My 2023 Gardening Plan
For the last few years, I’ve found myself getting more and more into gardening, and this year is no exception. In fact, this year is the year that I’ve really gone the hardest on gardening! I decided to give seed starting a try, and it seems like the more I start, the more seeds I keep buying (oops!). I decided at the beginning of the year that I’d sit down and actually create a plan for the plants I want to grow this season, especially since I was investing so much money into seed starting supplies, I didn’t want all of that money & time to go to waste.
As always, I’m growing a combination of vegetables, herbs and flowers. I say as always, because this is pretty much what I end up doing every year, but this year I’ve taken more time to learn about things like soil quality, and companion planting. Let’s jump into the nitty gritty of this years plan!
Cut Flower Container Gardening
I think the biggest difference between the past years I’ve done our container garden, besides doing seed starting & not really having a plan, is the fact that I’ve decided to grow flowers primarily to be cut and made into bouquets. Normally, when I buy flowers, my intention is to have them to make the outdoor space look pretty, but if I’m being perfectly honest, it gets so hot & muggy here, I don’t really enjoy being outside that much come July & August, and it felt like a bit of a waste. Since I’ve always loved the idea of having a cut flower garden, I looked up some cut flowers that can easily be grown in pots, and was super thrilled to discover that there’s a ton of my favourite flowers that can be grown in containers including ranunculus, anemones, dahlias, zinnias and cosmos. Naturally, I decided to grow all of them… so here’s the different varieties I have on deck:
· Ranunculus: ‘Bianco’ (White) & ‘Elegance Pastello’ (Pinks, Salmons, Soft Oranges, etc).
· Anemones: ‘Mistral Rarity’ (Pastel Pinks, Salmons, Taupe, etc.)
· Dahlias: Café au Lait (Light Pink), Jowey Martina (Yellow), Tangerine Dream, Wine Eyed Jills, Isabel (Purple) & Hillcrest Suffusion (Orange).
· Cosmos: Purity (White), Xanthos (Pale Yellow) & Double Click Rose Bonbon (Pink).
· Zinnias: Summer Jilly Box 2022 Blend.
Some of the flowers farms and retailers I purchased these seeds, corms & tubers from include Antonio Valente Flowers, Dahlia May Flower Farm, Whistling Prarie Flowers, Roam Flora and West Coast Seeds.
Companion Planting
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I decided to take some time to look into companion planting and see what would go well together. If you’ve never heard of companion planting before, it’s where you plant certain flowers, herbs and/or vegetables together for each other’s mutual benefit (ex. planting basil with cherry tomatoes will help the tomatoes to taste better just by having the basil growing in there with them!). Based on everything that we’re growing this year, I’ve decided to grow the following vegetables & herbs together:
· Romaine lettuce with garlic (hint: plant individual cloves of garlic to produce a whole new head of garlic!)
· Spinach with radishes (and vice versa).
· Cherry tomatoes with basil (since basil is my number one used herb, I’ve seed started more than I need and ended up with about 7 germinated plants to use on their own, in companion planting & to give to friends and family).
In addition to companion planting, I’ll also be planting some marigolds in around some of the containers, but particularly with the tomatoes. Not only do they protect tomatoes from insects that like to ruin them, they also attract pollinators!
Investing in Quality Materials & Tools
Lastly, one thing that I made sure to do this year was to upgrade my tools and supplies. You may be wondering what I mean by this, well, when it comes to soil, yes you could buy the cheapest $3/bag option at the grocery store, but ultimately good quality soil is going to make a difference in how happy your plants are. If you think about it, the soil your plants grow in provides them with nutrients they need! So, this year I invested in some OMRI certified, organic soil from Pro-Mix for all of my planters, and started all of my seeds in their OMRI certified organic Seed Starting mix. Additionally, I purchased a natural fish emulsion fertilizer and even upgraded my containers to UV-protected, all weather planters in various sizes (+ they have drainage! No more roots rotting in overwatered soil!), and of course, I’ll be watering all of my herbs & vegetables using a galvanized steel watering can.
Phew, that was a long one! I honestly have really fallen in love with gardening over the last few years, but especially the last 2-3 — I really could talk about it all day, and honestly… I could stare at my little seedlings growing all day too! I hope this blog has inspired some of you who maybe live in apartments, or don’t have a large backyard to give container gardening a try… I always say that you don’t need a backyard to be a successful gardener!
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