The end of January is the end of the Persephone Period in my part of the world. That means that for the last 15 days my garden has been officially receiving more than 10 hours of light in a day. That also means it’s high time to start planning the garden for spring! Spring garden planning has to be one of my favorite times of year. It’s full of hope for the upcoming garden season and anticipation for what’s to come.

5 Step No Fail Spring Garden Planning

Every spring, I follow my 5 Step No Fail Process to Plan My Garden. This year is no different. It’s a series of questions that I ask myself each spring when planning my garden. I find it hard to know what to focus on if things are too open-ended. I get stuck in a sort of analysis paralysis. These steps narrow down what my garden needs me to think about in the spring planning session for the best possible success all year long.

1. Reflect on Last Year’s Wins and Sins: What went well? What went poorly? What can I do differently?
2. Decide What to Plant: Seeds or seedlings? Old favorites, something new, or a mix?
3. Decide Where to Plant: Indoors, outdoors, or both? Which plants might like or dislike certain neighbor plants?
4. Decide When to Plant: When does the last spring frost typically fall in my garden’s growing zone – how can I plan for that? If planting from established plants, when will I have my seedlings?
   • 4.5: Decide How to Plant: Direct Sow? Start indoors? Seed Trays? Soil Blocking? Biodegradable pots? Egg cartons?
5. Revisit Steps 2-4 to Decide What You Need For Each Step:
   • What do I need to buy? Have I saved seeds? Do I need to purchase soil for pots or raised beds?
   • Do my tools or raised beds need maintenance? Does my soil need fertilizer?
   • Do I need seed trays to start indoors? What about frost covers to protect young plants from potential late frosts?

Spring Garden Planning Step 1: Wins & Sins From Last Year

I usually Perform a Garden Year In Review in autumn at the end of the garden season rather than during the spring planning. That way everything that happened in the garden that year is still fresh in my mind: for better or worse. Last year, I wrote a full article for my 2023 Garden Year In Review. By the time Spring Garden Planning rolls around, this step is largely done already. So, I won’t re-hash everything that happened. You can read the article if you want all the juicy details! But I’ll mention the pertinent details below as we go ….

Spring Garden Planning Step 2: Deciding What to Plant

This is a more interesting question than usual this year. My garden hardiness zone has now officially shifted this year from 7a in the 2012 map to 7b in the updated map the USDA released on 15 November 2023. This means that my area is now considered a full 4 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer. Now, I have to update my knowledge about what plants will do well in my local area.

Also, last week, I was lucky enough to attend a Seed Exchange for my local area. There, my husband and I traded some cayenne and habanero seeds in exchange for 32 packets of various flower, herb, and vegetable seeds. I now have several new kinds of plants and techniques to try in my garden this year.

To choose what to plant, I sat down on my living room floor with all the seeds I’d saved over the years, all the seeds I’d ordered during seed sales last autumn, and all the seeds I’d picked up during the last seed swap. There, I proceeded to plan what to plant in the garden this spring. I can break these down into three rough categories:

Fruit & Vegetables

Our garden is primarily a garden for eating. So naturally, fruits and vegetables take a front seat to any spring garden plan. We also had to take our winter gardening experiment into account. Knowing we have curly and Portuguese kale already in the garden adds some complexity. We figure they will be largely ready for harvest by mid-March when the frosts will be largely passed where we live. However, I would really like to keep the curly kale until it goes to seed in the mid-summer. That way, when it bolts, I can save their seeds for future years. I plan to harvest the Portuguese kale entirely in March and open up that bed for the tomatoes.

Mainstays at Eastborn Gardens

Since our garden is largely for eating and supplementing the food we can get at our local grocery stores, we grow a lot of tomatoes and hot peppers in our patio garden.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are our main produce in our container garden. We have grown many varieties and rarely buy tomatoes from the grocery store during peak production season. One of last year’s wins was devoting one full bed to the large tomato variety that we grow. These tomatoes were a gift from one of my husband’s co-workers, and so we’ve named them after him: Salvi tomatoes. Having a full bed of these monster tomatoes is a win that we’ll repeat this year.

As for our usual cherry tomatoes, we’re returning to basics. Years ago, we found a cherry tomato hybrid that we loved and have saved seeds from those plants ever since. The problem with hybrids is that when you save the seeds, you never know what you’re going to get. You could get a plant like the mother, father, or child plant. Luckily, I still have commercial seed left over of the original cherry tomato hybrids. So rather than trusting the less-reliable children of these hybrid seeds we’ve saved, we’ll use the original commercial seed this year.

Hot Peppers

Hot Peppers are also often part of our main produce. Last year, one of our wins was direct-sowing habanero seeds to dissuade our beloved chipmunks from digging the seeds out of our garden. It only took one bite for them to leave everything alone. Because of when we planted, however, the habanero plants didn’t get the full growing season they needed to produce fruit. Rather than lose them without gain, we have overwintered those plants. Once the danger of frost passes, they’ll be ready to go outside again.

