Start Some Seeds - Bring on Spring!

Here’s the view out my window:

So you can understand why it’s hard to imagine Spring will ever come, which makes it equally hard to start my seedlings.  Still, I have faith that someday the snow will be gone (not this week apparently since more is forecast for tomorrow).

I’ve written about starting seedlings in the past, but thought I’d toss out an updated version.

Need a reason to start your seeds yourself instead of buying already sprung plants from Home Depot?

Reason #1 – Much better selection and you can plant weird tomatoes, rare hot peppers, and expensive flowers.

Reason #2 – Sometimes those cute little already-blooming- awkwardly-on-their-tiny-stems specimens bring not only an instant garden, but some years (think 2 years ago) - the blight. A nasty early blight wiped out entire tomato crops on the east coast several years ago and its origins were traced to seedlings from Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Reason #3 – It will give you great personal satisfaction, save you money, and make spring come sooner (that’s my own personal philosophy).

First things first. You need some stellar seeds.

 I buy mine from Pinetree Seeds and Landreth Seeds. Both sources have no GMO seeds and sell a huge selection of heirloom and organically grown seeds. If you order online, your seeds will arrive in a few days. Don’t jump the gun and buy those mass-marketed seeds at Wal-Mart. Don’t do it.

Next you need a container system and the right growing medium. In a normal year (as opposed to the Ice-age we are experiencing this year), I mix compost, vermiculite, and perlite as a growing medium to start seeds. This year my compost bin’s access door is still snowed in,

 so I’m opting for peat moss and vermiculite with the full knowledge that I’ll have to feed these babies some organic fertilizer once they’re up and at ‘em.

I use clean, empty yogurt containers 

with a few holes drilled in the bottom

 (You could use a box knife but since my hubby has more tools than Tim the Toolman, I have a drill bit just for this purpose!).

I’ve heard of people using egg shells as containers for seed starting. This sounds very organic and earth-friendly, but las with so many other things that sound great in theory, like cross-country road trips with the kids, it could be a disaster. Half an egg shell doesn’t seem like enough space to grow a real seedling, and how do you keep them from falling over? I decided to kind-of try this method this year. I’m starting some seeds in an egg carton. It’s biodegradable and I should be able to plant them  directly in the garden. I am skeptical of whether the plants will grow large enough to transplant well, but we shall see.

 (I’ll update you in May. Notice I only planted flowers – veggie seeds are too important to use for test purposes.)

It’s important to wet the planting medium thoroughly. A day or two before I'm ready to plant the seeds, I dowse each container until water comes out the bottom. I want this dirt wet all the way through. This might be a great project to do while you’re waiting for your seeds to arrive.

Before I put the seeds in, I write the name of the plant on a popsicle stick and place it in the container. I scatter 2-3 seeds on the dirt and cover it with the appropriate amount of growing medium. Your seed packet will tell you this, but it’s basically the same depth as the seed is tall, so that’s not very deep. Tomatoes will get ¼ inch or so, onions nearly no covering.

Next, I place these containers in a plastic under-the-bed box or show box, so that I can water them from the bottom once they sprout.

After the seeds are planted, I wet them with a spray bottle. You need to water gently at this point or your seeds will be washed in to the corners or too deep in the dirt to ever find their way out. Pick up a few empty spray bottles at the hardware store. These bottles are cheap. I try to keep an extra one on hand because you get what you pay for (they break/jam/refuse to work easily).

Place your seeds in a warm place under lights. (Actually for most seeds you don’t need the lights until they’ve sprouted.) We have a growing space with lights on a timer. You don’t need those special expensive grow lights. Really. An ordinary old fluorescent bulb or a warm sunny window will also work (although if you use a window remember to turn your pots regularly and expect a slightly slower growth rate).

Wallah – you’ve done it. Your garden is started! 

My Black Thumb

Just to be sure you aren't under the illusion that my thumb is greener than the next person, I’d like to confess the gardening disasters that have already befallen me (or it might be more appropriate to say the gardening disasters I have already created) this spring. This growing season is shaping up to be my worst ever, unless you include the year I had a sick newborn and planted only potatoes because they would require nothing of me.

