Hey everyone,
Getting started with your 2026 garden can become overwhelming really quick! This guide is here to help make it less stressful and get you squared away to start your dream garden.
First we start with looking back into our past years and find what are best crops were. This consists of what sold the best for us, what grew best in our area, what was and wasn't worth the work to grow and what we enjoy the most for ourselves! If you're starting off new to gardening, you should look for popular varieties of vegetables like beefsteak tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. If you are into selling or want to get into selling, it's always good to also watch for what's selling in your area by going to local farmers markets. This is by far the most overwhelming part for us is finding the 50+ different seeds that we want to plant and finding good deals on them! This is what we found this year from scouting out multiple seed sellers and what sellers we landed on that gave the best deals.
You'll see when your shopping that most companies offer seed packets by weight. Typically the smallest package will be enough unless you're growing a lot of one type of plant. I've made it easy and you can purchase a mix through my website so that you don't have to go through the trouble of finding and sourcing a bunch of different seeds. You can also send me an email for a custom mix. I've also listed websites to order from at the bottom.
Once you've got your seeds you'll need trays and soil. We've found an organic soil mix at Costco works well for us but most stores will have good organic potting soil. As for trays, you can find them at stores as well or from amazon and some of the sites like True Leaf. You're going to want catch tray and either use a tray that has individual sections for planting or buy plastic reusable pots. A heat mat can also be a good idea as some seeds like peppers like a warm environment to sprout and sometimes can be hard without one. Typically most seeds will be able to start at room temperature. A space heater can also play a big role in getting seeds started! Plants love heat and will sprout better and the plant's will grow better when using a space heater. Starting your plants in a mudroom or office space with good sunlight is the best place to start. Plant lamps are also not required as long as you've got an area in your house with good sunlight.
Now don't plant yet! Typically we start our seeds in late March. This gives the plants enough time to grow to a decent size but not too big to become troublesome when transplanting. However this advice is for zone 6b/7a eastern Washington. If you're in a warmer climate you might want to start a little earlier and the opposite if you're in a colder climate. Peppers can be planted a little earlier but we tend to not have any problems besides on hot peppers like habaneros which we will start the seeds sooner. Eventually we will move our starts to an outdoor greenhouse to harden them off. It's not necessary but exposing the plants to the outdoors for a few days before transplanting will make them more hardy and ensure better success.
Having a raised garden can be the easiest way to grow but not required, it just makes life a lot easier for all parts of the growing season. With a raised garden, you don't have to worry about weeds which can be a huge problem as well as you get to choose the soil rather than building up the soil in the ground. Watering and picking the fruit is also much easier. We plant mostly in the ground but do love our raised beds.
These are the websites we found to have the best deals on seeds this year:
True Leaf Market: Great prices on most varieties of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, Herbs, and more! This is where we ordered most of our seed for this year from.
Mainstreet Seed: Pumpkin/squash and flower seed
Johny's: Johny's is a well known established seed company. Their prices are typically higher but sometimes you find find some on a good deal and they have lots of variety.
Local Stores: Usually around $2-3 for a packet of around 30 seeds.
