Prepare for seed season with practical tips on reviewing your garden's performance, taking seed inventory, and ordering smarter for a more successful growing year.
Today on Just Grow Something we walk through the essential steps to get ready for seed season: how to reflect on what worked (and didn't) in your garden, take a proper seed inventory, and create a more intentional seed order when the flood of catalogs leads to plant-filled daydreams. Whether you're planning next year's layout or just trying to avoid overbuying, this episode gives you the tools to start strong. Let's dig in!
References and Resources:
Downloadable chart for what each plant yields on average: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/yield
Ordering seeds from garden catalogs | Over the Garden Fence | Illinois Extension | UIUC: https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/over-garden-fence/2021-01-04-ordering-seeds-garden-catalogs
Seed Storage Protocols : USDA ARS: https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/fort-collins-co/center-for-agricultural-resources-research/paagrpru/docs/seed-program/seed-storage-protocols/
Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com
Just Grow Something Merch and Downloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop
Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18YgHveF5P/
Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething
Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething
Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething
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OK, so we are officially in maybe what we could call a
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reflective season in the garden. So the leaves are falling or
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have already fallen. The garden is slowing or maybe
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has come to a screeching halt and our hands are just a little
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bit less dirty right now. And I think that's the perfect
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time to start reflecting and maybe doing a little planning
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for next year because surprise, I got my first seed catalog in
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the mail already a couple of weeks ago.
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So today on Just Grow Something, we are connecting our garden
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reflection and are planning with our seed ordering.
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So this is how we take everything that we learned from
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this year and we turn it into a little bit of a road map for
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next year's success before we start laying out the actual
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blueprint. Because you all know I am a
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planner, right? So we're going to cover how to
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analyze this year's garden to make better choices for next
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season, how to figure out how many seeds you'll need for next
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year, and then how to do an inventory so that you can order
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seeds efficiently and cost effectively without getting
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caught up in those seed catalog daydreams.
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You know the ones. Let's dig in.
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Hey, I'm Karen, and what started as a small backyard garden 20
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years ago turned into a lifelong passion for growing food.
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Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
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you do the same on this podcast. I am your friend in the garden
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teaching evidence based techniques to help you grow your
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favorites and build confidence in your own garden space.
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So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
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just grow something. All right, my gardening friends,
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you have reached a milestone. I mean, OK, we did it together,
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but you are responsible for this.
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We hit 300 downloads of this podcast last week.
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Good golly miss Molly. We are getting ready to wind up
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the 5th season of this podcast and I remember being super
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excited that my first episode got 9 downloads that very first
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week. And I mean, one of them was me.
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So of course that meant that there were eight other people
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had listened to me rambling on about gardening that first week.
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And I know there are a lot of you who are new to the show this
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season and I am super grateful that you are here and appreciate
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you reaching out with kind words and reviews.
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And I'm just so glad that you are getting so much value from
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what we do here every week and through the newsletter and the
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Facebook group. And I am floored by the number
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of you who say that you have gone back and listened from that
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very first episode because we are on episode 277, and that
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doesn't include, like, replays and the like.
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So that is some dedication, my friends.
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And I appreciate you. And I do want to shout out my
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Ogs, the ones who have been around since that first season
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and continue to stick around and who continue to reach out
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through socials or e-mail. You know who you are.
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I would name each of you by name, but I'm afraid I would
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miss somebody and I don't want to do that.
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So just know that you are loved and I greatly appreciate all of
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the times that you have shared this podcast because it could
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not have grown without you. And I also need to shout out
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everyone supporting on Patreon or who has sent me a coffee or
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three on Buy Me a Coffee. You All Get to listen for free
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on a myriad of platforms, including my own website, but
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it's definitely not free to run this thing.
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And even though my hosting platform has always been free,
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who remembers the old host read anchor ads.
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If you heard OG, you definitely remember those.
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But there are costs involved with hosting the website and
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recording and editing software. So I have, you know, any few
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dollars monthly from those of you who have chosen to
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contribute really does go a long way.
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And I mean, in that same vein, I have to acknowledge our newest
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patron over on Patreon. Aaron, thank you for joining at
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the C patron level. Thank you so much for that.