The first disaster started back in the fall in our brand new terrace garden. We filled the hillside bed with dirt harvested from our paddock – rich with ten years worth of natural fertilizer.

And then I planted a cover crop of rye grass. The plan (as I understood it from skimming an Organic Gardening article), was that the grass would run its course and die out by spring and then we would knock it down to serve as a natural mulch for our tomatoes. Brilliant! No more purchased mulch, plastic or otherwise, since the last two seasons we’ve gotten the early blight and the late blight. This was to be the year of the tomatoes!

 The grass grew beautifully all winter. The problem is that the northeast has experienced the warmest winter on record (at least my records) and that grass is still growing and growing and is so thick and tall that the kids hide in it for Capture the Flag. Now what? So much for my grand plan.

There is a second part to the tomato disaster. This year I made my own growing medium. I blogged about the beautiful mix I concocted. I started eight different varieties of tomatoes, plus four sweet peppers and four hot peppers in the growing mix.

Wow! The germination rate was through the roof! My growing mix was amazing – every single seed I planted sprouted, plus some appeared to have duplicated themselves because some of the pots had 8 seedlings fighting for light. I patted myself on the back and thinned my seedlings.

A few days later, I noticed there were even more seeds sprouting. The problem was, every single seed that was sprouting was a tomato. Even the peppers. Tomato seedlings have hairy stems – you can’t mistake them for anything but a tomato. How was it all my seeds were tomatoes?

When I checked the buckets of growing mix, yet to be used, there were hundreds of tomatoes sprouting there too. Obviously my compost was full of tomato seeds, and God knows what kind of tomatoes at that. Were they seeds from the organic cherry tomatoes I buy for my oldest to snack on all winter? Were they seeds from the first tomatoes we harvested last year, before we knew we had the blight and happily threw discarded tomato pulp in the compost? Or were they seeds that I had just planted? No way to know.

So here I am with plenty of tomato seedlings, only I’m terrified to plant them for fear of the blight, plus I have no earthly idea what kind of tomatoes they are.

And the disasters just keep coming…..

Since we were having trouble containing the chickens, I decided to sprout my peas before planting them. That bought us a few extra days to secure the chicken fence and clip every wing. The peas were slow to sprout and the day they were ready, I was leaving town for my little brother’s retirement celebration (I’m not that old! He’s an air force pilot who retired after 22 years).

With no time to plant, I thought I would stall them; I put them in the fridge to wait until I got back three days later. I did wonder if this might kill them, but I figured they were peas and the temperature wasn’t freezing so they would survive.

Wrong. Those lovely sprouted peas I planted promptly when I returned produced only 3 viable plants (out of probably 100 seeds). So today I replanted my snap and snow peas and berated myself the entire time.

And the fun continues…

Meanwhile, the lettuce I planted several weeks ago was still not appearing, same for the carrots, spinach, and onions. I figured this was mostly due to my negligent watering habits, but could also be blamed on the fact that the only rain we had in the past two weeks was a huge downpour the day after I planted all those tiny fragile seeds. For a week, I watered diligently. No dice, just a couple onion tips.

Perhaps they washed away. Perhaps they did. When I dug around to add more seeds, I found only a handful of lettuce plants getting started. Ugh. Replanted the lettuce and spinach this morning. The carrots are on their own. I never have good luck with them anyway and I’m going to assume the onion bulbs will get going once the gardener gets her act together and starts watering on a regular basis.

This would all be very depressing, except the great thing about gardening is that seeds are cheap. You can always try again tomorrow. In digging up the OG article that led me to plant the grass, I discovered that you can just knock down or mow the rye grass. I tried tromping it down, but it just bounced right back. I’m thinking we might have to use a scythe, that’ll be fun, won’t it honey?

And the tomatoes. I pulled out everything from eight of the starter pots and put fresh seeds in them, figuring all the volunteers who were going to volunteer had already done so. I’ll use my eight new plants as templates to decipher what is growing in all the other pots.

This is the goal. Someday.

