Yes, you read that right, it’s time to start thinking about your garden for the 2025 season. While most of us are still buried under feet of snow, preppers have to always be looking towards the future. Now is actually a great time to start thinking about it.
This year I’m expanding on the idea of growing for storage and adding in learning seed saving at the same time. Given those goals, I can decide on what I want to grow. Since I’m looking to store as much as I can for use over the non-growing season, I’ll plan for vegetables that can be easily home stored. Things that my family regularly eats, and can be home canned or dehydrated are top priorities as I don’t have a decent space for a root cellar.
Next up is the seed saving side of things. This means I’m looking for heirloom seeds that do well in my hardiness zone and will mature by end of season, considering some will have to be started indoors early. More on that in another post.
Getting seeds isn’t hard. You can always find a selection them at hardware stores, home centers, and even most grocery stores. These displays offer some heirloom varieties, but options can be limited. Online sources are plentiful. Many will look to old faithful Amazon, but most of what you’ll find there are seed vaults which may not have what you’re looking for or may not have your hardiness zone in mind. The one exception I found is Caribou Seed Company which offers heirloom seeds by plant type instead of seed banks. A quick google search for “heirloom seeds canada” will present you with plenty of options. I opted for Ontario Seed Company but there are plenty of others.
Without purchasing seeds yet, start planning now, you don’t have as much time as you think. Figure out your goals in regards to being prepared. Think about why you want to grow for ie: fresh eating or storage and what you want to grow. In the next post, we’ll look at figuring out how much you want to grow.
