January Is the Time to Start These Seeds Indoors for Your 2024 Garden

I don't know about you, but in January, I am looking for a little bit of green and a lot of hope. This month is a challenge for me when the days are so short and the dark seems to never leave. Every single morning, I wake up hoping to hear a bird chirping, and it's just not happening.

So if you too are looking for a little ray of hope, then I have it for you. And it is the fact that this is the time to start some seeds for your 2024 garden.

There are three categories of seeds that I want to introduce to you that you can plant this month, no matter where you live. Some of you are in warmer climates, where the garden is always open. The wintertime is really more like springtime. That was the case for me when I was living in Houston. You can still start these seeds indoors. You're just going to bump them out to the garden a lot earlier than the rest of us.

If you're in a more temperate climate like I am now in Nashville, then you want to get these started right away so that they're ready to move out to the garden in about 60 days.

And even if—hear me out—you're in a colder climate, these can still be started indoors, even when it's freezing out. These plants can move out to the garden either under cover or inside a cold frame, or they can be nurtured indoors until your garden finally defrosts.

It may be cold outside, but these are the plants you've got to start indoors in January to make the most of your 2024 growing season.

Start Seeds for Slow-Growing Perennial Herbs in January

The first category of plants we're going to cover is herbs. In case you missed it, I'm obsessed with herbs.

You can absolutely just go to the store and buy herbs, but you're going to know so much more about the quality of these plants when you grow them yourself. The likelihood of your plants surviving and doing well and being the best they can be goes way up when you're in charge. Trust me on this one.

The herbs you're going to be starting indoors right now are a mix of perennial herbs, plus a few annuals.

Perennial Herbs to Start from Seed in January

The mint plant family, also known as the Lamiaceae family, includes about 90% of the herbs we grow in the garden and bring into the kitchen. These herbs are slow to grow from seed, and that's why starting them by seed as soon as you possibly can is critical. In fact, you could have started these by seed two or three weeks before you're reading this and been just fine.

Most of these herbs, with the exception of one or two, have tiny seeds. That makes it a bit of a challenge to get just one seed into every cell when you're planting them out.

Perennial herbs for your garden include, first of all, rosemary, which is so fragrant and awesome to grow from seed, plus oregano, sage, and thyme. These are like my essential four. I always have sage, thyme, oregano, and rosemary.

Then, if you want to branch out—if you're one of those foodies and you like some extra flavors—you could do marjoram, winter savory, summer savory, any of the other perennials in the mint plant family.

Again, these need to be started by seed, like, yesterday because oregano, rosemary, thyme, and sage are all slow-growing herbs. They're going to take quite a bit to go from seed to a plant that's large enough to pull out of the seed-starting cell and put into a container or your raised beds.

If you don't start anything else by seed, you have to at least start these herbs, pretty pretty please.

Annual Herbs to Start from Seed in January

There are also a couple of annuals you could start right now, and those are cilantro, dill, and parsley. These are in the Apiaceae plant family, AKA the carrot plant family. They can all go out into the garden as plants even when there's a chance of frost. Basically, as soon as your soil is workable, these plants can make their way to the garden. Starting these annual herbs indoors gives us a jump start to help us make the most of each day as soon as our outdoor space opens up.

Dill and cilantro grow pretty quickly from seed. Parsley, at least in my experience, is a little bit more of a slow grower. So if you had to pick one to prioritize, give your parsley more space indoors. The good news is, parsley lasts the longest. You have to put in more work and be more patient with parsley, but then it pays off.

Only recently I was out in my garden and noticed that the parsley I planted way back in February is still there (and ready to be picked for my morning omelet). The cilantro and dill are long dead. So parsley is worth the wait.

Seeds for these annual herbs need to go into the garden or into some soil starting mix right away, with emphasis on the parsley because it takes the longest.

You're going to love the flavor these herbs will soon add to your meals and be so proud of the fact that you grew them yourself.

What About Chives?

Chives do grow pretty easily from seed, but I'll be honest: I usually buy my chives as plants from the growers. One reason is because I haven't had a ton of success growing them by seed, so that's a good reason.

The other reason is I find they're too slow to take off. In the time that I would take nursing and nurturing and stressing over getting that tiny onion-like seed to grow into a full chive plant, I can drive down to my local nursery and buy chives for super cheap.

So you decide. If you do want to try your hand at growing chives, they're absolutely worth it. They'll come back year after year. You can divide them after they multiply, so you're basically set with chives for life, not even exaggerating one single bit.