I hope your gardening season is off to a better start than mine. I’ll let you know how the story ends.

NOTE: I'LL BE PRESENTING A WORKSHOP ENTITLED "CLEAN AND GREEN LIVING" AT THE MASON DIXON LIBRARY WEDNESDAY APRIL 18 AT 6:30 PM. WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU THERE.

Get It Started!

I’m late getting my seeds started this year. The basic problem is I’m thinking too much. This is a common problem for me. Too much thinking/dwelling/considering and not enough doing.

Initially, I was so ready to get going with the garden that at the first sign of spring (75 degree weather in the middle of February!), I went out in search of soil. The problem is that my local gardening place wasn’t open yet for the season and the only thing Home Depot had was “Organic Choice” by Scott’s Miracle Gro. In my zest, I bought it, carted it home, and left it on my porch. Where it still sits because a) I became extremely skeptical that anything made by the Miracle Gro people could possibly be organic and b) even if it is, the Scott’s company is responsible for law suits against organic competitors, not to mention the poisoning of more lawns and gardens in America than anyone else.

Everyday as I walked past the big yellow bag, I felt guiltier and guiltier. This past week I realized that I’d spent so much time wallowing in my guilt and indecision that it’s less than 8 weeks away from Tomato planting time and I have yet to start a single seed. So I went to my computer and googled “Organic Choice by Scott’s” and low and behold it is actually certified by OMRI (Organic Material Research Institute). OMRI is the non-profit organization responsible for certifying gardening materials for certified organic growers. They keep a database on all the products they certify.

The skeptic in me wonders how a non-profit agency that is funded by donations, grants, and the fees it charges for the certification process could possibly keep tabs on the tens of thousands of products out there, but the trusting soul in me figures there’s really no other option but to go with it. Still. Scott’s is a pretty lousy company. If their product is so superior why is it they have to wage legal and financial war on small organic companies to eliminate the competition? I haven’t opened the bag.

My usual practice is to mix sphagnum peat moss and vermiculite with potting soil to start my seeds, but now that my potting soil is giving me such mental fits, I decided to try something different.

Seed starter is exactly what it says it is – a medium for starting seeds. Typically, it has very little nutrients in it because seeds don’t need nutrients to germinate. Once they have their first true leaves, however, they need some food. So that’s when it’s recommended that you transplant them to potting soil. I’m a lazy gardener in a hurry, so I combine the seed starter and the soil to begin with and skip the whole transplanting step, except for my tomatoes, the royalty of the garden. I do transplant my tomatoes to bigger pots somewhere along the line.

I searched OMRI for commercial seed starting mixtures that are certified, and found only one brand which isn’t available at my gardening store. I turned to OrganicGardening Magazine’s website (highly recommend this site to anyone with gardening questions or anyone just starting out gardening – super helpful articles). They recommended a home-made seed starter recipe of screened compost, vermiculite, perlite, and sphagnum peat moss. Their potting soil recipe was simply compost and vermiculite. I decided to split the difference and create something that has all four ingredients, but is heavy on the vermiculite and compost. We shall see.

In the interest of my own completely non-scientific research, I’m also going to mix vermiculite, compost and my own garden soil for some of the seeds.

It’s also time to start the peas. Because my hens are not completely finished tilling the garden for me, I decided to try germinating the peas myself in wet paper towels. This will give the girls a couple extra days, but keep my peas on schedule. I’ve never tried this, but have heard from old-timers that it works great.

Stay tuned for the Seedling Update and the Pea Report next month!

Have you started any plants yourself? The ground is warm enough for lettuce, spinach, and carrots, so scatter a few seeds. It’s also safe to put in your broccoli plants and cabbages. You don’t need a designated vegetable garden, just find an open piece of soil in one of your flower beds and have at it. No excuses for no garden. Plant something!

Ready, Set, Garden!

I started the garden this weekend. What a great feeling. I planted eight rows of lettuce (which is crazy I know so make plans to stop by for salad in June), a row of hot purple radishes, 2 rows of spinach, 2 rows of carrots, one super long row of sugar snap peas, and one row of swiss chard (which I’ve never planted before and hardly ever eaten, but the picture in the catalog was too much to resist and swiss chard is supposed to be good for you so I’m going to learn to eat it.). The onion and broccoli plants have a few more days to adapt to real sunlight before they will be installed, but they’re moving in this week.