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And those of you who have purchased merch from the website
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or use an affiliate code or bought through my Amazon list,
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like all of these things, these are all like a dollar here and a
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dollar there kind of contributions, but they've
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slowly added up to where I might actually be breaking even on
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this thing now. So thank you.
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Thank you. And if you haven't supported in
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some other way, just sitting through the ads when they play
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on the show is also a way to support.
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I try to be very thoughtful about where those ad breaks cut
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in and how frequent they are because I don't want this to
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become like 15 minutes of information and then 30 minutes
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of ad because, right. So I do appreciate you putting
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up with the ads and the ad reads and me promoting our handful of
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sponsors each season just to keep this show going.
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So really, I just wanted to say a giant thank you.
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I don't ever want to take these little milestones for granted
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and not acknowledge them with you because again, you did this.
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You listen every week, you share the episodes, you engage on
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YouTube, which is growing very, very slowly and doesn't even
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count towards these download numbers.
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So I appreciate my Youtubers too, thank you.
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And I can't help each week but to try to imagine you all
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sitting in front of me as I talk about all these sciency
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gardening things and recognize that in the beginning there
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would have been 8 of you sitting and listening in a very small
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room which was already super cool.
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And now every week there are 1002 thousand, occasionally as
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many as 3000 of you listening to what I'm saying, and that blows
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me away. O let's keep digging in each
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week, shall we? OK, so in that vein, if you have
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listened to this show for any amount of time, you know that I
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am a big proponent of the garden journal.
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Reflection of that type helps us figure out what worked well in
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the garden and what didn't. OK.
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And I don't need you thinking that a garden journal has to be
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something that is over the top or super detailed or, you know,
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when we talk about reflection, you know, very reflective in
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some nature because I am not a journaler per SE, OK.
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I don't sit down at the end of the day or start my day off with
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journaling of any kind. What I'm referring to in
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journaling garden journaling is just some notations about what
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has happened in the garden and and why it is happening.
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Because right now we're in the last week of November.
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If you sit down and think right now, what did you plant in
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March? Truly, what did you plant?
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How many of each of those things did you plant?
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If you're not somebody who plants like the exact same thing
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in the exact same numbers every single year, you are likely
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going to have a difficult time thinking about that right now.
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That is where your garden journal comes in.
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So whether it is taking the map that you have laid out for
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yourself at the beginning of the season or the notes that you
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have taken about what's going to get planted and where it got
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planted. And if you can take that
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throughout the season and just make notes about what happened,
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then that is going to help you in figuring all the rest of this
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out for the next season, OK. It helps us especially with
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understanding our yield based on what we planted.
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So if you can remember what you planted this past March and how
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many of those things, so if we're talking about, say, heads
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of lettuce, right, if you remember that you planted 6
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heads of lettuce, did you harvest all six of those heads
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of lettuce? And on what frequency were you
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harvesting? Because if you understand that
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and you compare that with your weather or other things that
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were going on, you can think about whether or not you needed
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to plant more or less, right? And also, do we have seeds
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leftover or did we save seeds or do we need more seeds?
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These are all the things that we can be sort of reflecting on.
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And these are things that we can use our garden journal for.
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And again, these can just be sticky notes.
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These can be notations of some sort, but that's why I really,
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really am a proponent of this. Now, if you did not take notes
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or you do not keep a dark garden journal, all is not lost for
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you, I promise. But now is the time to sort of
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sit down and think about what happened this season.
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OK? This is the information that
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we're going to need for planning.
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Before we even grab a seed catalog, we want to look back
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what did well, what didn't, which of the things that we
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planted sort of outperformed their expectations and which
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ones were a total disappointment.
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This is the time to figure out whether or not weather was a
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factor. So even if you didn't write
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these things down, even if you weren't paying attention to the
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weather from week to week and making those types of notations,
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can you go back to, you know, a weather app of some sort and
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look back and see, was this a particularly rainy season?
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And it was that a factor in what you were growing or the yield of
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what you were growing? I will tell you that if I wasn't
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keeping track of things in a garden journal and I were to
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look at this season particularly, and if I was a new
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gardener, maybe this was only my second or third year planting.
