Lazy Gardening – choosing seeds

I’ll admit it. I’m a lazy gardener. Why dig with a heavy spade if spreading some mulch will do instead and why plow your way through a stack of seed catalogs if there is an easier way?

10 Lazy Tips to Choosing Seeds

1. Use the seeds you already have. If the seeds are out of date usually you’ll still get some of them to grow. If they failed for you before, just try again. So that I don’t end up with the failure of an empty spot I sow different kinds of seeds in the same row, for example lettuce and cabbage. One of them might be successful even if the other isn’t.
2. Pick seeds for fruit and vegetable crops you already know how to cook. There’s nothing worse for the lazy gardener than putting a lot of effort into growing some vegetable then discovering you can’t cook it in a way your family likes! One time I grew moon and stars watermelons. They came out really nice but they taste different than the conventional watermelon and I ended up giving them away because my kids thought they were bad!
3. Avoid growing veggies you eat every week of the year unless you think you will produce something noticeably better, or that will save you $$, compared to shopping for them. I don’t bother growing carrots because I just haven’t produced ones as good as store bought. I do however grow onions because I like to use some green onion tops but never enough to make it worthwhile buying a bunch at the store.
4. Start small. If you’re not sure what will work just try a little of everything. Some garden seed suppliers sell sample packets. That’s what I buy.
5. Ask everyone local whom you know what they grow successfully. Some varieties do better than others in your climate and your friends and neighbors may already know the answers to your questions on this.
6. If you can find a local source of seed get these. Locally grown seed will grow better for you.
7. Only buy from one catalog or website. I’m indecisive. The job of choosing what to order from where can be overwhelming. Find a catalog or website you like and ignore the rest. Maybe use 2 places to order from if there’s something special, but avoid driving yourself crazy poring over catalog after catalog.
8. Look through your catalog with a pen in your hand. Fold over the page corners and circle the items that interest you. Otherwise you’ll be going through that catalog over and over and you might never end up ordering! If you’re browsing a website go ahead and put anything of interest in your cart then delete if necessary. If you need to interrupt the choosing process print off your list in case the cart is emptied after a period of inactivity.
9. Not sure when exactly to plant your seeds? Group them by early spring and after frost. Put the early spring seeds in as soon as the soil is workable and it’s nice enough to enjoy being outside. Don’t worry too much about calendar dates. If it’s too cold the seeds won’t germinate anyway.
10. I’m too much of a lazy gardener to grow seeds inside. This year I’m going to try putting seeds like tomatoes straight into the ground outside. I have one of those blanket things to cover the garden bed with and I’m hoping nature will figure it all out for me. After all, the last two years my neighbor has given me tomatoes from a plant which grew up from seeds which dropped and planted themselves.

Where are you at in your gardening? Where do you get your seeds?

Enjoy your gardening. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Keep trying and bit by bit you’ll master it. Soon you might grow enough to give some away

Disclaimer: my advice is not a substitute for professional advice. Use my ideas at your own risk! One great source of local, prefessional, horticultural advice is your county extension office. Check them out!
The tomato photo which was on here for a fleeting moment was from FlickR.

This article appeared at The Evangelical Ecologist.

Related posts:

1. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 5 – Mulched Raised Beds
2. Vegetable Gardening Help
3. A simple guide to buying vegetable seeds