Should You Buy Seeds or Young Plants to Start Your Garden?

Seedlings, Greenhouse, Starts

Growing up, I spent many spring Saturdays taking trips with my mom, dad, or grandparents to the greenhouses and garden centers in our area. We would walk around the tables that were full of flats holding vegetable starts and flower transplants. That was how my family typically began each year’s garden. It was wonderful to take in the greenhouse smells of damp soil, fertilizer, and new plants. You’d run your fingers over the leaves and quickly learn to identify the differences between peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Seedlings, Greenhouse, Starts
Seedlings in a greenhouse (Photo by Zoe Richardson on Unsplash)

Fast-forward to today and seeds seem to be all the rage. There are dozens of seed companies I hadn’t heard of until about a decade ago selling heirloom varieties of seeds that I didn’t know existed until recently. I’m not sure if that’s simply the result of the internet raising awareness for seed loss and advertising for these companies or because people in my circle didn’t talk about heirlooms. Either way, it does seem as though there has been a shift in attitude and approach toward starting a garden.

That raises the question: Which is better between seeds and starts? Based on my previous posts about seeds and catalogs, you can guess which camp I’m in, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t merits for buying transplants from your local greenhouse. Let’s dive into the advantages and disadvantages of both and help you make a decision on which is best for you.

Cost

There is a wide range of costs when choosing how to start your garden. The cheapest we found seeds in our catalogs was $1.95, which was a broccoli packet from Pinetree Gardens.

Fun fact: That price is actually lower than our local Wal-Mart sells Burpee seeds for. Another reminder to buy directly from the seed company if you can. There typically isn’t much difference in price, you’ll find a larger variety, and you’re guaranteed that the seeds were recently packed.

On average, the lowest price in our catalogs was $1.99 per packet. That was the case for most vegetables. The highest price was $15.00 for a packet of pumpkin seeds from NE Seed. Calculate the per-seed price and you’ll get a range of less than $.01 for some beet and carrot varieties up to $1.00 per seed for heirloom cantaloupe and tomato varieties.

Let’s compare that to the price of starts. I’m not 100 percent sure what starts cost at greenhouses in our area since it’s still too early, but a quick search online showed tomato plants in the $3-4 range from Home Depot. That price is comparable to a packet of seeds. However, when you consider that a start produces one mature plant in the best-case scenario, seeds are far more economical. I know that more than one seed is generally used when starting them, but it’s still cheaper to purchase seeds.

Seeds 1, Starts 0

Variety

When you are shopping for starts, you’ll likely find the most popular varieties for your region at a greenhouse. These tend to be successful, are adapted to your area, and are relatively easy to grow. Some examples you’ll find in Pennsylvania are Amish paste and Brandywine tomatoes, Straight 8 cucumbers, and California Wonder bell peppers. Most greenhouses will have these varieties available as starts. You may find some more “exotic” varieties, such as habanero peppers or a non-red variety of tomato, but greenhouses will stock the varieties that sell. 3-4 varieties per vegetable are typically the upper end of what you’ll find.

When you buy seeds, there are many varieties to consider. Even displays in stores like Lowes will have up to 10 varieties per vegetable. For tomatoes, you’ll find several varieties of cherry, beefsteak, and paste tomatoes. For cucumbers, you’ll typically find a few different pickling and slicing varieties. Just today, the display in Lowes had ornamental corn seeds, something I’ve never seen in a store before. You have a lot of options to find the seed that best fits your needs. Then, when you expand to purchasing seeds online or from catalogs, you’ll have dozens of varieties to pick from for each vegetable, including organic and heirloom.

Seed starting, gardening
Seed Starting

That many choices can be both positive and negative. If you want the chance to buy heirloom varieties that you’re unlikely to find starts for, it’s a positive. But if you’re just starting out and can become overwhelmed by how many options there are, it’s a negative. Ultimately, I think having more options is a good thing, so I’m going to give this one to seeds as well, but there’s an argument for starts.

