It’s time to sow your first seeds of 2018
Want to save money? Enjoy a gorgeous and productive garden?
You can achieve substantial savings, with a host of flowers and vegetables, by planting your own seeds this year. And now is the perfect time of year to directsow cool season crops.
Check out the seed racks at a garden centre or hardware store near you and you will be blown away by the selection. Many varieties of plants are available from seed but not readily available as transplants later in May.
If you take the time to do the math, you’ll find that the savings are nothing short of staggering. An average packet of zinnias, for instance, will contain 50 seeds. At $2 per packet, that equals four cents per plant. If you buy a four-pack of transplants in May, you will pay no less than a dollar — or 25 cents per plant. Seeds, in this scenario, provide a staggering 84-per-cent discount for the same results. Here are some popular and delicious vegetables that we recommend you sow directly into your gardens right now, even with frost still expected over the next few weeks:
Beets: These are a great crop with a tender root which stores well into the winter. Kestrel is our favourite hybrid variety, with great disease resistance. It can be harvested early for baby beets, or left in the ground to mature to full size. Red Crapaudine is a harder to find heritage variety, thought to be one of the oldest varieties in cultivation. It has a carrot-shaped root with darkcoloured skin and a flesh that is almost black. Sow beet seeds directly to a rich, sandy loam much like carrots (which can also be planted now).
Broccoli: This is the most popular vegetable in our family. Indeed, it is more likely to show up at a family dinner than some of our relatives — not naming names. Arcadia is our favourite hybrid, for its large head and dark bluegreen colour.
Importantly, it stands up well to black rot and downy mildew, common problems for the broccoli grower.
Cabbage moth is another common problem: the best method for growing cucurbits (which includes broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale) is under a “veggie tunnel.” A loosely spun polyester fabric suspended by Ushaped supports is a great, low-cost, pesticide-free answer to cabbage moth. The material allows sun and moisture through — but not insects — and helps retain heat to improve germination, and mature the crop more quickly.
Salad mixes: These include spinach, leaf lettuce, mesclun mix and arugula —
and kale, if you insist — are all ready for direct-sow starting now, and again every two weeks until early July to ensure a continuous supply of fresh greens throughout the entire season. This succession planting helps avoid all your greens coming at once. A variety called Simply Salad Mix includes different shapes and colours of basil, beet tops, Swiss chard, mustards, radicchio and arugula to liven up the mixture.
Consider bok choi; it’s common in Asian recipes and works great in salads. Plant seeds 15 centimetres apart, thinning to 25 centimetres as plants ma-
ture; barely cover with soil at planting.
Peas, potatoes, leeks and carrots: These deserve honourable mentions for eligible direct-sow crops, which you can expect to find us doing.
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourthgeneration urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s Morning Show.