With the frigid temperatures creeping in and fewer daylight hours, gardening outside may have officially ended for many of us. But gardening is (unfortunately/ not unfortunately?) a never-ending activity! 

As the saying goes, every end is a beginning to something new. And this is so true when it comes to gardening and the life cycle of plants. 

And this excites me!! 

While active gardening has ended, now is a great time to start planning your garden for next year and to order some seeds.

Many new gardeners may emerge in January, and experienced gardeners are ready to kick off the year. All these garden enthusiasts are ready to order seeds, and if you left ordering seeds too late, you might miss out. 

You may need to settle for sub-standard seeds, transplants at your local nursery which you don't really want, or miss out on exciting seed varieties. For these reasons, I love to order my seeds in December.

If you want to learn more about starting seeds, have a look HERE. And these garden PLANNING TOOLS and PRINTABLES will come in very handy when planning your garden for next year!

Ordering seeds online or through a catalog

There's just something about paging through a seed catalog! I'm like a kid in a toy store! There are so many options! And it makes me excited for the new year and season to come.

Below I share a few tips on ordering seeds online.

Take Stock

First of all, take stock of what you already have. Make sure you fine-comb your greenhouse, pantry, shed, or any place where you may have stored seeds from the previous year. They may be hiding there somewhere!

BTW, if you want to know how to save your seeds, THIS blog post explains everything and there’s a nice printable seed packet included!

Check their dates, and if the packets were already opened and not stored correctly, do a germination test.

All you have to do is wrap several seeds in a damp piece of wool or tissue, sprinkle them with water every few days and keep them somewhere warm and dark. Within a week, you should be able to see what has sprouted and what has not.

Do Some Planning

Do a bit of planning and consider what has worked this season and what has not.

Are there some varieties that just do not want to grow no matter how hard you try?

What zone are you in? Can you plant the variety in your zone?

Were there varieties that you had too much of?

What do you need more of or would like to try out?

Are you going to grow things you actually use and eat?

Then make a list of the basic veggies you know you definitely want to order. Browse through the catalogs (printed or online) and add any extra varieties that seem interesting and exciting for you to try out.

And don't forget to add some flowers! 

Flowers not only add gorgeous colors to the garden, but they also attract beneficial pollinators.

Some varieties like nasturtiums, cosmos, and lavender are also natural pest controllers. THIS blog post explains more about using natural pest controllers in the garden.

Filter and Choose the Best Seeds

Now it's time to get realistic and narrow it down. I bet you added a ton of beautiful-looking veggies, flowers, and fruit! No shame, I go a bit crazy too!

But, unfortunately, not all will thrive in your area, and you may also end up with seeds that you never got to plant. Cause life happens, right?

Consider the following criteria when narrowing down your seed list:

• Which veggies and fruit do your family actually enjoy eating, and do you make a lot of meals from?

• What space do you have available? Do you have enough space for everything you want to plant? For small gardens, avoid plants that take a lot of space, such as sweet corn, pumpkin, or squash. Instead, choose compact veggies such as greens, radishes, peppers, and tomatoes that grow vertically.

• Do you have full sun or semi-shaded spots available according to each plant's needs?

• What will grow and thrive in your zone? Factors such as heat/ cold tolerance, disease resistance, and length of the growing season until maturity will all need to be considered.

After you worked through your list - having a look at all factors, and growing needs and conditions mentioned in the catalog, you're almost there!

Take a few days to think it over once again, plan your garden, and only then order!

Choosing the Best Type of Seeds

Another tip when ordering seeds online or from a catalog is considering the different types of seed varieties. There are a few general terms used:

• F1 varieties or hybrids are created by crossing two parent varieties to create a new one with superior traits to either of the parents. These seeds are more expensive as it has to be re-created from the parent plants each year, and only the company that produces them knows what those parents are. Hybrids were bred to resist disease, produce much larger crops, produce uniform fruit, and produce fruit simultaneously so all fruit could be harvested at once. Hybrids are not GMO. There is no point in saving seed from F1 varieties it will not be the same as the original.

• Non-GMO & GMO (genetically modified organisms) seeds - GMO seeds are created by manipulating the plants' genes in laboratories. There are concerns that these seeds could contaminate other crops, making them sterile. Non-GMO seeds are cultivated through pollination. They can be bred in two different ways: as hybrid seeds or as open-pollinated seeds.

• Open Pollinated (heirloom) varieties can produce seeds that you can reuse year after year. This is how new varieties developed through most of history as plants cross-pollinate. This results in a healthy bio-diversity of seed types that can often have better resistance to various crop diseases.

• Organic seed is grown by certified organic practices without pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides. They must also be packaged without being treated with fungicides.

We always choose to buy organic and Non-GMO seeds as we choose to live more organically and support organic practices. These seeds can also be saved and stored for the following seasons. Win Win for us!

Partner with a Friend

I would also suggest that you partner up with a garden friend or club to buy seeds together. Often there are way too many seeds in one packet to plant everything in your garden. This way you can also get a whole lot of different varieties!

Hang onto those catalogs

Lastly, if you got printed seed catalogs, keep them! They are great for referring to later when you need more information, such as cultural info, growing conditions, and other gardening tips.

Order Seeds Online Here

Some great sites to visit and order seeds online from include:

https://www.groworganic.com/ 

https://www.rareseeds.com/ (we Love ordering from them and most of our seeds come from them!)

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

https://www.highmowingseeds.com/ 

https://www.marysheirloomseeds.com/

https://www.flhttps://www.floretflo My Favorite for beautiful flower seeds

PIN FOR LATER

Happy seed ordering! It’s definitely a fun, but difficult task ;-)