Garden Planning

It’s that wonderful (!) time of year when I order my seeds and plants for the garden. I’ve been reading and drooling over seed catalogues for a month, dreaming of spring, and it was finally time to order.

For the raised garden beds, I still have tons of seeds. Every year that seeds age, more have to be added to each hole to increase the odds of sprouting, but I still have plenty of most things. I went through most of my zinnia seeds last year having to replant so many times, so I needed to order more of those. My lettuce and spinach didn’t sprout at all - I’m not sure if it was the growing conditions or the seeds, so I got new packets of those as well.

And then for the fun stuff. Thanks to a wonderful Christmas gift certificate, I had some fun money to spend. I’m a huge fan of perennials since they come back year after year (the gift that keeps on giving!) so I got to splurge on some beautiful fun new things.

I ordered a beautiful pink echinacea/cone flower that will bloom all summer and a pink hellaboris that will bloom in late February. I adore snapdragons and I was very pleasantly surprised to discover a perennial variety called antirrhinum with beautiful coloring. I also picked out a pack of Autumn Joy sedums that will bloom in late summer in cream and slowly turn to a dark magenta/maroon color in the fall. I love the idea of color in the garden for as long as possible - from very early spring to fall.