Start Seeds for Large Cool Season Plants in January

Cool season plants are ones that either don't mind frost (frost tolerant) or thrive in frost (frost resistant). We're going to focus on cool season plants that are large, meaning they need 90 to 100 plus days to go from seed to harvest.

We want to start these indoors or buy them as plants from the nursery. The reason is because most of us have an abbreviated cool season. We enjoy 60 to 90 days of the season, and then as soon as our last frost date passes, the clock starts ticking. We don't know how much longer those large plants will be able to stay in the garden. We want to be able to put a plant into the garden, rather than a seed, as soon as we can dig into the soil and get things going in the spring.

Large Cool Season Plants from the Brassica Family

My favorite large plants in the cool season include different types of kale: Toscano kale, red Russian kale, purple kale, blue curled scotch kale, kale, kale, and kale again. I've tried all kinds of new varieties, but I'll forever be loyal to Toscano kale and blue curled scotch kale. Those two are my faves. They're still growing in my garden, and I started them from seed way back in January of 2023.

Other large cool season plants include brassicas like mustards, collards, bok choy, tatsoi, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and that one that looks like an alien plant, romanesco. All of these need 90 or so days in the garden. They can all go into the same seed starting tray this month so they're ready to go out to the garden when it's time.

Large Cool Season Plants from the Amaranth Family

I can't forget to mention Swiss chard, the most beautiful plant that I would put all over my lawn if I could. This one is in the Amaranthaceae family, or the goosefoot family. It also takes a while to take off. Once it's mature, you'll get leaf after leaf after leaf for so long. You can have Swiss chard in your garden year round in a mild climate.

When to Move Cool Season Plants Outdoors

If you're in a warmer climate, you could literally go buy these plants right now and stick them in your garden. If you start them indoors, you want to get them to a plantable size as fast as possible and get them out into the garden by February because temperatures are going to rise. As soon as temps start hitting the 80s and 90s, these plants, except for kale, are not going to be loving life.

If you're in mild climate, these need to move out into the garden at the beginning of February or as late as March.

And then if you're in a colder climate, you're going to put these out right around the middle of March, about 60 days before your last frost date, which was right around Mother's Day for me when I lived in Chicago.

Start Seeds for Slow-Growing Warm Season Plants in January

Slow-growing warm season plants are not going to move out to the garden until after the last frost has passed (unless you have a greenhouse or a cold frame to protect them).

Warm Season Plants from the Solanaceae Family

Some of these warm season plants like peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes take forever to wake up and produce. Every year, I wait too long to start peppers. I don't know why I can't get it through my head that peppers need a lot of time. Even when they do sprout, they need the conditions just right in order to grow quickly.

Warm Season Plants from the Cucurbit Family

You could also start a few plants from the Cucurbit family that you know are going to take a really long time to get going in your garden. If you want to grow huge gourds or blue ribbon-winning pumpkins for a contest this year, then you'll need to get those started indoors, as well.

Tips to Start Warm Season Seeds in Winter

Now, if you're starting these indoors in January like I'm telling you to, you'll need a heat mat. If these plants feel like it's below 60°F, they decide it's not their time to grow yet. They worry there might still be a chance of frost, and they don't want to die. Adjusting the temperature is our way of telling these plants, "No, it's okay. It's spring. You can do your thing now." You have to trick these seeds into thinking it's warm, even when it's actually very cold out.

Time to Start Some Seeds Indoors

January may be freezing cold, there may be snow up to your front door, and you might be so over winter already. This is your therapy, you guys. Taking steps to have the most productive garden yet this spring is how we get through these last few cold, dark months.

We start dreaming and planning and planting for the spring season because—believe it or not—we're not being the early bird. We're being the just-on-time bird, okay? If you get these three categories of plants started in January, they'll be ready for planting in your garden just in time, not too early at all. You're not pushing the limits or doing anything extra here. You're just doing things at the time they need to get done.

If you want details on how to grow all these things, they're inside my book, Leaves, Roots, and Fruit. This came out in 2023, and it's the complete guide to step-by-step gardening. Step number two is all about growing herbs from seed. Step three is all about growing greens like kale and mustard and all those good things in there. And then the slow-growing plants for the warm season can be found all the way on steps six and seven. You do not have to grow alone. You can get all the instructions you need right here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get my hands dirty and start some seeds for my garden. Time for me to practice what I preach! Thanks for being part of Gardenary and thanks for growing yourself right alongside me.