I haven’t been able to clip the wings on one of our roosters and yesterday I caught him in the garden digging up and eating the seeds I’d just planted! Hugely righteous anger. The kids got water cannons for Easter from their grandparents so I appropriated one to keep on the porch so that I can shoot the rooster whenever he makes his way to the garden (which is twice so far this morning). I’m not sure you can train a chicken, but I’m certainly going to try. All the chickens have been sentenced to living in the chicken pen once again since the garden has begun. It’s a tough adjustment after 7 months of free range life. Some are able to fly over the fence (yes, chickens really can fly- but only about 5-6 feet up and they do much better if there is a hill to give them a running start and a gravitational advantage.) To remedy this problem, we clip their wings which doesn’t hurt and isn’t even visible (their “flying feathers” are hidden behind their “standing around looking like a chicken feathers”). Only problem is none of us can seem to catch the big rooster. It doesn’t help that his spurs are huge and he just looks mean. He’s never hurt anyone and he has the wimpiest crow around, but still. I’m going to try to do it tonight when he’s sleeping.

How do you know when to start your garden? The weather’s been beautiful and it’s very tempting to start tucking in all your seeds. For sure there is still cold weather to come so I wouldn’t chance a tomato or a pepper yet and the soils not warm enough for cucumbers or squash. Seeds need the soil to be about 55 degrees to germinate, some need it warmer. Lettuce and peas like it cold. Tradition says you should plant your peas on St Patrick’s Day, but we were still under snow cover on St. Patty’s day this year.

Another good way to know when you can start planting is the texture of your soil. You want your soil to be like chocolate cake not chocolate fudge. So that’s basically it – chocolate cake that is about 55 degrees and you’re good to go with lettuce, carrots, radish, peas (all kinds), spinach, broccoli, onions and any other seed whose packet lists “as soon as the soil can be worked” or “early spring” as the planting time.

If we get a forecast for a serious frost and freezing temps overnight, I sometimes cover my rows with plastic. But sometimes I forget and they do just fine. Here’s a few other tips for planting that I’ve learned the hard way.

The distances between plants suggested on the seed packets are for real. Sometimes I read them and think they’re being overly cautious. I always live to regret this and end up stepping on plants as I try to weed and performing acrobatic feats just to water the veggies.

Mulch or cultivate the soil between rows on a regular basis. This is how you keep weeds from getting ahead of you. A great tool for keeping the weeds in check is a stirrup hoe (looks like a stirrup on the end of a stick). There is no shame in mulch. If you can save leaves in a pile each fall to use for this task you’ll save money. Straw works OK too, but things creep in. Newspapers are good if you can get them weighted down with water and maybe some stones until they start to disintegrate. (Check to be sure your paper uses vegetable based inks. For you locals – the York Daily Record does use vegetable based ink.)

Don’t plant too deep. I’ve committed this crime many times. It usually happens when I’m planting a lot of seeds in a hurry and use a hoe to fill the row back in. The general rule of thumb is to cover the seed with soil as deep as the seed is big. Most seeds are pretty small. You don’t need much soil over them. The best way to do this is by hand and carefully, patting down the earth over the seed as you go. If you plant too deep you’ll wait much longer to see any action and some seeds won’t make it at all.

Put up big signs. You think you will remember where your rows are. You think you will be able to see the little popsicle stick markers. You assume that digging the seed packet in to the soil at the end of the row will help you remember what’s planted there. Here’s what I know – my memory is fading (I don’t know how old you are, but odds are you are no longer a teenager, so yours is on the downward slope too). Popsicle sticks quickly become camouflaged by the dirt, upended by the trampling feet of children and pets, or blown away when the soil begins to dry. Seed packets disintegrate almost overnight and the wind tends to blow them away. You need big signs – I use scrap wood and paint stirrers (free at the hardware store!) and use paint pens to label them. My daughter and I like to write inspiring things on the backs of these signs too. (See my post April 15, 2009 “Planting Seeds and Inspiration”). If you don’t label your rows well, you may mistake newly sprouted lettuce for a weed (lettuce basically is a weed so this is understandable).

