Planning your Garden: Why seedlings are easier than seeds
Planning Your Garden – Buying seedlings for your garden
OK, right off the bat, lemme tell you I am biased: I host a seedling sale. So, of course, I think buying seedlings is the way to go for most backyard gardeners.
But that’s not the only reason why.
Germination can be difficult. Germination can be difficult and it’s disappointing to start the year with no growth. I had a conversation with a new gardener where we both complained about the germination rates we had on our Habanada peppers. Where two of my ten seeds failed to germinate, eight of his ten failed to germinate. I hope everything worked out for him, but I can see how that might feel less fun and more frustrating.
Keeping those little boogers alive can be difficult. Once germination happens you’ve got to watch out for the seedlings getting leggy (they can all fall over and die), getting a fungus, getting attacked by insects (cabbage moths are early spring annoyances), and getting smashed or assaulted by wind, weather or other animals. Last year, I had to re-plant 360 cucumbers because a rat came into the greenhouse and ate every single germinated cucumber seed.
Making your April garden look full with seedlings is an easy win and a way to out-compete the coming weeds. I still prefer to start my seeds in a tray and then transfer them to the garden. I do that with some notable exceptions, like beans and root crops.
If you’re interested in looking at local Athens seedling sales, I highly recommend Plantapalooza. It pairs seedling sales hosted by the State Botanical Garden, the University of Georgia Horticulture Club and the UGA Trial Gardens all on one day. It’s big and fun and you can see cars stuffed with live treasures driving all over the city.
For seven years, my partner, Jacob, and I went to Plantapalooza and bought our veggies and ornamentals during that one weekend. As I got to be a better gardener though, I wanted to try more, different things and I ended up out-growing the event.
Three years ago, I decided that maybe I wasn’t the only one tired of what was on offer. I ordered extra seeds, made a little pamphlet and Jacob shared the info with his co-workers. It was a hit.
Two years ago, we sold triple what we sold the year before.
I’m still finalizing the details for the seedling sale this year, but it’ll be even bigger and better this year than last.
I’m not the only game in town! There’s even more seedling sales outside of Plantapalooza – from more established businesses like 3 Porch Farm’s seedling sale, to smaller Cozybear Market Garden nursery, to local mom-son hustles on Facebook – with a little research, you’ll be able to find some interesting plants, near your home and in your price range.