You, Your Garden, and Hundreds of Tiny Seeds

MY question is what do you want from your garden? Do you want lovely home-cooked dinners with fresh herbs and vegetables, or do you want fantastic arrangements from your own backyard? Perhaps both?

Seeds offer every possible option. You can even grow your own Luffa Sponge [yes, I'm not kidding!] or your own walking stick [it's some sort of VERY tall Kale]. There are annual seeds, biennial seeds, perennial seeds... Really, there is anything.

So where should you start? Well, first outline your desires.

I'll do mine to show you...

I want a lot of color, in every possible location, and I'm not picky on perennial vs. annual. I am not interested in cooking or harvesting, therefore no vegetables or herbs for me. I don't need a homemade luffa... And we're getting off topic. Really, you only need the first two sentences to outline your desires.

From those first two sentences on, you will keep changing and refining your desires, but basic is easy. Some important things to consider are already established plants and their colors, location [sun, shade, moisture levels] and whether or not you want these seeds to come back next year.

Second, go ahead and browse. You need to look at your options before you really know what you can do in your garden, or what you really want to do.

Third, check your frost dates, and make sure you know what zone you're in! Here in New England, we are generally zones 5 through 7. This is important because certain plants can only handle certain climates, and while almost all plants will live through a New England Summer, the same is true for many plants dying over the Winter. A good website to use is Davesgarden.com. You can search for frost dates and information by ZIP code, town, or city. Our average frost period end is May 16.

This third step with the frost dates is important simply because certain seeds have recommendations to start indoors. This is especially a good point in New England, with a slightly shorter growing season. Starting seeds indoors requires recommended light, plenty of space, and countless supplies. [i.e. Seed Starter soil or a very light potting mix, usually flats to put the soil and seeds in, and a hood to help keep in moisture.] It's a great way to get healthy, well established plants, but take everything into consideration first.

Annuals Flowering

                                 

                                 

                             Sweet Pea, Snapdragon, and Petunia                              

Perennial Flowering

                                 

                             Delphinium, Daylily, and Dianthus                            

Herbs

                                 

Dill, Rosemary, and Basil

                                                          

Vegetables [no, mom, please don't make me! Fine...]

                                 

                                                        

                             Lettuce, Pole Bean, and Carrot. [Carrots were originally purple, btw.]                            

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                             

Alrighty, I expect you all to use those brain juices to come up with some interesting garden plans. As for me, I'm not too sure about my seed aspirations this year. If I ever decide, I'll post something on it.

P.S. I needed to take out the descriptions about the pictures I posted. I did have paragraph descriptions about why I liked them, but it didn't fit whenever I posted it. I tried a couple different things, but in the end, the names of the plants will have to do. All of these plants can be found online at Burpee.com, and some varieties of all these species can be found at local garden centers.