Starting seeds indoors in late winter or early spring is a great way to get a head start on a summer vegetable garden. Not only can you save some money versus buying started plants but you get a greater variety of plants available as most of the ones found at home centers or nurseries are only the most common / popular types. For example I have never seen San Marzano tomatoes, a traditional Italian paste tomato, for sale as a started plant. Even the seeds are hard to come by. Additionally you can sometimes manage to get additional crops from plants by having an early and later planting.
To start seeds indoors check climate charts for your area, figure out the average date of last frost and start seeds according the the package, usually 6-8 weeks prior.
You can reuse yogurt or butter type containers with potting soil or compost, or get peat pellets. (if you reuse old containers just make sure they are wider at the top than the bottom or they can be really difficult to get out for transplant without damaging the roots. The pellets are convenient because you can just pop a new seed in any that doesn’t germinate and also make moving the plants easy after they sprout since they usually have either a degradable or easily removable outer wrap.
If you are really adventurous you can also save seeds from just about any store bought food. Keep in mind that many of these plants are hybrids and will not necessarily be the same as the plant you harvest the seeds from. This year I started some seed from a Roma tomato that had only two chambers inside which held the seeds. It made cleaning out the inside really easy so we kept some of the seeds just to see what would happen. So far that plant is off to the best start!
Around the time the danger of frost has passed you can move the plants outside during the day to allow them to acclimate to outdoor conditions but bring them back in at night in case of any unexpected temperature drops. After about a week of acclimating they should be ready to plant!
Have you started your garden?
