Disclosure: This post not only has some amazing gardening tips and tricks to figure out if you suffer from a certified gardening obsession, but also Affiliate Links that I earn commissions from. This is how I make a living and keep this little blog running. Thank you for supporting me! I appreciate it. Much love, Kristi.

I doubt it is recognized as a serious ailment, but those of you that are suffer from a gardening obsession might be able to relate. I mean seriously, how many seed packets does one person need? In my hay day, I had well over a 1,000 packets of seeds that I had collected, found while traveling, and had been given as gifts (love those!). Now I haven’t sat outside to ward off the moose yet from eating my greens, but I know plenty of friends who think nothing of getting up in the wee hours of the morning to protect their vegetable and flower gardens from the neighborhood rabbits or deer. As I was figuring out my garden layout for this year, I wondered if there were others as obsessed about all of this planning as I was. Here’s how to tell when your gardening obsession is a tad out of control. Mine is for sure! Yours?

Seed Packets Everywhere! And I Mean EVERYWHERE!

I haven’t had my very own garden since I started full-time traveling. This year I have a plot in a community garden in Anchorage. I have gone to just TWO events in the last three days and have collected over 50 seed packets! I kid you not! That’s just a small seed in the bucket, so to speak. I ordered a few packets from Denali Seeds that are perfect for gardening in cooler climates and placed an order with one of my favorite organic seed companies, Botanical Interests. Not to mention that the local stores have 2 for 1 seed sales going on right now. Personally, I love to germinate from seed. I love all of it – planting, watering, and especially, watching the little guys grow. That’s by far my favorite part.

You Grow Culinary Herbs in Every Nook & Cranny that You Can Find. 

✅  Windowsill Herb Garden
✅  Herbs in Containers on your patio, by your doorway, pretty much every open space you can find.
✅  Herbs are tucked into your main garden as you know which plants they love to hang out with in the garden.
✅  There is no space too little or too big that you can’t tuck a little thyme into.

Do any of these describe your gardening habits? Oh, all of them do? Me too!

Mason Jar Gardens

I was poking around Amazon and saw these cute and functional Mason Jar herb gardens. Well, I knew I could do this on my own and getting things via Amazon Prime takes 10 long days in AK. So I went out and bought a case of Mason jars and Chalkboard Duct Tape. I cut the duct tape into 2-inch strips and wrote the name of the herbs I would plant. I only use organic seeds and organic potting soil – the two I’ve used and recommended for years are Black Gold and Fox Farms. This way I can have a continuous harvest of fresh organic herbs of chives, parsley, basil, mint, and cilantro (although this guy is a tad bit more finicky), right on my balcony.

Bunching Onions Hack

Here’s a pro tip on growing bunching onions – go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of chives or bunching onions that still have the roots attached. Cut off most of the green stalks, but leave a few. Grab a shot glass – boo, I know you have more than one, go get it already! With the rubber band still around the onions, place the roots down into the shot glass, fill it up with water. Once the new shoots start to grow, you can use this in your mason jar. Seriously, that easy and no soil needed with that one.

Planters, Planters, and Even More Planters

Springtime at Costco has me scoping out the center aisles and checking out their new planters. Then I head over to Home Depot and Lowe’s and see what they’ve come up with that would work great when gardening in small spaces. Let’s not even talk about the amount of time I spend online looking at various pots and planters. Here is what I have my eye on right now though.

Raised Bed Grow Box on Wheels

I went over to my friend’s for a BBQ and she had just bought one of these raised grow boxes. I loved that it was on wheels, lightweight, but had a durable self-watering feature to it. Perfect for small spaces like my balcony or to use on a deck. She found it at Lowes for $35. Amazon has it as well, but it is $44.

Wall Planters

Even though I have a plot in a Community Garden this year, I still want to grow plants on my balcony. I want to create a zen-like space where I can enjoy my morning cup of coffee and the view of the Chugiach Mountains. I’ve always been fascinated with growing vertically, and will had this vertical garden to my balcony zen space. This one I found is not large at all and is just under 3-feet tall. It isn’t heavy and is easily mountable on the wall. Perfect!

Tiered Cedar Raised Garden Bed

The snow has almost completely melted in Anchorage, yet I am still at last 4 weeks away from being able to plant in my plot at the C Street Community Garden. I’m not a patient person, mind you. To get a jump start on the gardening season, I’m ordering in this Tiered Cedar Raised Garden Bed that will go on one section of my plot. This way, I can fill it will organic garden soil and start planting right away and I don’t have to wait for the ground to thaw out. Personally, I love to plant in raised beds over the native soil so that I’m assured it is organic growing matter and that there are not any soil-born diseases to deal with.

There are many, many other ways to tell if you have a certified gardening obsession… seeds and planters are just the tip of the iceberg my friend. Now that I am back to writing, I hope you will go on this gardening journey with me this year… one seed, one plant, one blog post at a time.

Happy gardening my friends,

~ Kristi

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