Seeds To Start In January

Gardening in Colorado certainly has its hurdles.

One of these hurdles is trying to give my seedlings a big enough head start on the growing season without starting them too early. I want them to be strong enough to handle the constant flux of temperatures and weather patterns around here. But if I sow them too early in the year, I’ll have big unhappy plants to take care of all winter and early spring.

I have played around with this trying-to-grow-from-seed thing for a few years now, and feel confident in my personal list of what to sow during the month of January. Keep in mind, this is my own personal reference list. Our climates will likely vary dramatically. Heck, my own climate varies drastically every single day! If you live in Colorado as well, or live in an area that has unpredictable weather, feel free to use this as a guide. But please, do not follow it verbatim and then wonder why it your eggplants died. Part of the fun of gardening is the experimentation that comes along with it!

Veggies:

• Onion
  • I’m growing Flat of Italy, Tropeana Lunga, and Utah Strain sweet onions this year. The last two I’m winter sowing, versus the Flat of Italy being started indoors under grow lights.
• Leeks
• Luffa (it needs a big head start here!)
• Kale
  • Premier kale is being winter sown and I’ve got dwarf blue curled kale under grow lights.
• Cabbage
  • I’m growing red acre cabbage this year.
• Cauliflower
  • Keeping with the purple and red theme: purple of sicily cauliflower is under the grow lights currently.
• Broccoli
• Lettuce
  • I’m starting lolla red leaf lettuce now to hopefully get a few harvests from it before even planting it out in late April!
• Eggplant
  • This will be a new to me variety this year: Turkish orange eggplant from MIgardener.

Flowers & Herbs

• Lavender
• Mint
  • Lemon mint for me this year.
• Penstemon
  • A native variety gifted to me by my friend, sourced from
• Snapdragon
  • two varieties, both from seed swaps!
• Salvia
• Echinacea
• Milkweed
• Creeping thyme
  • Since we will have an empty chicken run this growing season, I’m utilizing it as a protected growing space. I’ll be growing this creeping thyme all along the ground!
• Viola (johnny jump ups)
• Aster

Some of these will need to be cold stratified prior to actually sowing. These include lavender, penstemon, echinacea, milkweed and aster. Also keep in mind that those tiny lavender, mint and salvia seeds require light to germinate, so don’t be burying them too deep in the soil.

There’s my grow list for the 2020 season! What’s growing on in your garden? Are you able to start any seeds yet?

Until next time,

Becca