It's Time: Start Planning Your Garden
Now is the perfect time to start your garden—even in the cold! Lean about early-season planting, cold-loving, resilient crops, and practical tips for maximizing your growing potential. Learn how to prepare your soil, choose the best plants for your space, and take action toward food security in uncertain times. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced gardener, this guide will help you extend your season and cultivate resilience. Start planning your garden today!
GARDENING
Cate Creedon
2/2/20254 min read


The wheel of the year turns steadily, yet it always seems to pick up speed—doesn’t it? Winter feels like it barely arrived, and now spring is already almost here. With Imbolc behind us, the days are growing noticeably longer. The light began its slow return at Yule, but now its presence is undeniable.
We’re having lots of frigid days and all the plants are still lying dormant - it doesn’t seem like it’s time to start a garden at all, but it is. Many people wait until after the last frost, the first day of spring, or even until Memorial Day! This long wait is so unnecessary, and is drastically impacting your potential yield. We want you to know that the growing season is in fact, long, and doesn’t have to be limited to summer. The time to start is now.
Many plants thrive in cold temperatures - lettuce, carrots, peas, beets, brassicas, and radishes, to name just a few. Did you ever wonder why they’re called snow peas? It’s because you're supposed to get some snow on your peas.
Why Start Now?
It’s always a good time to plan a garden, but now it’s more pertinent than ever. We don’t like to fearmonger around here, but the American food supply is vulnerable. It always is - the supply chain is more fragile than anyone would really like to admit, but it’s getting worse. Almost half of farmworkers in the US are undocumented, and if this new administration achieves its goal of detaining and/or deporting all of them, then the crops will be left rotting in the fields. Beyond farming, these impacts will be seen in processing plants, grocery stores, restaurants, factories, and more. If this weren’t bad enough, bird flu is adding another layer of uncertainty.
We should all expect inflation to worsen, and grocery prices to increase dramatically. This can feel overwhelming, but an actionable step to take is to plant a garden. This can help you reclaim a little more resilience for yourself, your family, and community. A well-planned garden can yield a lot of food, even in a small space.
Assess Your Space
How shady or sunny is your garden? What kind of soil do you have? How big can your plot be? What wildlife can pose a risk to your plants? Will bunnies, squirrels, birds, and deer be a nuisance? Think about establishing a short fence to keep rabbits, or a deer fence if deer are a big problem in your area.
Do you want to have a series of small plots, or a big one with a path or stepping stones through it? Do you want organized rows, or a more chaotic and lush design? Look through pinterest to find your personal style and vision.
Choose Your Plants
To choose your plants, use these questions as a guide:
What are my favorite fruits, vegetables, and herbs to eat?
What do I cook with the most?
What are my most-loved herbs?
How much time do I have to give to this? How much time do I want to give to this?
What are some plants that I would like to try or eat more, but I don’t have access to?
How much sun and shade do I have?
What kind of soil do I have?
Is this plant invasive/is planting this irresponsible?
Do these all grow in my zone/sun conditions/soil type?
Soil Health, Preparation, and Myths
Maybe you have really rocky or sandy soil and think this is going to be a challenge. Rest assured - no matter what kind of soil you have, there are plants you can grow. For example, did you know that blueberries love sandy, well-draining soil?
And did you know that you don’t actually need to till the soil? No till gardening can be a blog post of its own, but just know that minimally disturbing the soil is not only possible, it can actually be beneficial.
No matter what kind of soil you have, if you take care of it, your garden will grow. If you don’t already compost, now is the time to start. Growing food extracts nutrients out of the soil, and you have to put those nutrients back in the form of compost. Listen to our composting episode of the Rooted podcast to learn more. This is essential to be a good steward of the land you're on.
Lastly, here’s one myth that drives me crazy. You don’t need to spend hours digging out rocks from your garden bed. The roots know how to grow around those, I promise. Just get those seeds in the ground!
Starting Seeds: Indoors or Outdoors?
Young seedlings are particularly vulnerable to predators and the weather, so starting seeds indoors can be a great and easy way to protect them and extend your growing season. On the other hand, transplanting young seedlings can stress them out quite a bit - their young roots are fragile and vulnerable. In my experience, many of them do not survive it. Starting them right in the ground also means that they are already adapted to the colder temperatures outside, while transplanted seedlings can get shocked by the change.
I’m personally a fan of putting the seeds right in the ground, but others exclusively start theirs inside. A good course of action is to do both and see what works best for you - and understand that many will not sprout or not survive to adulthood, so always plant more than what you need.
Gardening Tools and Equipment
If you’re a beginner with a small plot, don’t go crazy! A few small handheld tools like a trowel, a small rake, and some shears are affordable and more than enough to get started. You can always upgrade later!
And unless you have very sensitive skin or sensory issues with touching dirt, you don’t even need gloves - in fact, I would advocate against it. Our skin microbiome is largely soil based bacteria, and touching dirt is like sauerkraut for your skin! If you can, please touch the dirt and the plants with your bare hands.
We are living in turbulent times, and changing course requires mass collective action. Until that day comes, we can take steps towards personal resilience with things like gardening. You don’t need a lot to get started, you just need some planning. If you want personalized help getting started, get in touch with us.



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