Stay on top of the weeds. Don’t wait for them to overwhelm you. Pull a few EVERYDAY and it won’t seem too bad. If you enlist your children’s help (and you should), supervise their weeding or you may lose more than the weeds. Personally, I haven’t had a whole lot of luck putting the kids to work. They are happy to pick, but weed only under duress for large sums of money. Wish I could tell you different, but I have to be honest.

Plan your walkways as carefully as you plan your planted rows. You need to have somewhere to walk – remember that tomatoes get very bushy and pushy, cucumbers and squash can sprawl all over, and carrots and onions will keep nicely to themselves (but don’t handle being stepped on very well). I’m hoping to make some homemade stepping stones this year with the kids using small pizza boxes and a bag of cement. We don’t order out pizzas, so we’d love some donations from those of you who do (hint, hint).

Put up posts on all the corners of your garden to keep the hose from being dragged over your plants. After all that hard work and diligent weeding, it would be a shame if a hose snapped your almost ripe red pepper plant in two. This is a MUST do. We put four foot tall metal fence posts on the corners (shorter stakes tend to do more damage to my shins).

I’m sure there is more to say, but I’m watching a rooster making his way towards my pea row, so I’ve got to fill my water cannon. Happy gardening!

Starting From Seed

There are lots of books out there with lots of information on starting seeds. I’m going to trust that you know how to use the library to look up information on the seeds you plan to start. What I’ll share with you here is my own system for starting seeds. It’s not the premiere master gardener version of organic gardening, but it’s the version that works in my basement which is where my own personal master garden begins.

First thing you need is a place to start seeds. This can be big and fancy and expensive and purchased through some big and fancy gardening supply company, or it can be a simple book shelf with a grow light affixed to the top of the shelf. Some people also use a sunny window. I haven’t got a sunny window available that is safe from children or critters, so I stick to my homemade light box in the basement. Sunny windows can also be too cold for some seedlings. My box (pictured) is a simple coffin model made out of plywood. A light is hung by chains that descend through a hole in the top of the box. I can raise and lower this light simply by pulling the chains up through the hole and securing them with my high tech 10-penny nail, but you can also use a stick or pencil. The advantage of raising and lowering your lights is that you can keep them close to your plants and raise them as the plants grow. Lights that are too far away from the plants can grow pretty spindly seedlings. The side of my coffin/grow box is removable so I can access the trays of seedlings.

Of course I outgrew that box, so on the top of the box we created another grow area for older seedlings that don’t need as much warmth. These seedlings grow under lights that descend from the ceiling. I can start several hundred plants this way. Basically you need a place where your seeds will have access to light 12-16 hours a day and be relatively warm and out of harm’s way. You also want to put them somewhere you won’t forget about them and neglect to water them. Oh, one more thing – you need a light timer unless you think you can remember to turn on and off your lights every day. (You can’t. Really, you need the timer.)

Once you’ve secured your growing location, the next step is containers, growing medium and of course, the seeds. There are many systems for seed starting that can be purchased through garden centers and hardware stores. I’ve tried quite a few. I don’t recommend them. The seed “pellets” are basically compressed seed starting medium that will get your seeds started, but take them no where else without a lot of help. I once used seed “tubes” which were long skinny tubes of compressed seed starting medium which reminded me of the test tube shooters they used to hand out in bars at happy hour (do they still do that? I’m so old and beyond the bar scene, I wouldn’t know. Happy hour to me is about 9:30 at night when the last kid has gone to bed.). The seed “testtubes” really were super space efficient, but fell apart when I went to transplant them. I’ve also tried making homemade pots out of newspaper, which I liked because of the whole re-purposing/recycling angle, but was actually a lot of work and pretty messy. I suppose you could buy plastic seed starting containers or re-use containers you purchased seedlings in (if you save them). What I use is old yogurt containers. They are the perfect size and abundantly available. I use a drill to poke three little holes in the bottom so they will drain. I use the tiny yogurt containers to start onions because they don’t seem to need as much space and I need to start so many onions. If I’m starting a new tomato, I might use a sour cream container to give it plenty of room, but mostly I use the regular size 6-8oz yogurt container. When I’m finished with them I rinse them and stack them and can use them again.

