Bailey Van Tassel

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29 Dec 2022
Gardening

What I’m Getting From Seed Catalogs for 2023

This year I’ll be starting spring and summer seeds for a majority of my plants, meaning that I am scouring all the seed catalogs. Since I started gardening, I’ve slowly been transforming into someone who direct-sows, as opposed to buys starts. This year I have a strong map and all my seed catalogs marked up with what I want to order. Let’s take a look!

How To Read Seed Catalogs

First of all, it’s really important when reading seed catalogs to know how to manage them. Over in The Kitchen Garden Society, we’re digging into this, but I’ll give you a tip: get to know what your zone needs. Seed catalogs will outline great seeds for you according to weather, sun, water, pest prevention, and disease control.

The three catalogs that I always get are Johnny’s Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Territorial Seed Co. They each have different offerings, different internal legends, and different prices.

planning the garden to order from seed catalogs

The true starting place for seed catalogs is in mapping out your garden, what you want to grow, and how much. This year Below is my list of what I’m growing (at a minimum). I’ve written out the varieties as well, all of which I am looking at for a specific reason, and most of which are adapted to be resistant to powdery mildew, which is a huge Summer issue for me being so coastal.

Plants and Varieties That I’m Ordering:

  • Corn: I want to try the three sisters method and grow mostly corn for saving as popcorn. This is most sustainable for us. Varieties: Glass Gem and Robust 997
  • Squash is also a part of the three sisters (and beans below) plus something we eat a ton of and typically have success with. Varieties: Golden Zucchini and Dunja
  • Beans have not done well for us, but I have to try again this yera! Varieties: 1500-Year-Old Cave Bean
  • Peppers will be big this year – we just need to create some shade for them once deep summer hits. Varieties: Lunchbox, Shishito, and Prospera
  • Tomatoes are always a struggle for me, but we keep trying. I’ll be building trellises for them that allow a lot of airflow. I want Romas only and some Sungolds.
  • Cucumbers are a staple in my kid’s diets and we love a pickle! I also have a soft spot for lemon cucumbers ever since my godmother made me a dish with them. Varieties: lemon and General
  • Edible Flowers are a non-negotiable for me always. I do a mix of nasturtium, bachelor’s buttons, borage, stock, marigold, and more!
  • Basil for pesto, always. And then basil ends up on pasta, eggs, and all the things. Varieties: Prospera and Sweet Thai
  • Sunflowers are something new to me, but I want to use them as a huge border feature. We’ll see if I can get them to grow in clay soil. I’m getting the Procut DMR Series
  • Marigold: I love to grow these for Fall and they’re edible! Variety: Mexican Mint

Ordering from seed catalogs each year is a winter highlight for gardeners and I am no different! It’s like being a kid at Christmas circling all the goodies. I hope this helps you think through your plan too!

If there are any varieties that you love of something, let me know! Maybe I’ll try them too!

TAGS:edible flowersseed catalogsseed startingspring gardensummer garden
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Hi I’m Bailey

Hi I’m Bailey

Teaching you how to grow veggies in any space while show you how to live a garden-inspired life.

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There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better. To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you. Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc. Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing. What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations. There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building. Lean in.
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
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Follow

There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better.

To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you.

Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc.

Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing.

What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations.

There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building.

Lean in.

4 days ago
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1/4
Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨. Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises! There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
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Follow

Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨.

Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises!

There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.

5 days ago
View on Instagram |
2/4
House hunting priorities went from ‘open floor plan’ to ‘open land’ after I started gardening. I didn’t have this passion when we got married - my poor husband. It’s a tall order in Southern California and arguably not a thing unless you’re the multi-millionaire kind of wealthy (we’re not). So, I wanted to leave the state. Also not a thing when you own a business here. So, I wanted just enough space for a few garden boxes. On the listing for this house, there was no shown space for a garden. But we came anyways, and found this empty patch of mulch. Time, vision, and a dedication to the dream ☁️. I also had like three other versions of this space before this one, just to keep me gardening well before I had raised beds. Who was around when I built berms?? Any garden design questions? Leave them here and I’ll answer them all 👇🏼 #gardendesign #raisedbeds #kitchengarden
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

House hunting priorities went from ‘open floor plan’ to ‘open land’ after I started gardening. I didn’t have this passion when we got married – my poor husband.

It’s a tall order in Southern California and arguably not a thing unless you’re the multi-millionaire kind of wealthy (we’re not). So, I wanted to leave the state. Also not a thing when you own a business here. So, I wanted just enough space for a few garden boxes.

On the listing for this house, there was no shown space for a garden. But we came anyways, and found this empty patch of mulch.

Time, vision, and a dedication to the dream ☁️. I also had like three other versions of this space before this one, just to keep me gardening well before I had raised beds. Who was around when I built berms??

Any garden design questions? Leave them here and I’ll answer them all 👇🏼

#gardendesign #raisedbeds #kitchengarden

2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
3/4
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
Follow

Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course).

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own – a space for her dream to be worked at.

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself.
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going.

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally.

And I have come to realize that our rooms – whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions.

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts – solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love.

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there.

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘

2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
4/4

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