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I would be so thoroughly impressed with how well my leafy
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greens did and most of my early spring crops because for the
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first time in a very long time, we actually had a spring here in
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West Central Missouri. Normally we are cold, cold,
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cold. We'll have a couple of spikes of
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really warm weather and then we might have like 2 weeks of what
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we might consider something that looks like spring and then all
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of a sudden boom, we are into summer weather.
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And so that usually means that our spring crops are fairly
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short lived. We have to get them in fairly
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early. We have to cover them to protect
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them from late cold snaps. And then, you know, we might
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have a week or two, maybe 3, where the weather is very
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conducive to those cool weather crops growing and thriving.
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And then all of a sudden we're trying to protect them from this
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crazy heat that suddenly showed up and we might have to harvest
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early, right? This past year was completely
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different from that. We had an extended period of
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spring weather. We had tons of rain and it was
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very consistent. And so we were seeing our leafy
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greens just beautifully, I mean growing beautifully, tons and
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tons of harvest continuing way later into the summer season
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than they ever have before. And if I didn't know that this
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weather had been unusual in terms of garden production, I
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might think to myself as I go back and look like, oh, well, I
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had kale going for way longer, you know, into the season that I
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anticipated so I can plant less kale next year, only to find
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myself very disappointed if that weather pattern doesn't repeat.
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OK, So these are the types of things that we're taking notes
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of. These are the types of things
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that we're thinking about. Did your companion plantings
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work or could they be tweaked? You know, I tried a bunch of new
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stuff this year, and if I didn't keep track of that and if I
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didn't kind of track the yield or make notes about how
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something got delayed because it was paired with something else,
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then I might not remember that for next season.
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I might, you know, not plan properly.
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Is there are there ways that I could tweak those things?
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Were there pest problems that affected your yield?
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You know, we talked a lot here in the Midwest about squash vine
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bores and squash bugs in our summer squashes.
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And I will tell you that this year was very different for me
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for a lot of different reasons. And I might end up needing to do
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a whole episode on what I did because it was so dramatic,
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radically different. But remember, causation and
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correlation are not the same thing.
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OK, Just because I saw a reduced level of pests.
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And I also changed the way that I did some of my companion
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plantings and my trap cropping. That does not necessarily mean
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that the way I changed those plantings was the reason that I
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had fewer pests early on. Because remember that weather
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was also different. And I have a sneaky suspicion
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that part of the reason that the vine borers and the squash bugs
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stayed away for as long as that they did was because of of the
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number of rainfall events that we were having.
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So I can't, you know, say definitively like what I did in
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terms of my plantings was the only reason I have to take that
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weather into consideration. Right.
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You should also be thinking about whether or not you tried
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new varieties and whether they worked well or they didn't.
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I tried a couple of new tomato varieties this year, and
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actually, I was pleasantly surprised by some of them.
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And they are ones that I'm going to repeat versus last year where
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I tried some and I wasn't very impressed with the yield.
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And again, I wouldn't know these things if I wasn't taking notes.
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So even if you didn't do a garden journal or you didn't
00:13:59
note any of these things that I talked about, now is the time to
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really sort of sit down and just reflect back.
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OK. Understanding the different
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factors that affect our yield will help you figure out whether
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the results that you've experienced are typical or if
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something threw them off positively or negatively.
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Either way, this allows you to adjust accordingly if you feel
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like you had too much or too little of something.
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And that all affects the number of seeds that you're going to
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need. OK, so that flood of see
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catalogs that starts coming in is both a joy and a temptation,
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right? I mean, so much joy.
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Like my stack of catalogs that comes in, I like wait for there
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to be a certain number of catalogs and certain catalogs
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that I order from or I just like to look through every single
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year. There's about four or five of
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them out of the, you know, probably, I don't know, I
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probably get 12 to 13 different catalogs that show up and then
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multiple versions of those same catalogs throughout the season.
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But there's four or five of them that I really like to peruse
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through and who are always coming up with like new
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varieties. And they have really beautiful
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photos in them. And so I wait until those four
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or five show up and then I grab some hot chocolate and I pluck
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myself into my lounge chair by my fire with a highlighter or a
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Sharpie or both. And I just spend several hours
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just curled up in that chair highlighting things, circling
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things and justice, like, oh gosh, you know, look at all
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these different varieties and look how much fun I could have
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with this and all these kinds of things, right?