Seeds 2, Starts 0

Necessary Equipment

When you buy starts, you don’t really need anything else assuming you have a garden or container. You’ll also need soil, fertilizer, and tools for transplanting and watering. Those are all items that you’ll also need for seeds, though, so I don’t count them for the purposes of this post. So, like I said, once you buy the starts, you have everything you need.

Seeds, meanwhile, need a bit of equipment. You’ll have to have seed-starting cells and a starting mix of soil or compressed and dehydrated soil pods that expand when water is added. This is where the seeds will go. In some cases, you’ll need multiple cell sizes for different plants and to transplant them as needed when growing. Those cells need a tray and potentially a dome to sit in. The cells are placed on top of the tray, which provides a place for water to drain, and under the dome, which holds in moisture, creating a greenhouse effect.

You then need a heat mat and grow light to help with germination. The heat mat is used at the beginning to heat the soil so the seeds can germinate, while the grow light helps the young plants grow through photosynthesis. Neither item has to be expensive: You can get a 10″ x 20″ heat mat for $12 and a grow light for $14, both on Amazon. Finally, you’ll need a surface to set everything on, an extension cord and power supply, and the room for all the seed-starting supplies for several months. None of the items are expensive, but more is needed to start seeds than transplanting starts. In this case, starts require far less equipment.

Seeds 2, Starts 1

How Easy Is It?

Which one is more complicated? This category is an easy win for starts. With them, you purchase them, bring them home, and when the soil and weather are right, plant them in your garden. Once they’re in the ground, it’s the same as starting from seed. You do need to be careful when picking your starts, but most of the hard work has already been done when you buy the start.

Seeds, meanwhile, can be complicated. You have to track a lot of information, including how long each seed takes to germinate, how resistant to frost each is, and whether a seed can be directly sown or needs to be started indoors. This information helps you know when the seeds should be started. With that information, you then need to go through the process of actually starting the seeds. You have to prep your starting cells, choose the proper starting mix, and sow the seeds at the proper depth. After the seeds have germinated, the seedlings will need to be thinned so that plants aren’t competing for nutrients in the same space. A lot of the seedlings will also need to be transplanted into a larger cell before eventually being moved into your garden. It is quite a bit of work and typically requires daily monitoring. As you can tell, starts are much easier.

Seeds 2, Starts 2

Time Commitment

This is connected to how easy each is, but I wanted to touch on how much of a time commitment they are. We’ll go over starts first. The most time-consuming part of transplanting starts is going to the greenhouse and buying them. Traveling to the greenhouse and walking around all the tables is a time commitment, but it is nothing compared to seed-starting.

Starting seeds can take months when you factor in the time it takes to look through catalogs and wait for the seeds to arrive. Peppers are a perfect example of how long seed-starting can take. Because they take a long time to grow, need hot weather to mature, and won’t survive a frost, they should be started up to 10 weeks before the last frost. Around here, that date is May 15, so they can be started now. That is a major time investment and requires a lot of planning.

Starts will win this category, but to be honest, a time aspect of transplants that I’m not a fan of is how long you have to wait to buy them. A pepper start shouldn’t be purchased until after the last frost, and waiting that long makes me nervous. What if the greenhouse doesn’t have the variety you want?

Seeds 2, Starts 3

Control

This category is a bit weird, but I like knowing everything I can about the plants I’m growing. With starts, you don’t have control over how they were started as seeds. That means not having knowledge of the starting mix that was used or if the plant was transplanted before, and if it was, did it experience any root shock? If you’re interested in seed-saving, has the plant been isolated to avoid cross-pollination? That level of control may not be important to some, but I value it.

I like the peace of mind that comes with knowing that our starting mix has proper drainage, that the seedlings are always in the proper cells, and that the strongest plants are kept when thinning them out. I also like being able to transplant the young plants into the garden after a hardening-off process and when they’re smaller than you find at a greenhouse. When plants are younger, there is a reduced risk of root shock when transplanting. Therefore, I’m giving this category to seeds.

