Seed Time
Selecting the right vegetable seeds for your garden.
If you’re like me, the first sunny day in March brings out the gardening bug. It is always around St. Patrick’s Day that I get the itch to dig in the dirt and get my vegetable garden growing. While it truly is too early to begin, you can, however, begin planning for your summer’s vegetable garden by perusing mail-order seed catalogs or visiting your local nursery. Seed racks are already in many local stores.
Early spring is when most avid gardeners like to stop in their local garden center to see what’s new in seed varieties for the coming season. It is never too early to begin planning for the summer growing season.
Some of the very newest seeds may have a limited quantity, so if there is something new you really want to try, you should purchase your seeds early. You may not be able to find them come planting time.
New developments in seeds come every year. Some seed companies, like Burpees, have their own test gardens and they do a lot of seed development. Therefore, you can be sure the new varieties of seeds have been thoroughly tested for the zone for which it is recommended.
Seed companies, such as Burpees (www.Burpee.com) and Gurneys (www.Gurneys.com), also change their products to keep pace with current trends. A popular item for the past few years is mixed green seeds. They are also called salad mixed. They have the seeds of five or six different kinds of lettuces or salad greens, such as chervil, mustard, endive and so on. If you plant several packets in succession, you will have fresh salad greens well into the summer. Greens are easy to grow and have a great fresh taste in the spring.
For people who want to grow something unique, there are seeds for every niche. White pumpkins, grape tomatoes and seedless watermelons are all available now for gardeners to grow themselves. If your local garden center doesn’t carry seeds for these items, you can be sure to find them in a mail-order catalog.
Other unique specialty seeds can be ordered through mail-order catalogs. Heirloom seeds and other obscure seeds are still available to the general public through these catalogs.
In addition to seed packets, seeds can also be purchased in bulk. In many cases, buying sweet corn or green bean seeds in bulk can save you money over packets and mail order catalogs. And you can get the amount you need for your garden.
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