How to map garden before planting

Every year before I plant the garden I map the whole thing out! I decide exactly where I want each plant and make myself a garden map taking into consideration how much space each plant needs, how much sun it needs, how much moisture it needs and also when it will get harvested in relation to the rest of the garden.

Using all this information to plan out my garden before planting ensures I will have enough room for the plants I want plus they will all have exactly what they need to produce a bumper crop for me!

I mean, nobody wants to spend all that time and effort to plant a garden that fails right?

This year we are moving the location of the garden! I'm super excited about this because we live in the woods and over the years as the trees in the woods have grown they are blocking more of the sun on the garden and the clearing that is our yard.

So after more than 15 years, the garden needs to move.

When should I start seeds?

When late winter hits I know it's time for me to think about starting seeds. Most people like to start seeds 8 weeks before they will transplant them but I don't always agree with that one size fits all method! In fact, I have some seeds I started already and my planting date is usually in May!

That's 3 months away!

Of course there are other seeds that don't get started till the garden is ready to plant so how do you know when to start seeds? Also is there a difference in the ones you start early and the ones you don't? How do you decide which seeds to start indoors and which to direct sow into the garden?

That's exactly what we're going to figure out today!

Driving safety and deer

This post is going to be a little different than anything I've written before, but I need to address this problem! The deer population has gotten absolutely insane where I live. Hunting season is just getting ready to start, but it usually doesn't make a very big dent in the problem.

There are so many whitetail deer hit on the roads by me that we have a guy whose job it is to drive around in a big pickup truck with an old wooden bed on the back of it and he just goes up and down all the main roads and picks up deer that were hit and left on the side of the road. I see him multiple times a week and his truck bed always has a lot in it!

You know it's bad when it becomes a full-time job for someone to clean up this mess! We'll talk about what I think the solution could be at the end, but for right now let's talk about the problem of them being on the road and getting hit.

People die every year from deer accidents. In my home state of Pennsylvania there was over 5,848 accidents caused by deer in 2022 alone! Of those, 1264 people were injured and 9 were killed! That's in just one year according to PennDot and this website!

Peak time for adult deer collisions with vehicles is October till December. There's a bit of a spike in May also when the fawns are born and grass starts growing on roadways.

How to grow peas

I think my favorite vegetable to grow is peas! They are also one of the easiest vegetables to grow and generally produce well from spring into the hot parts of summer. One vine will produce dozens of pea pods! Plus since they grow up not out, they don't take up a lot of ground space.

I grow sugar snap peas, snow peas and regular shelling peas. Even though they are different varieties they all pretty much have the same care so this guide will help you with growing all different types of peas! It's crazy how many different types of peas are out there! So lets talk about growing them.

How to read and understand a seed packet

I've been gardening for many years and I still get stumped sometimes when reading seed packets! There is so much information fit onto those tiny little packets, and it ALL matters! To add to the confusion, all seed packets don't have the same information!

It's seriously annoying because sometimes they have all the info you could possibly want, and other times it's like 3 things! *sigh*

Today I want to talk about the different type of information you'll see on the back of a seed packet, what it means and how to use it. From deciphering sun exposure requirements to mastering spacing recommendations, lets go through what everything means!