I can feel the days counting down to our average last frost date. Which by the way here where I am in Duluth, Georgia is April 1st. Find yours by googling average last frost date and your zip code. This is an important garden stat as it tells you when to start your seeds both inside and through direct sowing.

In my garden this week, I thinned out my buttercrunch lettuce starts. I used the extra starts in the bed right next door. I know some people just thin their seeds, but I also like to reuse those starts if they are health.

I also started a second round of snapdragon seeds this week inside as well as scabiosa seeds to add to my cut flower gardens. They are looking healthy and the scabiosa germinated very quickly! 

The last item for this week in the garden was a hard prune of my perennial limelight hydrangeas. 

​What are you up too this week in your gardens?

In this post, you'll be picking what you want to grow. And exploring the many options a garden offers. We are going to keep you're first five minutes of planning your garden very simple. 

Let's focus on picking 5 plants you want to add. to your garden this year.
Here's great way to think about what you want to harvest.
​ What do you eat or want to eat from the garden?

Lettuce for sandwiches and salads? Herbs for sauces, and dressings? Tomatoes? 
​

Lettuces that I love to grow include: spring mix, mesclun, boston bib, romaine, and buttercrunch is my absolute favorite. 

Tomatoes that I love to grow:
Slicing Tomatoes: Kentucky Beefsteak
Cherry Tomatoes: Tiny Tim & Red Currant
Paste Tomatoes: San Marzano
​Salad Tomatoes: Sun Gold and Black Cherry
​

My top five items I grow are first fresh herbs, then lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes and finally tea blends. 

When I started I chose just a few herbs and now I have established plants as perennial like my thyme and rosemary, yet others continue to self-seed like basil and dill. 

My Herbs: Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, Dill, Cilantro

My Tomatoes: Kentucky Beefsteak, Black Cherry and Sun Gold

My Lettuces: Bostin Bib, Buttercrunch and Romaine

My Cucumbers:  English, Armenian

My Teas: Spearmint, Mint, Echinacea, Rose Hips, Feverfew, Chamomile, Anise Hyssop


My suggestion is that you pick one from each category to add to your garden this year, and then continue to add in the following years. So many of my herbs now self seed and so many of my teas are perirenal. I have placed in bold all the garden plants that are perennial above. And in Italic all the plants I leave to go to seed in the fall to produce self seeded plants in the spring.