Covid-19

March 24th 2020

It’s been a while since I posted about my garden planning. So much has changed since then. My biggest concern was having a fun garden and experimenting with growing in straw bales. Then came the pandemic heard ‘round the world. Covid-19.

I don’t know what this did for you but, for me, it changed all my plans. Gardening suddenly became a bit more serious. My focus has always been to provide nutritious food for my family and to do it sustainably. But now it seems this is a higher priority. I guess you could say my focus hasn’t changed but the level of importance has.

I decided to put the new garden at our homestead on the back burner and focus solely on soil preparation there for next year. This enables me to focus on my one garden, close to home. It has become a higher priority.

When this pandemic started, I realized I had better get my butt to the store and procure my seeds for the season or I may very well be out of luck. I had not yet completed my preserving/recipe planning for the anticipated harvest, but time was of the essence so out I ventured with my hand sanitizer and my seed list in hand.

I purchased the following seeds for the (recently expanded) garden:

 Lettuce

 Pumpkin

 Acorn squash

 Pickling cucumbers

 Dill

 Parlsey

 Basil

 Coriander

 Peas

 Carrots (regular and rainbow)

 Beets (regular and rainbow)

 Corn (peaches and cream)

 Corn (pink popping)

 Radish

 Zucchini

 Pole beans

 Onion

 Pepper

 Hot peppers

 Tomatoes (beefstead and roma)

 Chamomile

 Potatoes

Now that I have all my seeds, it’s time to go through and organize them. I need to figure out which seeds I need to start indoors and when. I also need to figure out which I sow outside and when. In Canada I never put anything in the ground until at least the third week in May but sometimes it could be even later.

I read each seed packet and figure out when I’d like to harvest the plant. I ask myself, “when do I want to eat this?” and then I count backwards. If I want to start pickling my first pickles in mid July and my seed packet says the plant will take 55 days to mature and 7-14 days to sprout then I have to count backwards, 69 days from Mid July when I want the plant. This means I must start my plant indoors around the first week of May.

After going though all my seeds and organizing them by plant date and separating them into two groups of “indoor starters” and “direct sow outside”, I am ready to start some seedlings inside today! I have picked the sunniest location in my house to set the newly planted seeds and watch them obsessively until they sprout because that’s my jam. It’s what I do. If you think that’s “extra” you should see me on hatch days when I am practically glued to my incubator, watching for new baby chicks!

I have blabbed enough today, and I should let you get back to your life and planning your own garden! Remember, try to have some fun with it. There is nothing better than eating a salad that you have grown the ingredients for and harvested right before you eat it.

Your little seedling,

Kathy