My 2024 Garden Seed List
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A new year brings a new garden plan! January is my favourite month to plan for the year ahead and research new seeds. Before I purchase seeds, I reflect on the previous year and look at my journal and photos to see what worked, what didn’t and make notes. Make sure to go through your current seeds before purchasing too. We all LOVE a good seed packet but there’s no point in wasting money. A rule of thumb is a seed packet is good for 3 years.
Do you know your garden zone? This is the first step to garden planning and a HUGE step before purchasing seeds. I am in garden zone 9B. The zones are changing as our weather continues to change, so keep in mind your zone is an estimate of what you can grow in your area at certain times of the year.
We live on Vancouver Island, Canada and we moved to a new home last year. It’s 20 minutes away from our old home but we are now in a microclimate and the summers are hotter and the winters are colder. I can grow new things and I am just 20 minutes away!
The Beauty of Growing From Seed:
Before I show you our garden seed list, I wanted to share a few reasons why you may think about growing your own food from seed. It feels SO good to grow food from seed. The accomplishment of eating your own vegetables from a tiny seed you planted is the best feeling ever. Secondly, it saves money as seed are a lot cheaper than starter plants. Lastly, you can grow WAY more varieties. Now, we don’t grow EVERYTHING from seed either. I tend to interplant a few store bought organic starters to ensure I have a successful growing season. For example, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, onions, kale and cucumber are plants I tend to purchase starts from our local nursery.
Our 2024 Seed List
*Please note, these are clickable links below so you can order your seeds right now from our fav local company: West Coast Seeds!
Carrots: Out with the rainbow carrots, in with these two varieties!
Beets: Please note the first one we plant right away as it’s an early variety and then we plant the purple ones 1-2 months later to have continues crops.
Radishes: My family LOVES a good radish, both of these produce very well!
Spinach: We grow 2 8x4 beds of spinach each year as we freeze a lot for smoothies. These are by far the best producing!
Chard: We love to grow chard to sautee or make our famous chard cakes. See recipe here.
lettuce: Lettuce is a wonderful vegetable that you can plant in many areas of the garden throughout the year.
Arugula: If you’ve never grown arugula, this is your year. It’s SO easy and adds spice to your salads. You can also source perennial arugula seeds if you want to commit to a space in the garden.
Cucumbers: We find 5-7 plants is PLENTY for a family of 4. There were times we had to pickle some we had too many in the fridge.
Squashes: Bring on ALL the squashes this year. We will start these indoors early Spring.
Pumpkins: Did you see our viral pumpkin arch? Here’s a whole YOUTUBE VIDEO on it, we used Moranga variety on the arch last year!
Beans: We love to grow pole beans + runner beans. They will need a trellis.
Peas: Peas are one of our fav to grow and we do large walls of peas in the garden (see photo above). Tip: Don’t interplant shelling and snap as you won’t know which is which when you go to eat them. Snap peas get bitter if you wait too long to eat.
Cauliflower: This will be our first year growing from seed. I have heard wonders about this variety that grows in cooler weather.
Broccoli: This is our second year growing this one, it’s a summer broccoli!
Tomatoes This year we are switching things up and growing all our tomatoes vertically! We have chosen vine varieties only (Indeterminate). If you don’t want to grow vining tomatoes, make sure you purchase bush (determinate) varieties.
PURPLE ORGANIC (LARGE HEIRLOOM)
Turnips: This is our first year growing turnips and we are so excited! These seeds come highly recommended.
Potatoes: This is our first year growing potatoes too. We will be growing them in sacks to not take up space in the garden. It’s easier to harvest too!
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