Seeds 3, Starts 3

Do What Is Best for You

I have to admit, I was surprised by how this post progressed. I fully anticipated at the start that this would be an easy win for seeds and that I’d be looking for ways to make it more even. Instead, it ended in a draw based on the number of categories each won. I still give seeds the edge because I place more value on the categories they won, though. I think cost, variety, and the peace of mind that comes with seeing the process through from sowing to harvesting are more important than how easy it is to buy starts.

Choosing between seeds and starts is a personal preference. If you’re just starting out and unsure if you want to invest in seed-starting equipment, transplants are a great option. However, if you want to grow heirloom varieties and are confident you’ll want to garden on an annual basis, seeds are the best bet. You can also buy a combination of seeds and starts. My dad has done that for years. Do you have a preference between seeds and starts? I’d love to hear from you.

0

(HOP) SKZ HOP HIP TAPE: a Patchwork Quilt of Music and Family

This album was a slow burn for me, as I expected after it was released on December 13, 2024. I was still enthralled with Stray Kids’s recent Japanese release, Giant, which was released on November 13, 2024. This was on the heels of their collaboration with Tom Morello and Young Miko for Arcane’s Season Two Theme, “Come Play” which was released in October 2024 before the show’s release. “Come Play” was the crescendo of soundtracks being released in the fall for Stray Kids with “Night” and “Falling Up” announced for season two of the anime, Tower of God.

But this was two months after we in the STAY fandom were processing the quiet release of “Slash” for Deadpool and Wolverine’s soundtrack in August 2024, a month after their July 2024 release of ATE. ATE was their big release of the year so far after months of waiting for an album after the drops of “Lose My Breath” and “WHY?” a soundtrack for the J-Drama Re:Revenge being released in the first quarter of 2024.

L to R: I.N., Lee Know, Seungmin, Hyunjin, HAN, Changbin, Felix, and Bang Chan

Did I mention this was a busy year for Stray Kids and their listeners? In this year of endless highs, Stray Kids announced their contract renewal a year ahead of the deadline, confirming that all eight members would stay at JYP Entertainment, making music together for years to come. It’s fitting then, that the last release of the year “HOP” was a title with a little wordplay, using the Chinese Hanja character “Hop” which means unity. In K-Pop, groups come and go, just look at New Jeans (2022-2024) and their possible disbandment after leaving ADOR. Contract renewals by all members to the same label are not guaranteed, look at the current state of Blackpink with each member taking their solo careers to various labels.

There is also the logistics of Stray Kids being a boy group with 6 out of 8 members being Korean citizens heading into their mid-twenties. Mandatory military service completion looms, which comes with a period of complications for music production, tours, and storytelling. Currently, BTS is completing their military service as a group (J-Hope and Jin have completed their service as of writing this). NCT 127 is following a different path, sending their members in a delayed fashion, (currently their leader Taeyong and member Jaehyun are completing their service) while the remaining members have released an album and performed tour dates. Although the military service question comes up a lot in K-Pop fandoms, more than I think we should dwell on it, the impression “HOP” and Stray Kids’ contract renewal left on STAYs I would say is like a comforting hug.

I didn’t understand this fully until Stray Kids’ account shared moments from their SKZ 5 O’Clock fan meet where the members performed each other’s solo songs on stage. What does this have to do with SKZ HOP HIP TAPE? Well, HOP was different kind of album from their usual format. On a Stray Kids’ EP or full album, there is usually a title track or several and then B-Sides with all eight members or songs performed by sub-units, affectionately called Rachas. For example – 3Racha (Bang Chan, Changbin, HAN) is their production unit and rapline, vocalracha (Seungmin, I.N.) supply lead vocals, and danceracha (Lee Know, Hyunjin, Felix) the lead dancers of the group. Instead of following this format, HOP is more like a patchwork quilt in my opinion.

  1. Walkin’ On Water
  2. Bounce Back
  3. U (feat. TABLO)
  4. Walkin’ on Water (HIP Ver.)
  5. Railway (Bang Chan)
  6. Unfair (Felix)
  7. Hallucination (I.N.)
  8. Youth (Lee Know)
  9. So Good (Hyunjin)
  10. ULTRA (Changbin)
  11. Hold my hand (HAN)
  12. As we are (Seungmin)

These solo songs, the members perform on tour through solo stages, were songs I was not sure about upon the first listen. Instead of appreciating the music, all I could think of was – is this the end of eight as one? Is this signaling them “growing up and growing out” of their collaborative style?

