January is For Indoor Seed-Starting (A Life-Changing Skill)

This month, your focus as a North Texas gardener should be starting seeds indoors.

Indoor seed-starting is one of the best ways to adapt our gardening to the challenging North Texas climate.

I cover the technique extensively in the semester cohort, and it is a cornerstone of my curriculum because it makes such a remarkable difference for North Texas gardeners.

An indispensable skill

Indoor seed-starting is such an important key to success for North Texas gardeners that I made it a significant feature of the planner; indoor seed-starting timelines are available in each weekly calendar spread. This is one reason why our planner is an unparalleled resource; most planting guides fail to take indoor seed-starting into consideration.

For North Texans, starting seeds indoors gives us control over timing of seedling availability. But starting said seeds at the right time is key.

If you start too early, your plants will outgrow your indoor space before the weather is favorable for outdoor planting. Start too late, and you risk the plant not having enough time to mature before the extreme heat arrives.

For example, to grow foxgloves, poppies, and delphinium, seeds ideally should be started indoors in in late August and transplanted outdoors in October. Otherwise, it’s hard to grow these marvelous cottage garden flowers. If we plant according to generic instructions, or when the rest of the country plants, the plants will never flower before it gets too hot.

(Growing cottage garden cut flowers is another topic we cover extensively in the semester cohort that starts January 22. See below for one student’s results!)

Not only does indoor seed-starting give you control over timing, it also allows you to grow nearly 10x more plants than you would otherwise be able to grow by purchasing transplants.

As you’ve heard me say before, the easiest way to make any garden bed look spectacular is to plant A LOT of any one plant that you add to it. This technique is called mass planting or planting en masse ( a French phrase meaning “in mass” or “all together”.)


When used in gardening, planting in mass or en masse refers to planting a large number of the same plant species close together to create a unified effect. Mass planting also draws the eye to a specific area, provides a backdrop for other plants, and simplifies garden maintenance.

The skill of indoor seed-starting is a power boost for any type of gardening you want to do in North Texas. I want all my students to learn it in tandem with the other topics I teach from vegetable gardening to perennial gardening to cut flower growing.

That’s why I created the semester program. Not only does it provide a complete North Texas gardening education, but it allows me to give more personalized attention and guidance to my students. Don’t miss out on this one of a kind opportunity. Register now! ​

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Here’s the email I received yesterday from a student about the cottage garden cut flowers class that is included as part of the semester cohort that starts January 22:

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Callie Works-Leary

Founder of The Dallas Garden School, Callie is an expert garden educator with 17 years of personal and professional gardening experience. She specializes in growing food, small-space gardening, managing community gardens, and plant propagation. She has an MBA from Southern Methodist University, a bachelor's degree from Skidmore College, and served as a horticulture intern for the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens. Callie is a member of the Native Plant Society of Texas, The Herb Society of America, the National Garden Bureau, and is a Certified Texas Master Gardener.

Latest posts by Callie Works-Leary (see all)

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