Regardless of the dreary weather outside this time of year, you need to start planning that garden in February if you want fresh produce by summer. That probably explains why all those garden catalogs arrive in January when yard work seems so distant. So after looking through Spring Hill , Michigan Bulb and Gurnsey's  booklets I was eager to place my orders. Of course the looming deadlines of their sales promotions provided some motivation. Anyway, it took less that an hour to secure my 49 bulbs, 5 potted plants, 3 bareroots.and 22 seed packs. That's a lot of planting especially when you consider the seeds alone could 3,900 or more starts. Something tells we'll have a few leftover seeds. 

 

Like most 'urban farmer' we have limited garden space so I want to make sure it's used well. It is also important to stage the harvests so broccoli, spinach and carrots will be ready at spaced intervals rather than all at once. The two of us can only eat so many heads of lettuce in a week. So my next step was to identify the time it will take to go from seeds to edible plants. From there I was able to set up a schedule for greenhouse germination and in-ground planting using an excel spreadsheet. Now all I have to is wait until the packages arrive. They say you tend to do better with a written plan. I'll let you know how it goes.