When it comes to dirt, I make my own. The seed starting mediums that are out there drive me nuts. They are too light and don’t retain water so well and are only meant to “start” seeds, not grow them. So if you use a straight seed starter from the store, you’ll need to transplant your seedlings to a growing medium as soon as they are viable. I only want to transplant my seedlings once – when I put them in the garden. There’s too much danger of hurting the plant when you move it, plus who wants twice the expense and twice the containers? To start and grow seedlings I use organic spaghnum moss mixed with organic potting soil. You can also add vermiculite and/or compost if you have it. I always seem to forget to buy the vermiculite and I save the compost for the garden, so although I have other intentions, every year I seem to use the moss and the soil and it works out fine. The moss keeps the soil light and allows the seed room to get going and potting soil feeds it as it grows in to a hardy seedling. This works for me, but you do what you want. Either way works, I’m just all about keeping it simple.

Before you put your precious seeds in to your growing medium, you need to prepare the soil. I fill the pots and even tuck in the label of what I’m going to plant (popsicle sticks work great for labels and can be used at least four times, once on each end). When they are ready, I place the yogurt containers in plastic trays (re-purposed under-the-bed boxes). I fit the yogurt containers snugly against each other so they won’t float when I water them. Then I moisten the soil by filling the trays they sit in with water so that the pots can soak up moisture. When the top of the soil is moist, I’m good to go. You have to pay attention to how much water you use because you don’t want waterlogged soil. Misting the soil from the top only succeeds in getting the top wet and will quickly dry out. As long as you’re cool with misting several times a day, that’ll work. I haven’t got time for it so I water from the bottom. Keep the trays somewhere warm. Ideally you want the soil to be 70 degrees, but my house won’t be that temperature until June, so I cover my soil with plastic wrap and hope for the best. I’ve been able to start nearly all my seeds with this method, so I’m fairly certain the 70 degree idea is a fairy tale.

Some seeds benefit from being soaked for a few hours or overnight. Read your seed packet or check out a copy of Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, a great resource. If you’re serious about organic gardening you’ll need to budget for buying a copy. It was revised recently and will set you back $25 new, but it’s been in print for 50 years, so I’m sure you can pick up a used copy for much less.

Germinating most seeds doesn’t require any light. I plant my seeds and cover the trays with plastic. Then I place the trays in the warmest room in my house. Once a few little green noses poke out of the soil, I move them to the light box. From there it’s just a matter of monitoring the moisture in the soil. I generally plant 3 or 4 seeds to each container and then thin them out later, keeping the strongest plant.

Timing is pretty critical when it comes to deciding what to start when. You need to know your last frost date for your area. From there you count backwards. Onions need about 12 weeks and can be planted when the soil is still cool, so they’ll be hitting the pots this week around here. Tomatoes can’t go in until the soil is warm, so I won’t be starting them until late February/early March. If you want to try your hand at growing annuals, you need to start soon. Impatiens and pansies take a good 12+ weeks to get started. This is where a good book on gardening comes in. Figure out what you want to grow and develop a timetable for making it happen.

Growing your plants from seeds is not only much less expensive than buying plants, but it increases your options – you can grow just about any variety you can find a seed for. When you purchase your plants already started, you have a much meager selection, plus you don’t know how they were raised. I haven’t really seen any organic plants for sale at the garden centers in the past few years. Maybe they’ll have them this year, but you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll cost twice what the traditionally grown plants will cost. So there’s price and selection to consider, but there’s also the satisfaction of doing something yourself. That’s priceless. And you can do this. Starting plants indoors from seeds is not difficult. No master gardening degree needed. I promise you’ll enjoy the time spent nurturing your “babies”. I cherish the time spent in my basement, all alone with my plants and my dreams.

