Early Spring Gardens - Get a Head Start on the Season

You can get a jumpstart on your vegetable garden this spring by starting your favorite vegetable seeds now. The earlier you get your seeds started the earlier you will be able to enjoy the produce. The trick, of course, is to start the seeds in a green house or in a sunny kitchen window now while it is still frosty outside. In a few weeks the garden centers of stores across the nation will be crowded with little seedlings yearning to be put into warm soil. The problem is that the soil will not be warm enough yet for another several weeks. Seedlings in garden centers will not get the care that you can give your own home started bedding plants.

Starting your own seeds gives you several advantages over store bought seedlings. The first advantage is your choices are individualized to take advantage of your family's favorite foods when you choose your own seed varieties. Secondly your carefully tended plants may be healthier than plants from the store. (There are stores that have wonderfully healthy plants and that take excellent care of them, so if you have a brown thumb instead of a green one just wait until the bedding plants arrive and make your choices from the offerings.) A third advantage is the plants that are started and sheltered indoors may give earlier yields than plants started weeks later in the garden.

All you need to get started is a bit of space, (this can be as small as your kitchen window sill or as large as a greenhouse) seedling flats, seed starting soil mix, seeds and sterilized water. You can get seed starter kits that have the trays, individual cells, and greenhouse type covers that you only have to put the seeds in and water to achieve success. Some gardeners tell you that any shallow container will work as long as it holds the planting mix and has some drainage holes in it. I think the risk of plant viruses and other contagious pest problems is better avoided by purchasing the kits. If you choose to assemble your own materials be sure they are well cleaned and the soil is sterilized by baking in the oven in foil trays to kill weed seeds and bacteria.