March 18, 2021
Plan out your vegetable garden and start your seeds
Spring is in the air and we couldn't be happier! The days are getting longer (finally!), the weather is warming up, and soon the spring flowers will be coming up to greet us all. If you plan on having a vegetable garden this spring and summer, it is time to start planning it and start your seeds if needed.
Certain types of vegetables need to be started indoors before you transplant them into your garden beds. These include tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and herbs. Setting up a seed starting station in your home is easy. You can even use old egg cartons to get things going! Make sure that you start seeds in an area that gets good sunlight during the day or you can use grow lights if you want to start your seeds in a darker place, like a basement.
Starting your seeds is a fun experience and can really cut down the costs for your garden, as buying already established plants is more of an expense. You may need to prepare any seedlings for transplant in the garden when they are ready but putting them outdoors during the day so they can acclimate to outside weather and temperatures.
Some types of vegetables go straight into the ground. But again, buying these as seeds instead of plants cuts down the cost and makes it a full experience for the gardener to go from seed to harvest (very rewarding). Vegetables like beans, beets, carrots, corn, peas, spinach, lettuce, turnips, squash, and zucchini all are directly sowed into garden beds when temperatures are more consistently warm and the threat of an overnight frost is behind us.