Why not grow your own garden from seed?

I was sorting through some papers on my desk last week and came across an information sheet from the Home Garden Seen Association (HGSA) that I’d tucked away since last spring. The flyer was titled “Five Good Reasons to Grow Your Garden from Seed.” Perfect timing – exactly what I was planning to write about!

Here are their thoughts. See if they resonate with you:

You’ll Have Many More Choices

It’s just like shopping for produce at the grocery store: there’s a limited variety available. Think about it. When did you ever see more than one type of carrot, beet, eggplant or radish at the grocery store? Even with something as popular as tomatoes, there’s usually only a choice between full-size and cherry/ grape tomatoes. Sweet peppers? You’ll find the “standard” green, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, but no other varieties.

By contrast, there are nearly 150 varieties of carrots, over 550 varieties of melons, and 870 varieties of tomatoes available to gardeners who’d like to try something different. Shopping at stores would have us believe that we have two choices in kale: flat- or curlyleafed. There are actually 55 varieties. And there are 13 varieties of parsnips available from seed.

You Can Control Quality

If you know your grower, and can probably depend on the quality of care that the plants have received. But often there’s no way of knowing. The soil might have been allowed to dry out at some point (or many times), or the plants might have become root-bound. If that’s the case, they won’t perform well in the garden.

“When you grow your own, you’ll know that they’re being well cared for until the time is right for planting,” points out the HGSA. You’ll also know for certain that they were grown without the use of any unwanted chemicals.

Growing from Seed is Easier

Many plant varieties are more successful when they’re grown from seed that’s sown directly into the garden. These include root vegetables – e.g., beets, carrots, parsnips – herbs in the carrot family such as cilantro and dill, and baby salad greens. Flowers that do better when seeded directly into the garden include larkspur, bells of Ireland, and love-in-amist. As HGSA points out, “other vegetables and flowers are so easy to grow from seed that buying seedlings makes little sense.” They cite squash, melons, beans, and peas, along with sunflowers, zinnias, nasturtiums, and cosmos.

You’ll Save Money

This is kind of a no-brainer, and is true for both vegetables and flowering plants. A packet of zinnia, marigold or sunflower seeds costs about the same as a six-pack of plants. For example, a packet containing 50 zinnia seeds at Park Seeds costs $3.50. For large swaths of color, this is obviously the way to go. HGSA notes an added advantage to buying vegetable seeds instead of plants: “you’ll be able to sow succession plantings of greens, beans, and other crops for a second harvest!” For more economy, store any unused seeds to plant next year.

It’s Fun to Do!

Sure, you can wait until spring arrives, and shop for vegetable seedlings and flowering plants at your local garden center, but there are so many advantages to starting your own. Some of these have nothing to do with plant health or economics. As the flyer states, growing plants from seed is “magical, and gives you a feeling of independence and, yes, power, to watch a seed germinate and grow into a healthy seedling, connecting you to nature even as frigid weather may be confining you to the indoors.” I couldn’t put it better than that!

Coming up at Longwood Gardens: Friday, Feb. 7, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“Celebrating 50 Years of the Horticultural Symposium”

This daylong symposium features a diverse lineup of speakers, and a plant sale. Lunch and access to the gardens included. Details of the day’s speakers and topics, and registration info at longwoodgardens. org/todayshorticulture.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Mexican Sour Gherkins – one of the many choices when growing from seed.