’t changed much since ancient times. To a significant portion of the population, it means a fresh start, resolutions, an endless amount of possibilities to a new year! I’ll be honest though, I’m not a huge resolutions fan. I personally believe you can make a change in the middle of July and pivot into something else or change something you don’t like. BUT that doesn’t mean I don’t choose a resolution to focus on. I typically pick one thing to kick, most of the time that’s all I can handle. This year my resolution is to kick the added sugar…sugar to my coffee, dessert after a meal, random candy in a dark closet so my kids won’t find me and beg for some. 😆

January is a time of planning. A time to have your goals written out and start crushing them. In the garden, January is the time us gardeners sit down with a warm drink, pull out the dozens of seed packets we have, grab the fresh-off the press seed catalogs, and start planning!

If you’ve never planned a garden or have struggled in the past here are some tips to help you succeed in your garden this year.

Tip # 1 - Order those seed catalogs NOW! Make sure to choose several companies, some of the seed companies sell out quickly. Once you have your catalogs, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty and plot out your garden. (Shoot me an email and I’ll recommend some of my favorite seed companies.)

Tip # 2 - Choose foods that you and your family love to eat. I cannot state this enough! Yes, there are all sorts of awesome new varieties and pretty fruits and veggies but if your family won’t eat them, you’ll honestly feel a bit of regret and sadness when it’s time to harvest and they go to waste. PLUS you take up space in the garden where you could be growing more of the foods your family loves.

Tip # 3 - Now that you have your favorite fruits and veggies chosen, go through your seed catalogs and choose the varieties that are best suited for your climate and preference. By preference, I mean hybrids or heirlooms. (I tend to stick with heirlooms myself.) I typically circle my top favorites and then order what I can within my budget. I usually like to choose 1 new variety or 1 new crop to plant in my garden every year. It’s a fun experiment to play with a plant you haven’t grown before!

Tip # 4 - Order the seeds and lay out your garden. Using your order invoice, you can easily label your garden space with each plant. I am such a visual person that I still use pen and paper when I’m planning my garden. I draw up my beds, think about height of the plants, crop rotation (I mainly do this for corn and okra), take into account sun and shade in your garden, the amount of room each plant will take up when mature, and then I enjoy the loveliness of the scribbles on my paper. 😂

Tip # 5 - Seed starting dates. Here is where it can take some time to gather the information needed for starting your plants. You will need to find out if the plants you want to plant are cool season, warm season, or hot season plants and start them accordingly. Check out my instagram monthly to see what seeds to start and when.

To really succeed and enjoy your garden, it’s best to sit down (typically it takes me a couple hours) and plan out your garden, rather than throw seeds out and hope for the best. I think Napoleon Hill said it best, “Plan your work and work your plan.” After all the planning is done, I take another sip of my warm drink and dream about all the veggies I will be harvesting come spring, summer, and fall.

Now if this overwhelms you and you’re not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to me. Being a garden coach means helping to take some of the guess work out of planning and planting.

Make sure to check out next month’s blog. I’ll be giving tips on seed starting, thinning, and hardening off your precious new baby plants!