kyle halleman

Late to the gardening game, 2024 edition

March 30, 2024

I am two days into starting my gardening for the year. If it seems late, it is. Each year since we’ve been at our house, I will plant a few seeds. The first year I was very late, and planted in July. Then I moved up to early June. Each year I kept saying I was going to get serious about vegetable gardening. This year was no different.

By the end of February, I was telling myself I needed to get started. Planning was key, I agreed with friends last summer. I needed to start seeds indoors. And I needed to know what the hell I was going to grow.

I tried finding a garden planning app. There are countless options, and none that immediately stood out as clear winners. I want something that tells me about the plants, how to grow them, etc., but also lets me plot out my garden. What works together, what doesn’t. And it’d be greater if there were reminders to do certain tasks, like watering or weeding.

I ended up finding Planter, which did most of what I wanted, and it looks decent too (although it’s some Material UI-based app and the iOS and Mac apps don’t feel very Apple-like because of this. It feels like I’m using an Android app. But it has a decent garden plot planner, plus when to start inside, transplant, at what depth, how many in a square foot, etc. I would like if all this information were easily viewable for all of my plants in a table. And there are some improvements to be made to the varietal database and UX (especially on the Mac app—it’s highly frustrating plotting your garden). And why don’t specific varieties I favorite show up when I filter by favorites? I digress.

I also found inspiration in the Gardener’s garden planner, which is annoyingly well hidden on their site. I appreciated the pre-planned gardens, which as a novice I wanted. Just tell me what to plant that goes well together.

I got this all figured out, and I went to the local garden center to get all the supplies I needed. I got all the seeds, a little greenhouse tray and dome (SunBlaster™️), some pots, and ... well, they were out of the seed starter soil. For a week. That put me back one week—obviously.

But now I am set and ready to go. Here is what I’m planting this year:

Herbs

Vegetables

I hope something will grow. Stay tuned.