Posted by Stephanie | Posted in Seed, Vegetables | Posted on 07-02-2008
Many gardeners are hesitant to start their vegetables from seed. I'll readily admit that it's easier to just order bare-root or potted plants. However, there are several very good reasons why you should spend that extra little bit of time to start your veggies from seed. Here are just a few of them.
The Cost: Many vegetable plants aren't all that expensive, it's true. Around here you can buy tomato plants for around four bucks a pop, depending on when in the season you buy them. If you're buying them at prime tomato-planting time, they'll be more expensive. Should you want heirlooms, they'll be even more expensive. Still, even if they're around seven to ten dollars, that doesn't seem all that expensive. If you only buy one. Even at four dollars, if you only plant five plants (which is not very many tomato plants at all), you've spent twenty dollars on plants. On the other hand, you can get a pack of 25-30 tomato seeds from a quality source for what is often less than the price of a single plant. For many other vegetables, the cost difference is even more pronounced.
Selection: Even the best garden shop can't economically carry the same level of variety that is available from seed providers. Those big home improvement stores usually have three or four varieties of tomato plant. The big garden shop where my mother buys most of her vegetable plants here in Greenwood usually has six or seven varieties each year (and that's a nursery that specializes in vegetable plants). Park Seed, however, has literally dozens of tomato varieties available right now, including heirlooms and certified organic seeds. Because I grow most of my veggie plants from seed, I get to try a couple new varieties of tomato every year alongside my standards, and I end up spending far less than my mother spends on her two or three types.
Satisfaction: This may just be me, but there are few things in the world to me that are as satisfying as the accomplished feeling of taking a little foil packet of what appears to be tiny specks of chip crumbs and turning them into a huge basket of the freshest, juiciest tomatoes you'll ever set eyes on or tiny peppers that'll send even the most serious of capsicum addict running for water. For my money you just can't beat that amazing feeling of accomplishment from what is really not that much work at all.