In our gardens and in our lives, timing is everything.

And Friends, it is so easy to start seeds way too early. 

My dear friend Sal and I created a planting calendar for you to help nail your timing this season!

It's counter-intuitive, but plants started too early often get stressed (too little light, too few nutrients) and thus produce later and less abundantly than younger plants that are less stressed.

So hold your horses, dear Friends!

And here is our calendar for Zones 4 through 6 to keep you on track:

Each online order this season will receive one of our planting calendars, as well :)

You'll find a ton of information on this chart and each of our packets are mini-encyclopedias of information, as well. In addition to longer growing instructions, there is a quick reference tab with some pretty handy advice to have at arm's length. You'll find plant spacing after thinning, whether to direct sow or transplant (or both), days to germination, when to sow and seeding...

10 Easy Seeds to Sow in May

Daffodils bloom, wood frogs sing! As robins pull worms from the warming soil, here are ten easy seeds to sow in May.

1. Peas

The classic harbinger of spring, peas are sown as soon as your soil can be worked. (What does that mean? Check out this video.) Some years we sow peas in March. Other years, it's May. All seasons have their advantages and disadvantages. Everything's grand or everything's not grand: you choose. I digress.

Peas tolerate cool seasons better than most plants in your garden. To some extent, the earlier you plant your peas the earlier you'll harvest peas. Keep in mind: peas developing in cooler temperatures will be sweeter and more tender than those developing in the heat of summer. So tuck them in quick! And whatever you do, please resist starting them indoors; peas absolutely despise having their sensitive root systems uprooted. Most of us can relate.

To extend your pea harvest this season, sow both dwarf and full-size...

My Favorite Tomatoes & Starting from Seed

Tomatoes are quintessential summer. Whether it's fresh salsa from the garden, a satisfying slice on a sandwich or dropping wedges onto the top of a frittata just as it enters the oven, tomatoes are one of the simplest ways to make me smile in any season.

Here are a few of my favorites: 

Chiapas is always the first and last tomato we harvest. Super early, super productive and super disease resistant, it's also super delicious.

Honey Drop ripens right after Chiapas & is lusciously sweet, similar to Sungold in both flavor and size. The biggest difference? Sungold is an F1 Hybrid owned by a multinational corporation while Honey Drop is open-pollinated (so its saved seed will grow true to type) and is owned by no one, so we all have access and will for generations. 

Gold Medal has remained one my favorite tomatoes for decades. It's massive! With flavor rich and fruity, it's cross-section is marbled red, orange and yellow....

Harbinger of Harbingers: Sowing Allium Seeds for Spring

With snow still on the ground and freezing nights long from over, it's finally time to sow the first seeds of spring. 

But don't worry, it's not time to start everything. In fact, most seeds sown this early would be sown months too soon. 

The only seeds to sow in February are allium seeds.  The Allium family (thanks for the great name, Linneus) include onions, leeks, shallots, chives and garlic. Garlic is planted in fall and chives can wait 'til April, but the first three are best sown mid-February to mid-March. It's not a race and no need to make any extra work for yourself, just know if you're looking forward to homegrown shallots as much as I am, it's time to start planning. 

Materials You'll Need:

Here is a materials list to get you started from page 15 of Rise & Shine: Starting Seeds with Ease, Fruition's eBook making it easy for you to sow seeds like a pro:

Organic Seed...

7 Essentials of Seed Starting 

Many gardeners want to start seeds more successfully, so my friend Sal and I created this gorgeous infographic for you:

 Where do I get...

...the LED grow light that we use? Here.

...easy to use soil blockers to make gorgeous soil blocks? Here.

...organic potting soil? Here. 

...a heat mat that will change my life? Here.

And for our Ultimate Seed Starting Collection, head here.

What inspired us to make an infographic for you?

Dreaming of the season ahead, my dear friend Kc inspired me to make a list of the 7 essential things she needed to know to start seeds well...

...then I'm scheming to make supper with my dear friend Sal, whose illustrations are as vivid and whimsical as her gardens and stories. Eureka! Sal and I had SO much fun laughing and learning as we brought to life the 7 Essentials of Seed Starting through visual story.

Welcome to Sal's Garden!

Questions for Sal:

Petra: Whose advice do you always listen to?

Sal:...

Rise & Shine:

Starting Seeds with Ease ebook

We've been asked for years to demystify seed starting.

Rise & Shine finally shares everything you need to start seeds successfully at home with easy-to-follow instructions and insightful tips for the novice and experienced grower alike. For the cost of a few seed packets, purchase and download Rise & Shine here. 

"I've grown Fruition's seeds and starts for years but I've never had much success starting seeds indoors. Rise and Shine brought growing plants back into our lives and my children have loved caring for our seedlings right on our dining room table."

-Jessica (age 36), mother of Zoe (9) and Tristan (6)

Everything we've learned from decades of seed starting, distilled into 25 pages:

Table of Contents

The Anatomy of a Seed

The Anatomy of a Seed Packet

Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden

If Cucurbits Could Talk

Direct Seeding Chart

5 Considerations for the ‘Think Outside the Row’ Gardener

15 Steps...