How silly is that? But in 2025, in our current friendship recession and drought of healthy communities, having deep friendship feels like something you have to “grow out of” to become a lonely “successful” adult. I think it says more about my life and my culture more than the album, to be honest. (Am I okay?) But then, I listened to the album again. And again. I watched the craftsmanship of the music videos and dove into the lyrics and I was impressed! The layers of talent – vocal range, dancing ability, lyricism, concept, etc. Each song has a personality unique to the member, you can clearly see them in the song but you can also feel Stray Kids in each song too.

This is not how I would describe most K-pop solo releases. Take NCT for example – Taeyong has released two EPs, Shalala (2023) and TAP (2024) which are not NCT 127 music. They showcase Taeyong and his unique talents – dancing, vocal range, and visuals. Mark of NCT 127 has released two singles, 200 (2024) and Fraktsiya (2024) which are again vastly different from NCT 127’s musical style. 200 is a casual love song and Fraktsiya is a rap focused song. Yuta of NCT 127 released an album in 2024 that deviates into J-Rock to celebrate his Japanese culture. Blackpink is another example of this, with Rose, Lisa, Jennie, and Jisoo going in completely different directions where they feel like different artists from their Blackpink performances.

For Stray Kids, their solos have range but through their 5 O’Clock Fan Meet performance swaps, it showed me that these songs are fully solos and fully Stray Kids which makes me interested in what the future holds. Will they release solo albums? Will they do sub-units? Will they do these solo mix tapes, like SKZ Replay of 2021, that featured previously unreleased solos and subunit songs? I think they truly just love creating, producing, and performing in an organic way that is synergistic in an unforced way. It’s like a harmony, even when they do their own things, they are still part of the whole without losing themselves. It is a family, a beautiful patchwork quilt, it is as the name “HOP” declares, unity. They do their own thing and some people hate it, but I love it. I’ve never had a band bring me as much musical joy as well as a sense of community as being a STAY.

All the releases of 2024 felt like a present for the fans, each one more exciting than the next, and that is why I think at first HOP did not grab me. There was an embarrassment of riches, too much to process, appreciate, or focus on. Three months later, I see the wonder of it all and hold HOP in regard as a unique experiment I’d enjoy listening to more of. They are always working on something new, what will 2025 hold? I look forward to finding out.

Yesterday, Today, and Forever

Tariffs. Bird Flu. Ragebait. Clickbait. Speculation. Social Media. Everyone has an opinion. Eggs. But you’re telling me no one has a solution? Anger. Tears. Can no one else see the Ha Satan clearly?

Closures. Monopolies. Let’s spiral. Small business. Big business. DOGE. AI. Algorithm, subscription fatigue. The death of personal style. Kindle downloads. Call BookTok, this 1984. The world is full of NPCs. Could you wake up from your main character energy?

Quiet the voices speaking lacking wisdom. Who knows no good deed. I’ve had enough. Power. Riches. They are for fools. Feel a calling, verses come into focus. So perfectly timed. Elohim. YHWH. Passing over. Lent is upon us. Cling to truth.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8 NIV

My Three Favorite Sewing Tools

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

I’m modifying this prompt slightly to focus on one aspect of my life – sewing. These are the three tools I can’t imagine working without. After four to five years of sewing clothes and trying out various tools and techniques, these are the cream of the crop for me. This is my just opinion. Depending on your sewing style and personality, this list would probably change. I’m sure if I was a sewist who went to design school, I would also have a different list.

Fabric Clips –

When I started sewing, I had no idea fabric clips were an option. I bought a Dritz tin of straight pins and a pin cushion. This is where things began to get uncomfortable. No matter how careful I am when I use pins, I stick myself. When I use pins for a fitting, the pins slip out of the fabric and scratch my skin. I find the pin tins spill easily which is terrifying if you don’t notice it because you are then surrounded by pins in a spill around your feet. When I found fabric clips, my sewing experience improved 180 degrees. I don’t get stuck and the clips stay in place. I can try things on my body and the dress form, without the discomfort of pins sticking or the annoyance of the pins slipping out of place.