Oldies But Goodies

So it’s time to buy your seeds! Nevermind that it’s 20 degrees outside and gray and miserable and the ground is solid as a rock. It’s time to dream of spring! If your house is like mine, seed catalogs have been pouring in since just after Thanksgiving. (actually this year that’s not happening because I’ve canceled almost all my catalogs except the one I actually order from). Have you spent any time reading the descriptions? “Incredible flavor, tender, brilliant color, delectable, a must-have for the home garden!” Each vegetable sounds better than the last. It’s hard to resist and very easy to get carried away. Growing your own vegetables should save you money unless you succumb to the marketing department’s copy writers and buy every seed available.

If you’re ready to start your garden (even if it’s just a pot or a window box this year), think about what you really, really, really want to grow. What costs you the most at the market? What can never taste as good as home grown? Prioritize your space by these questions. I stopped growing broccoli last year because it took up so much space and I found a local grower whose broccoli was just as good as mine and not crazy expensive. I gave that extra space to two new types of tomatoes. If you love tomatoes you must grow tomatoes. No store-bought or even roadside stand-bought tomato tastes as good as the one you can grow in your own yard. So think about the space you have and what you most love to eat fresh. Start there. This is a great opportunity to get your kids involved. Maybe if they read the descriptions they’ll just have to try a “vibrant richly flavored, bright purple delight” disguised as a radish.

So it’s time to buy your seeds. This is where I make my case for choosing heirloom seeds. I have my reasons for choosing heirloom, but I thought I’d find out what the oldest heirloom seedhouse in US says is the reason to buy heirlooms. Luckily, calling the oldest heirloom seedhouse in the US is a local call for me. Landreth Seed Company is located in New Freedom, Pennsylvania. David Landreth started selling seeds in Pennsylvania in 1784. So I think they could be considered the foremost experts in heirloom seeds and lucky for me they’re just up the road. I didn’t want to give myself away as one of the faithful, so I called the company on the phone. I wanted to hear the whole pitch just as it would be given to a nonbeliever. And I got it. As soon as the phone was answered, I launched right in to my skeptical, “What makes an heirloom seed so great?” routine. The woman who answered the phone didn’t skip a beat or take offense. I’m guessing she gets this question a lot. Here are the three reasons for buying heirloom seeds she succinctly and forcefully explained to the skeptic on the phone:

1) Heirlooms are at least 50 years old. These seeds have been around and they’ll be around. Unlike those hybrid seedless tomatoes that made their debut last year and will be gone when the next new thing seed comes along. (so if you just love accordion tomatoes like I do, you can count on being able to still find those seeds when your grandkids are starting their gardens)

2) Heirlooms have more intense flavors than hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds have sacrificed flavor for storage capacity and other surface qualities like color or the ability to last longer on the vine or produce a gazillion fruits. They have been bred and kept simply for their flavor. (simply put – heirlooms taste better. And I’m here to tell you this is absolutely true.)

3) Heirlooms have been successfully grown in all kinds of conditions in all kinds of locales for decades or centuries. This means they are survivors. They are hardier than hybrid plants. (and this you want, especially if you’re a first time gardener or a no-maintenance gardener like I am)

And here’s the fourth reason. She said she was going to give me three reasons, but then she threw in the fourth for free:
4) You can save the seeds of your heirlooms and plant them again and again or swap them with your friends. The seeds of a hybrid or commercially grown seed may not even germinate and if they do there’s no telling what you’ll get.

So thanks to Landreth for saying what I was going to say but saying it with much more history and authority. You can buy your own heirloom seeds from Landreth even if you aren’t local by shopping online at www.landrethseeds.com. But if I were you, I’d request a catalog. This year’s catalog is one of the best ever. It’s filled with beautiful pages from some of their catalogs from the last two centuries. (note the picture above) Call them at 1-800-654-2407.

Remember that when you’re ordering seeds, you need to pay attention to how many seeds are in each packet. Whereas it’s helpful to have plenty of pea seeds, you probably only need a handful of tomato seeds. You can always split your seed order with a friend so you don’t waste seeds. If you buy heirlooms and you like what you grow, save the seeds from your plant for the next year.

