Month: August 2022

Once the garden is all planned out, the next step is to buy some seeds and start planting. You can just go to Walmart or Lowes. Those seeds will work just fine most of the time. If you want guaranteed heirloom, non GMO seeds though, the best bet is to order online from a reputable site. I came across Baker Creek Seed Company years ago. They are based in Mansfield, Missouri and are my go to for seed orders. The seeds usually grow great. There’s a huge selection of different heirloom varieties of each vegetable. The vegetables that grow taste great. The seed packets are about the same price as the store seed packets. The amount of seeds in a packet varies based on the seed type. Some like zucchini have about 25, others like lettuce have 100 or more. Shipping is free and usually pretty fast too.
They send out an annual catalog that is just amazing. It’s a pretty thick catalog with full color photos of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

A few other sites that I haven’t tried, but look like good options for seed buying are:

Burpee
Hudson Valley
Johnny Seeds
MIgardener
Park Seed
Seed Savers

When you order seeds or starter plants, make sure they will grow in your area based on the USDA hardiness zone map. Otherwise, chances of success greatly decrease.

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Once the last frost is past, the soil is warm and the nights stay warm, it’s safe to plant warm weather vegetables. These vegetables can’t tolerate any cold temperatures. I usually wait until Memorial Day weekend to plant this type of vegetable, just to be safe.

Warm weather vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, summer squash like zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, pumpkins, water melon, winter squash, sweet potatoes and annual herbs like basil.

These should be planted as soon as it’s safe as some warm weather vegetables like tomatoes and pepper take all summer to produce vegetables. They can be covered once the weather turns colder, but growth and production will be much slower, if at all. I plant early enough, but still sometimes have vegetables that are almost ready when cold weather hits, but not quite and end up covering them to get the last bit of life out of them.

More Vegetable Gardening Resources