00:15:42
That is fun. But I know as I'm doing this,
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even with the amount of space that I have to grow, right?
00:15:51
We're on 40 acres out here. There are 4 acres of fully
00:15:55
plantable area that we have worked over the years.
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I have a lot of room to grow pretty much whatever I want, but
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I know I am one person, you know, obviously with the help of
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my husband at this point for the farm itself, I can't grow all
00:16:10
that stuff no matter how much I want to grow everything that I
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highlight or I circle with my sharpie.
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OK, so I have to keep it manageable.
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I can have my pie in the side dreams too and just kind of
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Daydream about all these different cool varieties.
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But then in the end, I really got to sort of get serious and
00:16:28
figure it out. So this is how we keep it
00:16:30
manageable, right? It's OK.
00:16:32
Go through make all your make all your circles and and have
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your daydreams. But if you can make a list
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before you sit down to peruse the seed catalogs, then you're
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going to be off to a better start, right?
00:16:47
This is going to help you sort of keep in mind the things that
00:16:50
you actually need. If you write down what you
00:16:53
actually need ahead of time, it's OK to say, oh, I, I love
00:16:57
all twenty of these different varieties of tomatoes.
00:16:59
But if you make a list of, yeah, well, I know I only need like 6
00:17:03
or 8 tomato plants and maybe I don't want them to all be
00:17:06
different varieties. OK, that's going to keep you
00:17:08
injected and check a little bit, right?
00:17:11
And then if you can check what you already have before you go
00:17:16
and sit down, you know, do a seed inventory and also test
00:17:20
your older seeds for viability using a damp paper towel test.
00:17:25
Then you are going to have an idea of, OK, I've already got 3
00:17:29
or 4 varieties of tomato seeds in my stash and again, I only
00:17:35
need 6 tomato plants. So do I really need a new
00:17:38
variety of tomatoes? These are the things that you
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can, you know, sort of think through, right?
00:17:43
So how are we going to effectively manage our seed
00:17:48
inventory and make sure that what we have already, we're not
00:17:53
going to duplicate, we're not going to double up on.
00:17:56
So the first thing is to just gather all of your seeds in one
00:17:59
place, right? And then sort them into
00:18:01
categories, whatever makes sense for you.
00:18:04
It could be crop type. That's how I do it.
00:18:06
I like to break it down like these are tomatoes, these are
00:18:09
Peppers, these are summer squashes, these are winter
00:18:12
squashes, these are leafy greens, whatever.
00:18:14
You can also do it if it's easier for you by season.
00:18:18
So these are my spring, summer, and fall plantings and then
00:18:21
maybe my overwintering, right? Whatever works best for the way
00:18:24
that your brain works. Then you want to go through and
00:18:27
you want to look at each one of those packets and make sure that
00:18:29
they are still good, they're intact, the seeds look like
00:18:33
they're still quality. You don't have any old or
00:18:34
damaged seeds. And then if there's any question
00:18:37
on that, you want to test for viability.
00:18:39
Now you can use the paper towel test like I mentioned.
00:18:41
And if you haven't done this before, you've not seen it done,
00:18:44
it is very simple. Essentially, you're just going
00:18:46
to count out a certain number of seeds.
00:18:48
So if you have a large number and you can, you can spare 10 of
00:18:51
them. This is just makes the math very
00:18:52
easy. Pick out 10 seeds, get a paper
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towel, dampen that paper towel, lay the seeds out, space them
00:19:00
out in that paper towel and then fold it over on itself so that
00:19:02
those seeds are in contact with the towel with the the moisture
00:19:06
from the towel right? And then put it into a plastic
00:19:09
bag and and close that up. You want to write on the plastic
00:19:12
bag the seed that you are sprouting and preferably also
00:19:17
write on there the number of expected days to germination.
00:19:21
And then also write the date that you started this test and
00:19:24
then just tuck it away somewhere in a warm spot.
