5 New Things I'll Be Trying this Gardening Season
As we’re about to head into the spring season, all I can think about is how excited I am to get back into the garden this year. This definitely isn’t a surprise to you, especially if you follow me on Instagram, but I’ve already gotten a head start by doing some seed starting that I just did this weekend, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well! Back in February, when I was sitting down, working on my garden plans this year, I found myself realizing that I was doing a lot of new things, and figured why not share all of these new experiences, experiments and adventures with you! So, let’s chat about some new things I’m doing in my garden in 2023.
01. Seed Starting
If you missed it, I just did a whole blog about all of the seed starting must have items (read it here) that I picked up to get going on this new experiment. I’m super excited to grow produce & flowers from seed this year, but I would be lying if I said I also wasn’t a bit nervous. It’s a lot of money to spend up front, but I feel confident that I’m going to love this process, and I look forward to sharing it with you!
02. Soil Blocking
Going hand-in-hand with seed starting is soil blocking! I got some traditional plastic cells to start with, but I also wanted to give soil blocking a try too. I’m going to be trying this out with some of my larger produce since I purchased a 2” large soil blocker, and if it goes well, I might pick up a .5” mini soil blocker for the 2024 gardening season.
03. Taking Time to Plan
I think this is a very important step that I was always missing when gardening, especially given that my balcony only gets full sun in some areas. I took the time to actually plan out what I have, how much sun the balcony gets, what I want to grow and where exactly I’m going to grow it. If you want to set yourself up for success, an hour of planning saves you a lot of time (and money) in the long run. I just used a notebook, but you can use a specific gardening planner.
04. Testing the Soil
Another thing that I was seriously neglecting was the quality of my soil. I’ve always bought fresh bags of soil every season, but I was ultimately mixing it up with old soil, and who even really knows if that new soil has everything my plant babies need! I picked up a soil tester this year and plan to periodically check my soil throughout the season, especially for the more expensive seeds I’ve purchased like the ranunculus & anemones.
05. Growing Flowers for Cutting
Lastly, I’m actually going to attempt growing flowers meant for cutting! This will truly be a very big experiment given that I will be attempting most of these in pots on a balcony, with the exception of my dahlia tubers, but I’m hopeful that it’ll go well & I’ll end up with at least one bouquet this spring/summer.
There’s lots of other things that I think I’ll realize in the process that I’m attempting for the first time, so if you want to follow along with that process, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter before you leave!
* Note: Links and linked products featured in this blog post are commissionable links. Should you purchase a product with these links, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.
