Growing to Preserve and A Free Seed Starting Plan to Download

Season by season, I make my gardening plans to focus on what I plan to preserve.  Of course, my family still needs to eat from what I grow throughout the season so I need to account that in as well.  There are no magic numbers as each family eats differently and in different amounts.

What it takes is simply guesstimating. After a couple seasons of preserving, you should have a good understanding of what you need to put up to get your family through the winter months.

What I’m currently learning to do is document.  Something I wish I would have started a few years ago.  I’ve never been an organizer so this is very new to me, however, I’m really starting to enjoy it.  Not just in gardening but in all areas of my life.  When I start to write things down and create charts I can visually see what needs to be done which gives me peace as I start to check things off.

I’ve spent way too many years keeping my lists floating around in my head which has caused me stress and anxiety.

As far as preserving I’m starting to write down what I put up last year, in how many quantities and how long that lasted my family.  That gives me a good idea on what I need to increase or decrease for the coming year.

Since it’s officially Spring and seed starting has commenced, I’ve created a seed planning chart to help me along in the initial steps of planning what I need to grow to eat and preserve.

It’s very simple to use and allows you to visually see what seeds you should start indoors, which need to be started outdoors and what dates according to your region that you can set them out to finally let the sunshine and fresh air do its thing.

I’ve had some people ask me, “isn’t it too late to start your seeds indoors?”  For peppers and tomatoes it’s getting there.  You can still start them and have success but will probably end up with a later harvest.  Not a big deal.  However, there is still time to start many other variety of crops indoors.  What I enjoy about this seed starting plan is that it lets you know the dates to start your seedlings outdoors or move your transplants out.

So many summer varieties I start from seeds outdoors.  My squash, cucumbers and melons for example.  I just make sure to use the chart which allows me to see how many weeks after my regions last date of frost that I can plant them outside.

Like I said, it’s easy to use and free for you to download and use.

Click Here to Download the Seed Starting Plan.

Feel free to share this with anyone you think could benefit from a seed starting plan.  It’s made my garden planning easier and hopefully can help you out as well.

I have other schedules and documents that I’ll be sharing soon.  A preserving checklist is on the way!  You’ll be able to find this seed starting plan as well as future free schedules and documents on the new link at the top of my blog called, free downloads.

I hope you enjoy the seed starting plan and can find it useful.

How is your seed starting coming along? Have you planted anything out in the garden?

This post is a part of Eco-Friendly Friday over at Healthy Green Kitchen