00:19:27
You know, check every few days to make sure that everything is
00:19:29
still nice and damp in there. And all we're doing is we're
00:19:32
waiting for those seeds to sprout.
00:19:34
OK, so after the anticipated number of days that you're, you
00:19:39
know, you, you should be waiting for it to, to germinate, then
00:19:43
you can go back and look and see how many of them actually
00:19:44
germinated. So if you have seeds that we're
00:19:46
supposed to germinate within five to seven days, you wait the
00:19:50
seven days you come back. If eight out of those 10 seeds
00:19:53
have sprouted, cool, you've got an 80% germination rate.
00:19:57
That's fantastic. Those seeds are great, carry on.
00:20:00
But if you've only got three of them that have sprouted, that's
00:20:02
a 30% germination rate and that's not very good.
00:20:06
So then your option becomes. When you use those seeds, do you
00:20:10
just over seed, meaning OK, now I'm going to plant twice as many
00:20:13
in the same spot because I know only 30% of them are going to
00:20:16
germinate? Or do you toss those in the
00:20:18
compost pile and you buy fresh seeds?
00:20:20
That's entirely up to you and your budget.
00:20:21
OK, Once you have figured out you know which seeds are still
00:20:26
good and the ones that you're going to hang on to, and you've
00:20:28
just sort of divide them up into categories.
00:20:30
Now go through the seed packets 1 by 1 and decide whether or not
00:20:34
you're going to keep them or if you're going to pass them on to
00:20:36
somebody else. You might decide to pass them on
00:20:39
if it's a variety that you don't intend to grow again or even a
00:20:43
category of plant that you don't intend to grow again.
00:20:46
You know, I mean, if you tried a new variety of tomato and it
00:20:48
just didn't do well for you or you weren't particularly fond of
00:20:52
the flavor or whatever, go ahead and pass those seeds on to
00:20:54
somebody else. You don't have to grow them
00:20:56
again just because you own those seeds, right?
00:20:58
It could be that you tried loofah and it was such a space
00:21:02
hog that you decided you are never growing loofah again and
00:21:06
you can pass those seeds on to somebody else.
00:21:08
This is going to help you in managing your space, you know,
00:21:12
your seed stash, but also your time.
00:21:15
Because if you're getting rid of the seeds that you have no
00:21:18
intention of ever growing again, that's less time that you're
00:21:21
going to spend going through your seed stash when it comes
00:21:24
time to plant and you're trying to find the seeds that you need
00:21:27
to start or that you need to put out in the garden, right?
00:21:30
And then probably the most important part of this is to
00:21:32
track your inventory. You know, if you can create
00:21:34
yourself a little inventory sheet to track what seeds you
00:21:39
have, where you got them from, especially if you're like me and
00:21:43
you're ordering from multiple catalogs because you just like
00:21:46
the variety. But then you know, it, it's a
00:21:49
more generic package or something or it's being sold by
00:21:54
somebody who is not actually the seed grower.
00:21:56
So you've got like, you know, a burpee seed package, but you
00:21:59
bought it at the garden center. You know, whatever it is, just
00:22:02
mark where you purchased it so that you can find that seed
00:22:05
again if you you really like it and you need to replace it.
00:22:09
And then also any notes or experiences that you had with
00:22:11
it, you know, if you want to regrow this particular variety,
00:22:15
but you realize that, you know, it didn't really germinate very
00:22:18
well. And that's, you know, kind of
00:22:20
one of the problems with that variety, but you really liked
00:22:23
it. OK, but make a note about that
00:22:25
so that you know that you have to plant extra seed the next
00:22:28
year. You can do this in Google
00:22:30
Sheets. You can do an Excel spreadsheet
00:22:32
if that's the way that your brain works.
00:22:33
I used the inventory sheet from my Grow and Flourish planner
00:22:36
that I got from the Girly Homesteader because I prefer to
00:22:39
write this out by hand rather than doing things
00:22:42
electronically. I feel like gardening is a very
00:22:44
kind of tactile activity, and for some reason all of my
00:22:47
planning and organizing activities also tend to be
00:22:50
tactile in that manner. So I don't do an electronic
00:22:53
version I use, I use a piece of paper.
