Nicole Johnsey Burke (YouTube) advises starting certain perennial and annual herbs from seed indoors in December so they mature by February–March, saving money and improving pest resistance. Perennials recommended: thyme, sage, oregano, winter and summer savory, rosemary. Annual/cool-season herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro. In milder climates also start leafy greens (purple mustard, Toscano and Scotch kales, Swiss chard, Napa/Chinese cabbage). The video also promotes seasonal garden planners (cold/cool/warm/hot).
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If you're waiting till spring to start thinking about your garden, I've got some bad news. Almost all the plants that you see here that are still thriving in my garden, they were started way back last December. So in this video, I'm going to show you seeds that you should start the month of December to be sure that next year's garden is your best one ever. Now, the secret to the growth in my garden, it's a smell. It's the smell of herbs. Throughout the entirety of my garden, I put herbs on the edge, edge of every single bed. This helps me get tons of production from every bed, but it also protects my beds from pests. But the deal with most of these herbs, they should be started by seed indoors in December. Why? Because these herbs are slow growing and they're super expensive at the plant store. So this month in December, you're going to save yourself so much money, give yourself a much healthier plant, and protect your garden from pests and disease in the new year. If you start these seeds indoors. We want to think about starting perennial herbs indoors right now. These are my favorite ones to start. First we have thyme. This is a great one for putting right on the corners of your raised beds. Next is sage. This one is wonderful for pest protection, and I just love it for tea all year long. Next up is oregano. This one is a massive producer in the garden. It attracts bees and butterflies, and it will literally overtake your pathways through the summer. You get it started from seed right now in the month of December. We also love having things like winter and summer savory. Those are nice additions to your herb garden, and they're so delicious in dishes. And then finally, rosemary. I love having rosemary throughout my garden. In fact, there is some garden lore that you should always have rosemary right at the entrance of every single garden gate. Rosemary is so good for you. It's antifungal, it's got antibacterial properties, and it grows best slowly from seed started indoors so that you have a nice mature plant around springtime. So all of us should be growing these perennial seeds indoors. Starting in December. Start the seeds indoors under lights, and by February or March, you're going to have these nice mature plants that you can go out and put into your garden. And if you wait and you don't do this now, you're going to find yourself in March and April heading over to the plant store, buying a plant that you're not sure how it was grown, whether it been added synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and you're going to pay $4.99, $9.99, maybe $14.99 for those plants when you could have easily started them for pennies on the dollar indoors starting this month. Now, beyond the perennial herbs, you might want to start a couple of annual herbs, too. This is especially true for those of us in milder temps, where you're going to be able to plant out in the garden as early as the end of January or the beginning of February. The herbs that I love to start indoors right alongside my Perenn, like parsley, dill and cilantro, most people don't know, but these herbs, they love cool weather. They actually like it when there's a little bit of frost. They don't like it when it's super hot. And most of these herbs, especially parsley, they start pretty slowly from seed. So getting these in some soil indoors under light is going to give you a really nice, healthy plant that you can move out into the garden in late January or in February. So you'll have tons of herbs to add into your winter salads because you started them this this month inside. So starting herbs from seed indoors is the way to make your garden next year amazing. If you do it in December and if you're watching and you're in a warmer region, let's say you never have frost in your area or frost is over as early as the beginning of January or the beginning of February, then you want to consider also starting a few large leafy greens indoors as well. Things like purple mustard, all kinds of kale. I especially love Toscano kale and dwarf blue blue curled Scotch kale. That's my favorite variety. Also Swiss chard and then any kinds of cabbages. My particular favorite is Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage. Starting these indoors in December is going to give you a huge jump start. You'll be able to move nice mature plants out into the garden by the end of January. You're going to save tons of money at the store. And heads up, most plant stores haven't caught on that we can grow these things early in the year. So they're not even available at the plant store when you could have these garden. So if you have a milder climate, if you end frost early in the year, you definitely want to start these large greens indoors this month right alongside your herbs. Now you're probably thinking, Nicole, how do you know how to do all this and when to do it? Well, I'm so glad you asked because I have a garden planner. In fact, this year, we created for you these four seasonal planners. Cold season, cool season, warm season, and hot season, so that you know what to do each and every month in the Garden, no matter where you live. Now, if you want to check out our planners, I'll put a link to these right below this video. But you might want to just make your own planner, and I teach you exactly how to do that in this video.
