It’s late February in Minnesota, and as I write this, we’re getting another light snowfall that’s been slowly building up all afternoon. The average week’s temperatures are slowly moving away from the single digits (Fahrenheit), and the thoughts of even the most dour and curmudgeonly are starting to turn towards spring. 

I have to confess: I love winter. Really, I do. I’ve always been a cold-weather gal; I don’t care for the sweaty, humid days of midsummer, and I much prefer cozy, snowy days indoors and chilly outdoor excursions that end with hot chocolate and wood fires. Still, gardening has helped me appreciate and even look forward to the warmth and wonders of the growing season, which has added a beautiful and much-appreciated aspect to my yearly outlook!

So even as I savor and enjoy these fading days of winter, I’m indulging in daydreams of the summer’s gardens. Flipping through seed catalogs and dog-earing the pages with both old favorites and some new possibilities, I can nearly smell the fresh soil and see the tiny seedlings starting to break through the surface. That slow transition, emergence helps me adjust myself to the seasonal changes as well. 

Enough with the philosophical and on to the important part of this post: the new year’s plant lineup!

Planning for Plants

In some ways, planning for this season has been a bit more challenging than the past few have been, because it may be that I will have a bit more space to work with this year! (I won’t say too much now for fear of jinxing it, but be assured that I’ll share the details with you if/when they become more certain.) To stay on the safe and practical side, I’ve decided that I will proceed with planning as though I’ll have essentially the same space and planting options in 2022 as I’ve had before, and anything extra will be just a bonus that I can go crazy with later if it materializes. 

With all that in mind, I started by identifying the varieties I’ve grown in past years that I’d like for sure to include in the new year’s garden. The ”challenge-slash-good-problem-to-have” with that approach is that as I grow as a gardener and have fewer attempted crop failures, I’m running short on available space to accommodate new types, but after last year’s relative success with seed-starting, I think I’ve got a better idea of how many seedlings I actually NEED for each plant. Knowing this means I can plan to have some extra space, rather than trying to use all the available soil to cram in the excess seedlings that I grew but didn’t truly need. 

From a historic and medicinal perspective, I’ll be leaning heavily again on calendula, borage, comfrey, plantain and lemon balm as my primary herbs. Rosemary and sage, my focus plants from last year, will pull double duty as both culinary and healing herbs, and lavender will round out the mix with the Phenomenal variety if I can find it. 

I intend to keep up a robust culinary garden in 2022, with the accompanying resolution that I will actually use more of the herbs I grow as fresh additions to dinners throughout the growing season. Some herbs I’ll dry and preserve for medicinal usage during the next cold season, but I want to intentionally enjoy more of those wonderful flavors when they’re at their peak!

Retail Therapy, Garden-Style

I put in two seed orders this week. I added comfrey, longleaf plantain and comfrey seeds to my online baskets, as well as a different radish variety that I hope will flourish a bit better in the fickle early Minnesota spring conditions. Then, as those of you who also tend to let their imaginations run wild during these heady days of planning can appreciate, I managed to limit myself to replenishing seeds for my favorite crops and indulging in only two additional seed types! Skullcap and wood betony made the list this year for their nervine and analgesic properties, both of which are always welcome in my house. 

Okay…honestly, it was three new varieties if I include mullein, which I did grow a couple of years ago but wanted to try again with lessons learned from the last attempt. 

Well, four, but only if we also count the echinacea that I also attempted in the past with very limited success.  

Fine, it’s five with the “flashback mix” of calendula that I just couldn’t resist. These will be grown purely for their aesthetic contributions, though, not for their medicinal benefits; those purposes will be served by the radio and alpha varieties….

Sigh! I suppose I have to admit that maybe I didn’t do quite as well with limiting myself as I’d hoped, but I’m still optimistic that my plans are feasible! Armed with a better conceptualization of just how many seedlings I need (or don’t need!) for each plant to achieve the yield I’m aiming for, I’m hopeful that this year’s garden will be a strong and functional mix of the “old reliables” with some exciting new varieties to learn from. 

I’ll wrap this up for now and leave you all to your own dreams of the new gardening season. I will be back next month with more updates and hopefully some exciting seed starts! In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your garden plans in the comments!