Garden 2025 Update #2: Garden Planning & Seed Starting

My garden planning updates are mostly for me to keep a journal of what works, what didn't, and what I can do to improve my efforts.  I've decided to make them public to help anyone who might be along the same gardening  journey as me. I sure hope you find them helpful!

After my first garden update of the year where I had not yet planned out the 2025 garden... I've since remedied that, and all raised beds are now (mostly) planned out. All said & done there will be 14 raised beds this year.  All 14 growing areas already exist but there are only 9 raised beds I've built in those growing areas. So I have 5 more to build to tidy up the garden this year. 

There's just something about clean lines & defined edges that make the garden even more inviting & enjoyable to work in and to keep tidy throughout the season. So, 5 new beds it is.  Three of them will be 1'x8'x8" and the other two will be 1'x4'x8". These two smaller 4 square foot beds will be on either side of the garden cottage doors where I've had strawberries, day lilies and bee balm growing in multiple different containers (grow bags, plastic pots, etc.).  My ultimate goal is to eliminate all the containers and keep all the flowers in these raised beds and then move all the strawberries into their very own bed by the blackberries. 

The other two 8 foot raised beds will be for cucumbers and *yet undetermined* along the south wall of the fence already known as "Cucumber Lane".  16 feet of the lane flooded last year after repeated heavy rains, so it was time to for an upgrade for sure, with a couple of raised beds there instead of simple in-ground growing space. I'm still undecided on what's going in the 2nd, eight food bed. I used to grow 16 feet of cucumbers but I'm downsizing this year. 

Seeds I've started in 2025:

• January: Walla Walla Sweet Onions.  As I've mentioned before, this is the one crop I tend to struggle with the most (I'm blaming the chipmunks, they love sweet onion seedlings) and I'm hoping this year is my first successful onion year! 😊 

I planted these mid January and they were already about 5 inches tall. I had a brand new packet of seeds this year and I'm pleased to say I had nearly 100% germination rate. In years past I've struggled through poor germination and I'm almost certain it was simply old seeds. They just got their first "haircut" today and now I'll keep track of how fast they grow back to 5-6" inches (it seems to usually take about 2 weeks) and trim them back every couple of weeks until 2 weeks before I'm ready to put them outside. Like most seedlings started indoors, these will be going out into the garden in early to mid May. 

Because this is a challenge crop I had to plan out where they'd be in the raised beds this year so that I could then further plan how to protect them. It worked out that these onions will be in just 12 square feet of the raised bed I always use for my peppers. My hope is, if I can keep them protected from the chipmunks until they're bigger, stronger and more pungent than sweet, hopefully they'll leave them alone.  I purposely chose Walla Walla since a big part of my family is from there, and Walla Walla sweet onions are what I grew up eating so they're my absolute favorite onion. 😍

Opal Basil - a gift packet of seeds from my sister. 😊 I enjoy growing a wide variety of basil so this purple one is a welcome addition. Simply planted in the kitchen window under a grow light. Good germination and many seedlings so hopefully it remains strong until spring when I can put it out in the tomato patch with other basil varieties.

Winter sown in January: Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), Milkweed, Sunflowers & Yarrow.  I've never winter sown anything before but have heard of this process for some time, and finally decided to give it a go with some lovely plants that attract pollenators that I've been meaning to put into the garden. I'll definitely update on the outcome of winter sowing. I'll share pics once some of the snow melts.  As of today, the three bins I've used are completely covered in snow. 

February: Peppers & Ground Cherries

Twenty four pepper plants that include Jalapenos, Shepherds, Bell & Cayenne. Our family is really big on pepper based goodies. From Cowboy Candy to roasted red peppers for soup & dips, salsa, red pepper flakes & powder, jalapeno flakes & powder, pepper & onion spice blends, and about a hundred other ways to eat & enjoy peppers. All the peppers were sown in 3 inch pots sitting in drip trays over heat mats, under basic grow lights. 20 of these will be in a raised bed, and the other 4 will be in containers on the deck. 

Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries.  These were an experiment a couple of years ago and while I was excited to see how they'd do, the seeds never germinated, unfortunately.  So when I recently saw a packet of seeds I decided to give it another go. Technically they're annuals but if you let some of the fruit fall to the ground & fully ripen & fall apart, they're well known to re-seed themselves and come back year after year. I'm really leaning hard into more perrenials so I'm hoping these lovely little gems do well for me.  Same growing conditions as the peppers, with heat mats & grow lights. 

Next month I'll be starting all my tomatoes, and that will be it for indoor seed starting this year. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you in some way as you begin to plan your 2025 garden.  Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question & have an awesome day!