How to Choose Vegetable Seeds for the Garden

Picking out seeds for your vegetable garden can be as much fun as enjoying the produce in the fall. Just follow these steps.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Decide how big the vegetable garden will be and how much space you can dedicate to each vegetable. Choose seeds based on how much area they need to grow. Determine this by reading directions on the seed packet; they should indicate how much space is required between plants and rows.

2. Pick bush varieties of vegetable seeds if building a trellis will be too much work. Green beans and cucumbers are common bush vegetables.

3. Plan to build a trellis or fence area if you want to plant pole beans or peas. Climbing vegetables are easier to harvest and the trellis makes a lovely addition to the vegetable garden.

4. Choose zucchini and other squash seeds only if the garden is large enough. These vines will take over the garden if there is not enough space.

5. Buy vegetable seeds packed for the current year’s growing season. The date is stamped on the bottom or back of the seed packet.

6. Know the different varieties of tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes grow in tall vines and require staking. Roma or sauce tomatoes grow on small bushes. Other tomatoes come in determinate or indeterminate varieties. Indeterminate tomatoes are those that grow on crawling vines near the ground, rather than staked.

7. Buy seeds early in the season for tomatoes, broccoli and green peppers. Sow indoors in pots around March so the small plants are ready for transplant at the end of May or the beginning of June.

8. Select from the heirloom varieties of vegetables for distinctive plants and fruits. Heirloom vegetables are propagated by saving and exchanging seeds through generations of gardeners.

9. Choose vegetable seeds that will mature during the region’s growing season and in the region’s climate. Some varieties of vegetables seeds, like low-bolting spinach, are designed to withstand hotter summer temperatures.

10. Read the growing instructions on the back of the vegetable seed packets to ensure that the garden environment will encourage seed growth. Some seeds may require inoculants to germinate.

Tips & Warnings

• Buy onion sets instead of onion seeds since they are easier to grow. The same is true for asparagus, which takes 3 years before a plant reaches maturity and is edible.