Planning Ahead
Life is a garden
Anyone familiar with my cookie crumbles post will recognize the pattern: I struggle with planning too far ahead. In the garden, this means I suddenly look up in late fall and realize I never prepared for the fall garden season or winter sowing—and I give up, only to face a tangled mess the following spring because I’m already behind on the things I really wanted to grow.
This year I’m trying a different approach. The other morning I picked up a handful of seed packets I’d bought recently with the intention of getting some plants I can’t easily source at local nurseries1 started. I want to try Spanish Lavender as the English varieties do not do well in my part of Texas: too hot and dry by far. It’s not easy to find seeds for it, either! I also grabbed some wildflower seeds. They do best when sown as they would fall in nature: the plants mature and drop seed in summer or fall, the seeds lie dormant through the cool rains of winter, then surge up in spring when warmth and sunshine return.
I sat down and looked up the specific germination requirements for all of these, and made notes on the seed packets. Just the action of writing the notes will help me to remember them later. I put the seed packets which need cold stratification in the garage fridge, and the milkweed which needs a damp cold strat. got a damp paper towel in a baggie to protect it and keep it from drying out. By having bought the seeds at a time separate from my usual late-winter spring seed starting, I can remember better to handle these differently. I now have a calendar notification to remind me when to take these out of the cold, and at that point in the year (early July) I should be ready to start them as indoor seedlings and grow them until it starts to cool off outdoors and I can plant them out as strong starts to face their first fall and winter, leading to (hopefully!) spring blooms. You can of course do winter sowing, which I struggle with as it is so dry, and sometimes too warm, over a Texas winter.
All of this has parallels in life outside the garden. The things that we need to plan for, but which at the moment are nebulous and intangible until something breaks due to lack of maintenance are myriad. We know we should be building habits now for the body we’ll have in ten years, yet annual check-ups and strength training feel optional until pain or fatigue suddenly demands attention. Retirement contributions or emergency funds are like those seeds that need cold stratification—they sit quietly in the background, but skipping the uncomfortable early steps leaves us scrambling when the season turns. The slow work of checking in with friends, learning new skills, or addressing small resentments is easy to postpone until the connection has withered or the opportunity has passed.
The same small system—buying the ‘seeds’ early, learning their specific needs, giving them the right conditions in advance, and setting reminders—can be applied to almost anything we keep meaning to do. Pick one area that tends to ‘crumble’ for you. Buy the equivalent of those seeds outside your usual panic window. Spend twenty minutes learning what it actually needs. Put it somewhere visible or set a reminder for the moment action is required. You may still miss a season here and there, but you’ll have more blooms—and fewer regrets—than if you’d waited for the perfect time that never arrived.
Starting from seed is much less expensive, always, but time and space are concerns when it comes to some things, so I’ll often settle for fast and easy in the form of a nursery plant.