00:22:55
A pro tip on this would be to adjust your list as you go.
00:23:00
So if you do an inventory now and then you decide what to
00:23:04
order, and then you update that list after you order, right?
00:23:10
You get all of your seeds in and then you update it again after
00:23:15
each round of planting. This is going to make your life
00:23:19
a whole lot easier when it comes to doing a seed inventory the
00:23:22
next time because those open seed packets can be very
00:23:26
deceiving. It might feel like there are a
00:23:29
whole lot more seeds in there than there actually are.
00:23:33
And this can leave you short the next time that you go to plant.
00:23:38
I am speaking from experience here, right?
00:23:40
And the vice versa can also happen.
00:23:42
You can end up ordering seeds because you thought you were
00:23:44
running low, but then you go to, you know, update everything and
00:23:48
you realize, oh, there's a lot more seeds in that packet than
00:23:50
you realize. And now you have way too many.
00:23:53
And I am also speaking from experience here.
00:23:56
So if you can take a few moments along the way during your
00:23:59
planting stages to update that list, then you have a running
00:24:02
list and you can actually take advantage of sales much more
00:24:08
easily and more quickly if you do this.
00:24:11
So right now, you know, I'm getting emails from seed
00:24:13
suppliers because it's the very end of the year and they're
00:24:16
refreshing their supply and they're like, hey, you know, our
00:24:21
end of of season, you know, seeds are 30 to 50% off.
00:24:25
Take advantage now. But if I'm in the middle of
00:24:27
working on 12 other things, I don't have time to go and do
00:24:30
that seed inventory right then to take advantage of that sale.
00:24:33
If I have an updated list, I can just flip through and go, oh,
00:24:37
you know what, I am running short on this, this, this and
00:24:40
this. I can take advantage of that
00:24:41
sale really quick without having to sit down and worry about
00:24:44
going through an extended, you know, process of doing that
00:24:47
inventory. So that's just one more way that
00:24:49
you can kind of help yourself along.
00:24:51
If you have accumulated a very, very large seed stash, which I
00:24:55
know a lot of us do and I think you probably.
00:25:00
Also are well advised to compare your seed suppliers #1 off the
00:25:08
top. If you can look for regional
00:25:11
seed companies that specialize in your growing zone.
00:25:15
You might want to shop with them first, specifically if you have
00:25:21
some crops that have been a little bit difficult for you to
00:25:24
grow, whether it's in terms of their survivability in your
00:25:29
growing zone or maybe the types of diseases that you face in
00:25:34
that type of crop. If you can find somebody like
00:25:37
for us nearby, we've got the Buffalo Seed Company.
00:25:40
They have several farms that they work with right here in the
00:25:44
Midwest where they're growing the seeds, right?
00:25:48
They're they're growing these varieties, they're saving the
00:25:50
seeds for multiple seasons and replanting the ones that look
00:25:53
the best and have performed the best.
00:25:55
And now you have something that is bio adapted to our region
00:26:01
that is fantastic, especially when you're talking about
00:26:03
diseases, especially when you're talking about resistance to
00:26:06
insect predation. So if you can find a regional
00:26:09
seed company that is going to do that for you, then you might
00:26:12
start with that. Or again, you might find a
00:26:15
company who's having an early bird special on certain
00:26:17
varieties. And you can save money if you're
00:26:19
looking around. And also don't shy away from
00:26:21
buying in bulk if it's something that you plant a lot of that
00:26:27
doesn't lose it's fertility very quickly.
00:26:31
I have purchased seeds in multiple # bags when they've
00:26:35
been on sale because it was such a great deal and a lot of seeds
00:26:41
will last for years in storage with no problem.
00:26:45
So check with different suppliers before you make your
00:26:48
final purchases. Don't just go on like that one
00:26:51
catalog that had that beautiful picture of that particular
00:26:54
variety in it and just make your decision to go with them,
00:26:58
especially if we're talking about buying seeds through
00:27:01
catalogs or online and you're having to pay for shipping.