After battling spider mites on our indoor Thomas Jefferson Cayennes, we removed those plants entirely from our garden rotation last year. So, we’re ready to replant cayennes, but outside this time, which we have previously not done. I am hoping the growing zone change from 7a to 7b will cooperate with this idea. We’ll also plan to plant in the garden two new-to-us hot pepper varieties this spring: Texas Bird Peppers and a similar “ornamental” pepper called Grandma Kirksey which we picked up at the seed exchange. The Texas Bird Peppers were a gift from my father a couple years ago, grown in Wisconsin from seed stock purchased from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Both new-to-our-garden varieties produce tiny, upright peppers (hence the reference to their being ornamental). Something old, something new!

Garden Experiments

Cuca-melons (Mexican Sour Gherkins). I first tried this cucumber variety several years ago in hanging baskets. Spoiler-alert. they didn’t like it. This year, I’m trying it on my front porch. The previous owners of our townhouse left a hanging basket stand behind on the front porch and I intend to use it. “But didn’t you say hanging baskets didn’t work?” you ask. Yes, I did. However, they didn’t work because the vines had nowhere to climb. The front porch where I plan to plant these has a painted wrought-iron railing (who paints wrought-iron?!) for the vines to climb on. A complete experiment. but worth it if we get these cute, one-inch cucumbers for salads.

Herbs

Is arugula an herb or a vegetable? Hm. Well, I’ll place it here anyway. Similar to our cherry tomato situation, we have an arugula that we saved seeds from which we’re pretty sure cross-pollinated with a garlic mustard. Plants grown from those original seeds produced more pungent leaves than any others we planted after the fact. Again, back to basics. We’ll plant those initial seeds rather than the children of that hybrid. This year, we want to know what we’re getting.

Other Herbs

We’re planning to try again several herbs we’ve planted before. Some have had success. Others, not so much. I am hoping that the addition of chives to the mix (which we picked up at the Seed Swap) will deter some of the pests who enjoyed our herb salad last year — but who were strangely never present to pay the bill. Herbs planned for this year’s garden include:

• The Garfunkels (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme) with 2 types of rosemary since the seeds from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello never germinated last year.
• Oregano & Dill – again from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, but also seeds saved from our own dill in 2019. While the Monticello dill germinated last year, the plants were weak. we’ll correct that this year if we can.
• Aforementioned chives picked up from the Green Spring Gardens Seed Exchange. We actually picked up 2 packets, but we’ll plant the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange variety since the other packet of chives is from a company in Michigan. As a Virginia company, these seeds should be more adapted to my local area.
• Cilantro. Seeds are from a company in Missouri. They grew last year, just not well. We’re giving them another try in better soil this year.
• Basil seed bombs. I picked these up at the seed exchange and I’m curious to try them as I’ve only planted seed bombs once before. These are homemade rather than commercial and if they work, I will certainly attempt to create my own seed bombs in future.

Flowers

Marigolds galore! Between fall seed sales and the seed exchange, six separate varieties of marigolds from 5 different growers/seed companies have fallen into my seed saving box. I intend to plant each one. Marigolds are my plan to reduce the pests we had last year in the garden from spring through autumn. And if these plants add more color and draw more pollinators to my garden patio, all the better.

Saffron Crocus. An autumn-blooming variety of crocus that produces the highly sought after and expensive saffron spice. Just one ounce of saffron costs about $64 USD. We planted these bulbs late last autumn to give time for their root system to develop over the winter. Spring garden plan? Leave them alone and see what we get in autumn.

Also in the spring garden plan is a pollinator-friendly pot. I had hoped to grow milkweed (which I picked up at the seed exchange) as we see plenty of yellow zebra swallowtails but no monarchs in our area. Alas, milkweed requires a 3 week cold stratification and I don’t have time for that this year. Next year! Instead, I’m using up one those pollinator-friendly seed mixes that so many charity organizations and events alike hand out. It’ll be a lovely annual-only addition to the front porch and rare in our garden as we don’t intend to eat it. This is one buffet for pollinators only.

Autumn Garden Planning … in Spring

It’s weird to think about autumn in the spring garden plan, but trust me, it’s vital! No garden produce lasts all year. A garden is cyclical. That’s its nature. A smart gardener works with that cyclicality, not against it. This spring, I’m planning my summer garden with autumn (& winter) in mind.

Peas & Kale

Snowbird Peas are at the top of my list. In previous years, we have planted peas in the spring then added tomatoes to the bed after the peas have finished in early summer. This year, we’re going about this backwards. In last autumn’s seed sales, I picked up a variety of pea that matures in 58 days, but it didn’t arrive in time to plant for my winter garden experiment. This year, we’re working it into the calendar. Since my plan is to allow my curly kale to bolt in the summer heat so I can save seeds, I’ll need to replace them with something. Following a brassica like kale with a legume like peas will help return some of the nitrogen to that soil plot. And with a quick-to-mature variety, we are likely to harvest peas before the frost.

