Garden plans 2024 + your questions answered

The gardening season is finally upon us again. It’s a hobby that I love more and more every year. It’s something about watching the tiny seeds grow into a big plant that you later on can harvest vegetables or flowers from. Like always, I find the planning part the most exciting. Making drawings, dreaming, writing down ideas and reading notes from last year. It is so exciting! 

Every year you learn a lot of new things. Things that you take with you into the new year. What worked and what didn’t? What are you going to do differently this time around?  

One thing I have learned is to not start too early. One year I planted the first seeds in February and it was way too early. The plants grew tall and weak since they could not be planted outdoors until months later. Lots of things failed that year and since then I have waited until at least mid March before putting any seeds in the ground. It seems to be the best time based on the climate where we live. 

Anyway. When I plan the garden I try to think about what kind of flower bouquets I want to pick and which vegetables I want to eat. I think a lot about how store bought vegetables and fruits taste, where they have been grown and how well they store. To be self sufficient on potatoes, for example, is not a goal for us. It’s easy to find locally, organically grown potatoes rather cheap and concerning the space it would take up and our lack of storage, it’s better to buy potatoes in the store than growing them. Tomatoes on the other hand, is the other way around. It’s rather hard to find Swedish, organic tomatoes that taste good and doesn’t cost a fortune. You can grow a lot of tomatoes on a small surface and hence, it’s absolutely worth growing them. 

When I have decided what I want to grow, I always make a detailed drawing of our kitchen garden and decide where all the plants will be planted later on. I don’t want to end up with either too many or too few plants so I make sure to plan this very thoroughly. I also love to mix flowers and vegetables, both because it looks lovely and because the flowers attract insects which the vegetables need.  

A while back I asked on Instagram if you had any gardening questions and you sure had! I have tried to summarize everything in the questions below. If you want to know anything else, please ask in the comments and I’ll try to answer. 

Do you prefer to grow vegetables or flowers or do you want a mix? 

I absolutely want a mix of them both. I love flowers and I want to fill our home with my favorites. But growing vegetables is probably even more satisfying since we can eat them and nourish our bodies with things we have produced ourselves. It’s a very special feeling to know that what you eat has been grown by you – from a tiny seed to edible vegetable. Nothing makes me feel more rich or wealthy than that. 

What are your favorite vegetables to grow? 

I have many favorites, but some of them are cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, squash, lettuce, and all kinds of berries. 

What are your favorite flowers to grow? 

I have many favorites, and I love a mix of annuals and perennials. I have planted peonies and roses that hopefully will grow bigger and bigger each year. Among the annual flowers my favorites are dahlias, snapdragons, hollyhocks, poppy flowers, nasturtium (it’s beautiful and edible) and cathedral bells to mention a few. Philadelphus is another favorite that I want to find a place for somewhere in the garden. 

What can be grown in Swedish gardens?

This depends on where in Sweden you live. It’s very different depending on whether you live in the south or in north. In the south you can grow a lot of different things, for example peaches and grapes. This is hard to grow in the Northern parts of Sweden. 

What are you most excited about this year?

I’m going bananas on tomatoes this year and trying four new varieties. I’m growing them in the open ground (we don’t have a green house) so I’m very excited to see how this will go. We also expanded our kitchen garden last year so it’s now twice as large as last year so just the fact that we will be able to grow a lot more is very exciting. We are also thinking about planting a few more berry bushes and perhaps also some more perennial flowers, which is all very exciting as well.