00:27:04
So the more you can purchase from one company, A, they might
00:27:07
waive the shipping over a certain, you know, dollar
00:27:10
amount, but B, you're not going to be paying shipping from six
00:27:15
different companies that you're only ordering two or three
00:27:17
little seed packets from, because then that really starts
00:27:19
to add up. And the other thing too, is if
00:27:21
you can, you know, make the list of things that you really want
00:27:24
to grow and the varieties of those things that you really
00:27:27
want to grow, and you can go look at your local garden
00:27:29
center. You can save yourself the
00:27:31
shipping and you might be able to find them in smaller
00:27:34
quantities if those catalogs only seem to carry, you know,
00:27:37
packets that are much larger than what you might need.
00:27:40
But again, don't let that be too much of A concern with most of
00:27:45
your crops because they often times are going to hold in
00:27:48
storage quite well in terms of the seeds, right.
00:27:51
And then finally, don't forget to plan for successions, OK?
00:27:56
If we go back to that, you know, original thought about our
00:27:58
lettuce in the spring and we think, OK, well, we grew, you
00:28:03
know, 6 heads of lettuce, but they were all planted at the
00:28:06
same time. And so they all came ready at
00:28:08
the same time. And you were having to rush to
00:28:11
eat salads before all that lettuce went bad or bolted in
00:28:14
the field or in the garden. Then maybe you think about
00:28:18
staggering those plantings if 6 was maybe too much all at once
00:28:23
but wouldn't have been enough for the entire season.
00:28:26
Then maybe you decide to plant 10 and you do 5, and then two
00:28:30
weeks later or three weeks later you're transplanting another
00:28:32
five. And then you think, oh, well,
00:28:34
you know what? I actually didn't end up having
00:28:36
any lettuces in the fall. And it would have been nice to
00:28:38
have those salads then. And you decide, OK, well, I
00:28:42
think I'm going to do the same thing.
00:28:43
I'll plant 5 in the late summer and then I'll, you know, wait
00:28:47
three weeks and I'll plant five more.
00:28:50
Well, now you've just doubled the number of seeds that you
00:28:51
need compared to what you planted or more than doubled the
00:28:55
number of seeds that you compared to the previous season,
00:28:57
right? So think about your succession
00:29:00
order enough to stagger those plantings throughout the season
00:29:03
for your consistent harvest. And then just remember, you
00:29:06
might have to order early on some of these things because
00:29:08
some varieties sell out really fast, especially those airlines.
00:29:15
OK, So what it boils down to is a garden journal is great.
00:29:18
If you can reflect back on what has happened this season.
00:29:23
No notes, no problem. We're just going to sit down and
00:29:25
we're going to reflect back and figure out what it is that went
00:29:27
well and what didn't decide what we want to grow, how much we
00:29:31
want of each of those crops. And if you're having a hard time
00:29:35
figuring that out right this how, how much do you want of
00:29:39
each of those crops and and how many seeds does that require
00:29:43
from you? I am going to put a link in the
00:29:45
show notes for my plan by yield handout.
00:29:49
I pulled this straight from my plan like a pro course to help
00:29:53
you figure out like how many seeds you're going to need or
00:29:56
how many plants you will need based on the yield that you
00:29:59
want. You can go to
00:30:00
jessicaorsomethingpodcast.com/yield Y i.e.
00:30:04
LDI will link to that in the show notes and it's going to
00:30:06
give you, I think I've got like 30 different crops in there that
00:30:10
you can look and go, OK, you know, a 10 foot row of tomatoes
00:30:14
would yield me X number of pounds of tomatoes.
00:30:17
And that's going to give you a little bit more of an idea of
00:30:20
how many seeds or how many plants you're going to need as
00:30:22
you sort of sit down and figure out how many seeds you need to
00:30:25
order. Just remember, before you sit
00:30:27
down with those seed catalogs, have a plan.
00:30:31
Or at least just a list. It's not to say that you can't
00:30:35
spend hours dreaming of all of those really cool varieties,
00:30:38
because I know I'm going to. It just means that when it comes
00:30:41
time to order, you'll have a little bit of a plan and will be
00:30:44
less likely to go overboard. Well, maybe until next time, my
00:30:49
gardening friends keep on cultivating that dream garden,
00:30:51
and we'll talk again soon.