What I started this season

Well, as usual, I ignored what I said I was going to do and just started everything. 

I started lots and lots of sweet peppers because we eat lots of those along with tomatoes. I have learned in previous years that I am not so great at using up preserved food - I don't remember what I have in the freezer, I don't like the canning process, and the only thing that I use regularly are dried herbs - cilantro and basil are what I use on a regular basis. And two years ago, with great restraint, I only planted what we eat and the garden was a huge success. Soooooo... I better stick to that. 

I started six leeks - I truly enjoy potato leek soup so my plan is to plant enough for two meals, enough potatoes for two meals plus roasted potatoes and a few meals of mashed potatoes too. 

I mainly want to grow snacking tomatoes this year. I have pear varieties, grape tomatoes, sungolds to make simple pasta sauces, celebrities, romas for sauce and bruschetta, steak sandwiches for... BLTs! I may have planted too many, but I also am not quite sure of what our summer travel plans are yet - when I know, then I'll know to plant more of less of which variety and I can give away or donate the left over tomato varieties.

For so many years I was terrified of starting my own annual flowers. I was like... I should just grow my own food! But then when you go to purchase annuals, I always feel bad spending money on a single season plant. I started with a couple varieties two years ago - snapdragons and lavender - now I'm adding more! I have strawflowers, sunflowers, lavender, foxglove (as a first, it's toxic, so I need to plant it in my front yard in a corner away from the dog areas), and again this year, I'm doing artichokes for their flowers and not to eat the buds.

I would love to plant lavender down by the sidewalk but as I'm watching people walk their dogs... owners are letting dogs pee on my boulevard plants so I'm going to swap out flowers for mulch and leave it at that. I'll put the lavender on the taller beds so it's at eye level with kids when they walk by. It will still smell good!

Check out how teeny tiny these seeds are, they were sent in a centrifugal container and there are not so many!! I put 3 seeds in each container that I had - and I have upgraded to 3 inch pots so that I don't have to upgrade. For each year that I started in the smaller, 6-part containers I have had to up pot several times and so I'm continuing with my plan from last year, 3 inch pots so no up potting. Making it easier!

Shade is starting to creep into my yard a bit more (which is fine, as gardeners we need to be flexible because plants don't always do what we want them to do). So I have a whole tray of multiple varieties of coleus. At the plant stores, sometimes the shade plants are too green or not so colorful but coleus comes in a variety of pinks and whites and greens. I highly recommend for shade because it can get HUGE and fill in areas that might be blank. I also have impatiens.

I have several Snapdragon varieties. These tend to self-seed in my yard and pop up in random areas. They come up in my grass next to my pots, in my garden beds in random spots, but they are supposed to be annuals. We have moved to Zone 5, so our microclimate is a bit warmer and that will help to protect lavender too, if you have that in a sunny spot in your yard.

Last - here's a photo of my seed starting set up this year. I decided not to fill the entire set of shelves. I left one shelf unoccupied by seeds because I may have forgotten to plant something and I would love to make sure I have room to start a few more if I decide I need to. Warming mats are on, lights are set for 12 hours per day, and I've already had to water twice in our dry basement. I will keep you updated on plant progress.