Renew & Refresh Starting A Garden From Seeds

Guest Post from Wendy of 10 Acres and 6 Chicks

This will be the first year we have ever started all of our own seeds for our garden.  Usually we go to the local greenhouse and pick up the plants.  But this year we are going to increase the size of our garden, and we also wanted to know where the seeds came from that we were planting.  So from a cost perspective and in order to know exactly what we are going to put in the ground we decided to start our own seeds this year.

A few years ago we began to shift our thinking about what we want to be able to do and to provide for ourselves.  And one of the first topics of course, was food and how we needed to have seeds that could be stored.  We decided to purchase a few Survival Seed Vaults from My Patriot Supply and keep them on hand for the future.   The Seed Vaults are filled with 20 types of seeds that can grow in most climates and are packaged to last in cool, dry storage for several years.

That was about two years ago, and just last week I opened one of the vaults and started planting the seeds.  I have to tell you that I am really looking forward to the entire process of starting our seeds and then getting them planted in the garden.  And I am also excited to see how these seeds perform since they have been stored away for a couple years.  In short, I hope they live up to the hype!

So far I have planted some California Wonder Peppers, Beefsteak Tomatoes and Yellow Spanish Onions.  I planted the seeds about a week ago and everything has started to sprout!  We’ll be direct sowing the rest of the seeds in the garden, which include:

• Green Sprouting Calabrese Broccoli
• Snowball Self-Blanching Cauliflower
• Golden Acre Cabbage
• Waltham Butternut Squash
• Parris Island Cos Lettuce
• Scarlet Nantes Carrot
• Bloomsdale Spinach
• Lincoln Peas
• Golden Bantam Corn
• Lucullus Swiss Chard
• Black Beauty Zucchini
• Blue Lake Bush Bean
• Hales Best Jumbo Cantaloupe Melon
• Champion Radish
• Crimson Sweet Watermelon
• Detroit Dark Red Beet
• Marketmore 76 Cucumber

Once all these plants are in the ground the question then becomes, what about bugs and/or disease?  We are hoping that we will be able to avoid using pesticides and are working to be proactive in our use of flowers that attract helpful bugs and keep away the harmful ones.  We’ll be using Bachelor’s Buttons, Marigolds, Cosmos and Sunflowers to border the garden and provide a line of defense against harmful bugs.

As for disease, we hope we won’t have to deal with any but we’ll just have to wait and see.  Last year we got a garden in late and were fortunate to not have any problems.  We’re hoping that our luck will hold out again this year but will be keeping an eye out for common problems such as blight, rot or wilt that may affect any of the plants.

I am excited at the prospect of having such a variety of produce and that we will know the origin of each plant in the garden this year.  Expanding our garden and then preserving the produce either by freezing or canning is a big step for us in our goal to have a clean diet and to decrease our dependence on outside sources for our food.  So bring on Spring, and let’s start planting!

Are you looking to refresh and renew your life by using your green thumb?  Have you ever grown your own garden?  Have you started it from seeds?  I’d love to know your experiences!  Comment below! 

This post is part of the Renew and Refresh series.  You can see the rest of the posts in this series here.

Meet Wendy!  She and her husband, Rob, are sharing their adventure as they work toward becoming more self-sufficient on their 10 acres of land.  You will find many great topics on the blog 10 Acres and 6 Chicks including homesteading, gardening, being prepared, family, DIY home décor, recipes, and simple joys!  Check them out at http://www.10acresand6chicks.com/

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