I’m headed out to get my own seeds this week. It’ll be time to start some next week. Look for a post on seed-starting this Tuesday.

Growing Your Own: Seed starting

Let me say a word about seeds. You can pay the extra money and buy certified organic seeds and they will be great seeds. I know. I’ve used them. You can pay a little more than regular and a little less than organic prices and buy heirloom seeds and you will grow vegetables like you’ve never tasted before. Heirloom seeds are organic by nature. I know some purists will take issue with this, but by organic, I mean they haven’t been chemically altered or genetically messed with. They’ve just been proven winners for years and years. They’ve been passed down for generations, most older than you and me. And there’s a reason they have survived.

First of all, if they weren’t pretty hardy, they would have died out years ago. Second, if they didn’t produce great tasting vegetables, no one would have bothered passing them along. So I recommend buying heirloom seeds whenever possible. I’m blessed because I live in the same town as the oldest heirloom seedhouse in America – Landreth Seeds (http://www.landrethseeds.com/). But you can buy heirloom seeds in most garden stores and certainly, by mail order. You can also save your own seeds each year and trade with your friends. Saving and trading seeds is a bit of a cult, you may discover. I save mine each year and store the seeds in plastic medicine bottles stored in my basement. Saving seeds is easy. Collect them, rinse them, and dry them thoroughly. I put mine in paper lunch bags and hang them in my basement near the de-humidifier for several weeks. Store them in a dark, airtight, dry place. Nothing easier – you may never buy seeds again!

Just don’t save hybrid seeds, you never know what you’ll get. Hybrids come from two different parents, so the next batch could be one or the other or a bad combination of both. There are also some seeds that can’t be saved because some seed companies engineer their seeds so that their offspring seeds will not grow. That way you have to keep buying more of their seeds. Stick with heirlooms, you won’t regret it.

You’ll need to start some seeds inside according to the area you live in. I start mine in late February so that I can set them out in early April. This week I’m starting all kinds of annual and perennial flowers, onions, and lettuce. I’ll start my tomatoes and peppers and hot weather plants in mid March so they are ready to go by Mother’s Day. Look for seed starter that is organic or at the very least, doesn’t have chemical fertilizer (miracle gro and such) added to the medium. I use mostly organic milled spagnum moss because it’s cheaper than organic soil and easier to handle. If you haven’t saved your small yogurt containers (or asked a friendly neighbor with small children to save them for you), you can buy seed flats or make your own biodegradable newspaper pots (requires a special talent or the use of a wooden tool sold in garden catalogs). If you’re using small yogurt containers, you’ll need to put holes in the bottom of the container to allow for drainage and so you can water from the bottom. I use a tiny drill bit and a cordless drill and make quick work of it.

Grow lights can be set up anywhere. An easy way is to utilize a bookshelf you already have. Clear off the books and suspend grow lights from the underside of each shelf. You’ll want to use a spray bottle that has mist setting (you can recycle any spray bottle as long as it is thoroughly cleaned out) and be gentle when watering your seedlings. Investing in a timer for your grow lights is also a wise move unless you’re more reliable than I am about turning the lights on and off at the correct time each day. Popsicle sticks make fine labels so that you don’t forget what you planted. Your seed packet will tell you how deep to plant each seed and expected germination rate (when you'll actually see something green appear).

When deciding what to plant be sure you plant what you’ll use, not just what looks good. Another rule of thumb I use is if I can find it cheaper and yummier locally, I don’t grow it myself. I always plant broccoli because I love the way it looks in the garden. But it is a space hog for not a very large yield and truth be told – my broccoli isn’t any better than the local broccoli I can buy at my farm stand. So I have vowed not to plant broccoli this year – we shall see!

I can’t do without lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, onions, garlic, peppers, and herbs. If I have space I add corn, watermelon, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, peas, radishes, zucchini, and just for fun – decorative gourds. You plant what works for you. The planning is the best part – I love dreaming up my summer garden in the dead of winter.