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If you plan to plant a garden this spring, you are probably in the middle of preparing your dirt and deciding what plants you wish to grow this year.
Maybe you are like me and deciding to expand your garden to include more fruits and vegetables than you've ever planted before.
Depending on the plants you decided to grow, you may be able to purchase all of your plants already sprouted. Or, you may need to purchase and grow them from seed.
Benefits of Purchasing Seedlings
Purchasing seedlings eliminates the worry of starting your seeds indoors and "babying" them to ensure they sprout correctly. There are not worries about whether the seeds will grow or if the plants will be strong. And you don't have to worry about if you are past the final frost of the year should you start your seeds outside.
Negatives of Purchasing Seedlings
PRICE! I was at my local garden center today and starter plants were priced at $3 - $4 per plant. That can add up very quickly for a small garden!
Benefits of Planting Seeds
PRICE! While some seed packets are up to $2 each, I purchased all but 4 of mine for 25 cents each. AND I didn't use an entire package of seeds, so I have plenty left over for additional plants in the fall or next year should I preserve the seeds.
Additionally, growing plants from seeds is so much more fun for you and your children. Every single day my children are staring at the dirt, checking to see if a new seedling has popped it's head through the dirt. They also love watering the plants with the spray bottle and fight over who gets to care for the plants that day. Planting a garden from seeds is so fun they don't even realize how much education they are receiving at the same time!
Negatives of Planting Seeds
First, it takes more time to grow a starter plant from seeds. So, if you started late for your planting season, you will be behind schedule for your garden and may not yield as much fruit as you desired.
Also, if you don't keep seeds in the correct amounts of moist starter soil, temperature, and sunlight (or lack of it until they sprout), they may not take well. If you have the wrong combination, you may even "burn" you baby plants and have to start over again.
Whether you are growing from bought seedlings or seeds, I highly recommend that you grow a garden this year. It will provide you much pride and pleasure in the delicious items you will eat, it will decrease your grocery bill, and should you achieve an abundant garden, you will be able to preserve some of your hard work through home canning or freezing. Start your garden today!
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Love this article. I'm getting excited about the garden now. I have cleaning to do yet, lots of brush from fall. We've been growing prize dinner plate dahlias for years. I love flowers. Been having problems with veggies because of the deer, rabbits, and woodchuck population around my house. Last year they ate the dahlias, the lilies, the hosta, and nibbled the herbs. They even ate the marigolds. Don't really know how to control it. Got any ideas?
I don't have experience with deer or woodchucks, but rabbits and squirrels are abundant in my yard. They've eaten half my tulip bulbs over the winter! A green suggestion I'm trying this year is windmills or pinwheels. I bought a dozen or so and will place them around the edges of my raised garden bed. The movement is supposed to keep them away. Additionally, I've used bonemeal fertilizer around the plants and flowers to keep the rabbits from eating them - it works and it feeds the plants too! Anyone have experience with keeping deer and woodchucks out of the garden?
Great idea! Bone meal is wonderful for the bulbs. Would be interested in hearing if the pinwheels work. There is a sonar devise that sells for $30 that scares them away. You'd have to place several around your yard, depending on the size, of course. My concern is that it would also bother the cats and dogs. Not good.
Seedlings are more fun? I just want the lush produce and don't seem to have the time and attention to give to seeds. They end up dying on me so I opt for a mixed punnet. I have thought about the cost though also. I'm paying for fresh from the garden! It needs to be compared to buying organic at the supermarket maybe?! Really good article by the way AJ
Good luck AJ! Gardens are exciting and dynamic! Great to connect to earth energy just being out in one too. I nearly got my seedlings today but ran out of time.... can't wait to eat fresher.
Good article AJ. We tend to do both. A house full of plants germinated from seed ready to move down to the garden when weather warms up a bit more. We have bought a few seedlings though to add to the variety.
Hardy plants like peas are in the ground and expect them to germinate soon (had a poor crop last year). Potatoes going in this weekend and onions in a few weeks ago. Will start to move things down to the greenhouse very soon. our allotment is about 15 minutes walk away, we only have a very small patch at home with room for a few herbs.
Good article AJ seedlings look as expensive there by you as here by us, I was with my daughter looking at seedling veggies for the winter garden. My horror when I realised that some of the seedlings are actually a higher price than to purchase the product off the shelf. Seedlings costing R6 per plant and the veg on the rack R5. Naturally I got her to buy seed, far more fun in any case starting from scratch. As you say it is a learning curve moisture, heat, and conditions get it right that seedling means more to you than the purchased one, also tastes better when you crop.
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