It’s nearing the end of winter, and the new season’s seed catalogs are starting to pile up. I can’t wait to start plotting out my plans for the 2022 growing season, but this is always the time of year when I like to look back at last year’s efforts overall and take note of what worked and what didn’t. 

As I’ve mentioned previously, I had my best luck yet with starting seeds indoors. After some tweaking and definitely several lessons learned, I was pretty pleased with my setup and the results. In fact, I ended up with more viable seedlings than I truly needed, even after having to restart at least one tray due to my earlier mistakes. I’ll share more about my system when it gets time to assemble it again.

I didn’t plan quite so well for a method to help the seedlings harden off, so in the end I let them spend a few days outside in a vinyl greenhouse but then threw them in their containers and wished them well. For the most part it worked okay, though perhaps some would have been sturdier plants if I’d truly taken the time and effort to take them in and out of the house each day. Noted for the next go-round! 

New Attractions

Each year, I like to try a few new varieties that I haven’t grown before. The mixed results I’ve gotten have helped me to view the gardening process as a learning experiment rather than defaulting to my habitual perfectionism, and while that is still an ongoing lesson (change is hard!), it does help me to enjoy the plants and not worry whether the time, money and energy expended was “worth” it. Finding worth in just the doing of it has been incredibly freeing! 

To talk specifics, I ended up with ten (!)  new varieties in 2021. I say “ended up with” because I had only made actual plans for five or six, but I definitely fell prey to impulse shopping during my annual plant sale excursion. (The Friends School Plant Sale is an amazing opportunity for anyone who’s within a reasonable distance of the Twin Cities, so if you aren’t already familiar with it, I highly recommend you check it out!) 

The new-to-me plants I planned on adding to the garden last year had a fairly good success rate. I’ve already gone on at length about borage so I won’t rehash it all, but that was by far my favorite new friend. I’ve definitely added it to the permanent guest list. 

On an utter whim, I spotted a healthy, thriving catmint plant and added it to my cart. Heck, I thought, I’ve got cats; might as well get them something new to enjoy too! The catmint itself was a model container plant and I loved the purple spikey flowers through the summer. Anyone who knows cats will not be surprised, however, that as with so many things cat servants buy specifically for their feline masters, my kitties didn’t even give it a second look. At least it was pretty! 

I opted for miniature versions of veggies (cherry tomatoes and lunchbox bell peppers) and had better luck than with their full-sized cousins! Planting some basil and tomatoes together in the same large tub resulted in both performing better than in previous years. I never did quite identify the “sweet spot” for harvesting the mini peppers; perhaps I should have plucked them a bit earlier to encourage the plant to produce more, but I was very pleased with the taste. I would grow these again, but I’d like to learn more about them in the meantime so that I’m not hampering their growth. 

On the culinary side of things, I expanded to three types of thyme! Technically I had only intended to try two, French and English, to experiment with whether I could tell the difference and which I preferred. In the car on my way to the plant sale, though I listened to a plant-related podcast whose guest was enthusiastically singing the praises of lemon thyme and its versatility, so I thought, why not? 

All three grew well throughout the summer, but I must admit, dear reader, that I did not make enough of an intentional effort to compare the flavors of the European varieties to now be able to express a considered opinion. My suspicion is, given that my attempts at creativity in the kitchen are usually middling at best, either would suit nearly any need just fine. The lemon, however, added a lovely splash of brightness when I used it to fill out the greens in a batch of pesto!

Throwing shade…out the window

This is the juncture at which we switch to the experiments that didn’t go so well. I purchased seedlings of lady’s mantle, fuchsia and wild geraniums that were supposed to thrive in the shade. My growing area has become more and more shaded over the years as my yard’s tree cover increased, so I was excited to finally utilize that area with shade-loving plants! 

Sadly, as you’ve no doubt already guessed, none of them did well for more than a few weeks. The fault lies partly with me, as I wasn’t as attentive as I should have been in the early days while they were getting established, and the suburban wildlife enjoyed the lovely buffet I’d just created for them. Beyond that, I have a sneaking suspicion that their new home was too shady even for shade plants. Rest in peace, friends, and thank you for the lessons learned. 

Returning crowd favorites

Turning from the utter failure of the shade garden, I had more success with the well-loved herbs I’d grown before. I still had seeds left over that I’d purchased for 2020, so despite mixed opinions from various garden experts about the extended viability of seeds over a year old, I started comfrey, plantain and yarrow under the grow lights. 

The comfrey and plantain came through strong, with plentiful leaves all summer that yielded more than enough for the herbal preparations I intended to make. I added the yarrow seedlings to the planters where a few volunteers were already springing up from the previous year, and they provided full foliage throughout the season. There was a marked decrease in flowering, though, on both the volunteers and the new additions. Fortunately, I still had enough yarrow tincture from 2020 to last through the winter. 

Focus plants

One thing I’ve learned about myself over three years of container herb gardening is that while I love having a wide variety of plants to observe, I can also easily get distracted and neglect the specific care needs of the less-hardy plants. To get better at this, I decided early in the year that I would choose a couple of “focus” plants, and I’d make a concerted effort to learn more about their care and create a better growing environment for them. I chose two of my favorite aromatic herbs: sage and rosemary. 

I’d read that rosemary can be tricky to start from seed, so I purchased a plant from the Friends Sale to give it a fighting chance. I grew my sage from seed, though I did have to restart them after a couple of weeks, as I learned valuable lessons about the delicate balance of light, heat and water the hard way. Fortunately, I had seven good seedlings ready when it came time to plant outdoors, so I was easily able to fill the allotted space. 

I knew rosemary prefers its soil to dry between waterings, while sage likes to keep its feet a bit damp. I’d gotten pretty good at that part during the previous season, but I was a bit daunted by how – and how often – to best prune each plant, so I did my research there. 

Lessons learned, skills grown

In the past, I’d felt intimidated by selecting the proper place and amount to harvest, but I went back to that learning mentality and decided to try my best and adjust as needed. I’d begun to build some confidence when pruning lavender and calendula, so I grabbed those shears and gave it a go. It seemed to work well, as I noticed both herbs quickly growing back fuller, so I continued to practice throughout the season. I had plenty for cooking meals throughout the summer, and I dried a good amount of both herbs for use over the winter months as well. 

Believe me, I realize that these little lessons are rudimentary and very basic to the practice of gardening, but they aren’t truly the point. What matters much more is the greater sense of comfort I’ve built in doing the best I can with new things, then being content with whatever happens. For a person whose tendency is to avoid new situations out of a fear of failure, this exercise has been very educational indeed! 

Next time….

The weeks are flying by, and it’s nearly time to make the yearly seed orders! What will make the list this year? Decisions, decisions!