Red Russian Kale is also on my list. Since my curly and Portuguese kale did so well under their DIY frost cover this snowy winter season, I’m confident with planning to try another. We picked these seeds up at the seed exchange, and I’m curious about them. I may intersperse this variety with our previously winter-successful curly kale, but I’m holding on that idea until I see that our curly kale properly bolts this summer.

Chard

Another cold-hardy plant for a winter garden is chard. Thanks to the seed swap, we picked up 2 varieties of chard: Ruby Red and Swiss Chard. We also saved seeds from our own Red Chard in 2016. Having never grown chard before 2016, our own chard bolted very quickly, but rather than lose the experience (and the seeds), I saved them. Now, with more years in the garden, I’m ready to give chard another try.

Radish

Radishes are a seriously under-considered, easy, beginner’s crop. They are quick-producing, soil-aerating, every-part-of-it-is-edible tubers of tastiness. To be honest, I haven’t grown radishes since my child’s garden in 1994 (yes, I’m dating myself, here). Well, after picking up the only packet of radishes at the local seed swap (we can thank my husband’s eagle eyes), I intend to correct my lack of radishes this autumn. After the tomatoes are done, but the late summer isn’t over, these babies are going in the soil direct-sown.

Spring Garden Planning Step 3: Deciding Where to Plant

Part of deciding what to plant is also envisioning where they’re going to go. So by the time I reached this step, I already had a pretty good plan how the garden would be set up this spring.

Front porch: Cuca-melons and pollinator-friendly flowers in hanging baskets.

Back porch raised beds: broken up by timing of the garden year. Early Spring: Curly Kale, Salvi Tomatoes, 2 beds of Cherry Tomatoes, interspersed with varieties of Marigolds. Mid-Late Summer: replace Curly Kale with direct-sown Snowbird Peas. Early Autumn: replace tomatoes with Radishes, Chard, & Kale. Another raised bed houses the saffron crocus, and still another raised bed will host the herbs all year round. If they do well, we may bring them in for winter.

Plant Pots: 3 filled with Hot Peppers, 1 filled with Arugula. Mint stays where it is near back door to deter spiders around the back porch light.

Spring Garden Planning Step 4: Deciding When to Plant

Most of what we have planned for this year will be fine if direct-sown – meaning we won’t bother starting those seeds indoors.

There are several plants, however, that will benefit from an early start, mainly the tomatoes and the hot peppers. As previously mentioned, hot peppers need a long growing season. So starting them indoors will give them their best chances to produce fruit before the weather cools. Starting the tomatoes indoors is a strategic decision to give them time to get established before we direct-sow marigolds. That way the marigolds won’t outpace the tomatoes in the garden.

Given that we’re planning to have the curly kale join us for much of the garden season, planting marigolds between them is a good idea as well. Since the curly kale is already established, it may be ok to start the marigolds in that bed underneath the frost covers. That way, once the frost covers are removed later in the summer, any pest interested in the kale will already have the marigolds telling them to shop elsewhere.

Spring Garden Planning Step 4.5: Deciding How to Plant

How we’re going to start seeds indoors is going to look a little different than our seed starting last year. We’d used seed trays and seed starter from the local Home Depot without doing a ton of research, and let’s just say the quality left a lot to be desired. The poor seed starter didn’t hold moisture. The seed trays themselves restricted the seedlings’ roots. In late summer last year, because I read a lot of garden books, I read The Winter Harvest Handbook & Year-Round Vegetable Production (affiliate link) last year. In that book, I discovered a new technique to start seeds indoors: soil blocking. So, that’s on the docket this year. I’ll go in depth about this method in a future post, so stay tuned.

Spring Garden Planning Step 5: Deciding What’s Needed

Given how many different kinds of plants we’re planning to grow in the garden this spring and autumn, I wanted to make sure I had enough pots for the whole container garden. Sure enough, I’d planned well, and may even have one or two extra pots for gardening on a whim. (Hey, not everything needs to be planned!) Alas, our hanging baskets are all still in storage from when we moved cross country (with our plants!) so we will have to purchase two more for the front porch. That’s fine, since we would have to purchase new coir liners for those anyway.

Since we’re container gardening while we look for land to grow our gardens more effectively, we may need to purchase garden soil for each of the pots. Luckily, we found a good supplier that will ship good-quality soil that isn’t just old mulch too broken down for use as mulch. (You can’t be too careful these days).

Ready, Set, Grow!

Plan in place, we’re ready to go. All we need now is to stick to the plan and follow it. Of course, unexpected issues will arise. This is reality. But a solid plan gives you something to work with. This is our plan. I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses, what works and (inevitably) what doesn’t. That’s the fun of gardening!