Garden Update Feb 2025 - Planning Mode, Activate!!

IT'S FRIGGIN COMING AND I'M SO EXCITED.

It's still impossibly cold outside but soon, soon, SOON the sun will be out later and I'll hear the peepers at night and spring time will be here!! I am totally a warm weather baddie. I cannot stand being cold and with my various pain issues and what have you, the cold weather hurts. I am SO ready to kick this crappy weather to the curb and welcome back Spring and then, my favorite of all, SUMMER!! (cue Olaf)

Male Eastern Box Turtle Buddy!

So with the end of February here, so begins the Gardening Season of 2025.

As always, I've placed my order with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a small worker owned co-op in Virginia. They specialize in heirloom varieties and primarily grow things that grow well in the Mid-Atlantic area. I highly recommend them and their seeds and have been using their seeds for the last dozen or so years. I had the pleasure of meeting a few worker-members at Rooting DC a few years ago and was really pleased with their workshop and them. Good germ rates too!!

The herb garden. She's a bit sleepy now.

Last year I made a point of using up what I had in my seed hoard before purchasing new so this year I knew it was going to be a big order. As usual, my "just a few" tomatoes turned into 5 (or 6... not sure) and ground cherries! Also new this year are brussel sprouts and cabbage, beets, a ton of herbs to fill out the medicinal and culinary garden, and watermelons. As always, I'll have beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, okra, greens, lettuce, and my perenial herbs. I primarily grow from seed, picking up plants here are there to fill in as needed. This year I've set a goal to only grow what I've grown from seed myself. That means no starts, and no adorable lil baby seedlings I impulse buy when Rootbound Farms has them out at the market.

Seed to tummy!! To further that, I really want to lean in to harvesting and producing. I'll be growing two kinds of paste tomatoes - San Marzano and Roma VF - and I'm hoping to have enough that I don't buy big boxes of seconds tomatoes for Tomato Jam!

One L and an L to be. Watermelon will hang from the arch.

I am slowly turning my "constantly in flux" dug in garden beds to "gorgeous, built to last" raised beds made with cedar posts and corrogated tin roofing. They are sturdy and beautiful and I love them. They are raised enough that they require less bending and the ledge at the top is sturdy enough to sit on - or even stand! I have posts coming to show you all about how I make them and fill them so be on the look out and be sure to Subscribe so you don't miss anything. Currently, there are two of these - one is 8x3 and deep, the other is an L and about half the depth of the other. This year, I plan to (ask David to...) build another L and possibly make room for another dug in bed where I'll put onions.

I went out the other day and took a ton of pictures to have the official "before" pic and to take measurements so I could map the whole thing out and figure out how much room I have.

8x3 deep bed with L in the background

For a modest front-yarden in a corner lot, I can pack a lot of food in! I'm so excited to not only get dirty but to share the season here! Stay tuned for Suburban Homesteading, Herbalism, organic growing, harvesting, and preserving and all the cute lil creatures I see out there!

Next up is Seed Starting! A friend is coming over Sunday and we're starting seeds and chatting all things garden. Can't wait!

Do you grow? What are you looking forward to this season?