You Should Consider Growing Herbs From Seed -- Here's Why
If you're a regular visitor to your local garden supply store, it's a good bet you buy at least a few and possibly more seedlings for your garden spaces. After all, seedlings are relatively inexpensive if you just want one or two specimens of a particular variety. They're a no-fuss option, too. Dig a hole, plop a plant inside and you're done, right? Well, that might not be a completely accurate guide to seedling cultivation, but you get the idea. It can be fast and easy.
Why Grow Herbs and Other Plants from Seed
Starting plants from seed takes time. It also takes extra effort, especially if you're starting seeds indoors. There are advantages to making seed cultivation one of your late winter or early spring projects though:
Variety - The plants on offer from your local nursery or garden supply franchise were probably chosen for your specific climate and other growing conditions, which is convenient. The problem is that there may only be one or two different options for say, sage or thyme or basil. These three herbs and many others are available in dozens of varieties. Some are strictly ornamental while others are culinary. Some have medicinal applications while others can help provide solutions to pesky landscaping problems. When you grow plants from seed, you have access to lots of variety -- and maybe just the variety you need to enable a plant to thrive in your garden.
Value - Depending on the plants and seeds involved, you can often obtain a packet of multiple seeds (from 6 to 50 or more) for what it costs to purchase one seedling. Yes, you will have to provide light, soil, moisture and some type of container (maybe), but you'll net multiple plants from your investment.
Say your seeds produce five strong seedlings you can test in different locations around your herb patch, perennial border or veggie garden. That's a nice return on your investment, and creates a good learning opportunity for next year about what does well and what doesn't do so well. Multiple plants also make it easier to add companion planting to your garden design, which can aid in natural pest control.
Insurance - A new season in the garden brings new challenges. If you put plants out over the course of a week to 10 days and have trouble with unexpected pests or weather conditions, like an early cutworm infestation (the blighters) or a late frost, you'll still have the stock and time to recover and plant a healthy garden. Having those extra plants in reserve can be a nice insurance policy.
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| Calendula Seed |
Heck, creation is powerful, and when you see new green shoots bestir themselves up out of the soil and into the light, shoots you remember as seeds languishing in a paper envelope (and lately too), you'll be hooked. Here's another inducement: Once you grow herbs and other plants from seed, your annual seed harvest in late summer and fall becomes an event better than finding a spectacular bargain at a garage sale. It is nature's two-for-one sale, or 100-for-one sale, or 1,000-for-one sale. (Yikes, I'm getting flustered just thinking about it.) If that sounds too good to miss, you're right. It's amazing.
There's more: Every time you cultivate a crop and harvest the seeds, nature has helped you choose seed varieties with special attributes adapted to the conditions in your garden. Every new seed is unique, and growing your own helps to produce subsequent generations that will like the environmental conditions you have to offer.
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| Tomato Seedlings |
Plant Your Own Victory Garden
Here's another fun factoid you'll appreciate. Back during WWII, victory gardens were all the rage. By some estimates, 40 percent of the produce grown for U.S. tables during those years came from victory gardens. Gardens sprouted in tree lawns, backyards and along the sides of roadways. Many of those plants (that helped feed a nation), were grown from seed on windowsills, in cold frames and in makeshift greenhouses. Wouldn't it be nice to take control over producing some of your food from seed to harvest.The Economics
Since COVID, backyard produce gardens have been increasing in popularity. People want to save money, but I also think that news reports about food supply contamination and the potential problems with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) engender a desire in just plain folks to exert more oversight and control over the foods they/we eat. Starting plants from trustworthy seed sources, like heirloom varieties, is a good way to start doing just that.
Start an herb garden from seed this year -- and a vegetable garden, too. Backyard gardening for food and flavor can be productive. The Burpee Garden Seed Company conducted a survey in 2008 that concluded the average gardener could realize up to a 1 to 25 cost savings by growing his (or her) own produce, including the cost of supplies. That might not be the case today with prices so high for everything to start a new vegetable gardening project. After the initial costs, though, growing a vegetable and herb garden becomes significantly less expensive over successive seasons. It can also be hugely satisfying.
There's information here at The Herb Gardener to help get you started.
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This is great info, but what steps needs to be taken if you want to save the seeds of fruits and vegetables that you consumer, and use those to grow more, instead of buying seeds?
ReplyDeleteI would like to grow bell peppers, and tomatoes, and mellons and such from the seed in the ones I buy instead of throwing them away.
A post about this would be very helpful.
Thank you.
Dixie, you can save seeds from purchased vegetables, but it would be best if you make sure they are open-pollinated heirloom varieties. Many varieties in the store are hybrids, and so the seeds may or may not produce the same variety of vegetable. Seeds from many hybrids are actually sterile, so they may not produce anything at all. But if you are buying an heirloom variety of vegetable, like a Waltham Butternut squash, for example, you can just separate the seeds from the membrane, wash them, dry them, and plant them. Farmer's markets are good places to look for heirloom vegetables. Some seeds may require a cold period or scarification (scratching the outside covering of the seed to allow for germination), so you will want to research the particular type of vegetable you are trying to grow.
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