Sashiko Adjustable Ring Thimble –

I’ve tried two kinds of thimbles. The first was the cylindrical metal thimble, which I found hard to use. It fell off my finger or I simply struggled to find the correct finger to place it on for my sewing. I tried another metal thimble that looks like a fencing mask, with an adjustable back. It stayed on my finger just fine. I could make it tighter or looser or move it to a different finger but it still felt odd. I noticed the thimble wasn’t providing the support I needed to push the needle through the tough fabric and in turn, was putting stress on my finger joints.

I was introduced to the Sashiko-style ring plate thimble through the account Geri In Stitches and was hooked. The idea of pushing the needle through dense layers by the palm of your hand instead of your fingertip made more logical sense. This has transformed my hand-sewing experience! I can sew longer without hand fatigue. The ring is comfortable. I hardly notice I’m wearing it until I’ve walked into another room with the thimble still in my hand. This is a Japanese thimble, for the sashiko technique, I am using it for general sewing, but the thimble and sashiko have a rich history of their own that you should check out.

Hand Sewing Needles –

I started my sewing journey by hand sewing before I purchased a Singer Heavy Duty Sewing Machine in 2022. It was my preferred method until my hands started showing stress and my mind was fed with how long garments were taking on a deadline. The switch to a machine was fantastic! I quality garments quickly. The only wrinkle was sewing machine maintenance and gremlins in the machine. Sometimes machines have attitudes. Sometimes you can’t get in sync without your equipment. Sometimes you drop the small screws into the machine and you are in a panic. It’s a wonderful asset but also a source of great frustration for me. For that reason, hand-sewing needles will always be by my side because they are easier to manage, and sometimes you and your machine need some therapy. Also, some projects call for the delicacy of hand sewing. It’s an art form that cannot be fully eclipsed by the machine. For example, how can you attach a button or hook and eye closure without a hand-sewing needle? It’s best to keep them handy.

#70 – The Cold, Patience, BBC Pride and Prejudice

This winter, it’s wildly beautiful with it’s near constant snow accumulation (uncommon for where I live) and icy drops in temperature where we spent a month or so below 32 Fahrenheit. These rhythms of snow, ice, and cold fronts entering the atmosphere on a Friday and lasting all weekend led to many weeks of waiting, being still, escaping to my Stardew Valley farm. Waiting for the winter to pass, knitting away my boredom.

Time Passing Marked By Candles

We made a balloon arch for my birthday, a Brooklyn 99 high honor, and I decorated the living room with Stardew Valley garlands, making the time lost to snow and ice marked with something to remember.

In this waiting, I’ve had unwelcome house guest of Winter, the lingering cold. I had a troubling cold over Christmas, with sinus pain that kept me awake through the night. I thought it was gone as we entered January but I realize now the cold retreated but hovered in the shadows throughout the long mid-winter until Valentine’s Day when it re-animated and gave me some of the worst congestion, ear-aches, and sinus pain I can remember. I couldn’t lay down without the sinus pressure pain building, I couldn’t sleep. I felt miserable.

The Grim Night

I think the hardest part of feeling sick is the mental part. The patience to do nothing, and let go of the goals in your  mind. It’s boring! There was a few days of utter boredom. Knitting felt like too much, taking naps would trigger the sinus pain, and I remember   feeling useless, empty, and void of joy.

I felt deeply frustrated. Why was I going through a second round of this? Why is this happening to the point that I can’t write, or work on my projects, I can’t even keep up with my share of the housework. How long until I feel normal again?

When we lack health, it is the only thing we crave. It truly is more valuable than money. As I go further into adulthood, I growing in appreciation for the little things like health, a boring day where you feel great, and you tend to forget this feeling looking back on it. It blends with the others, but those ordinary moments are what give us such rich life.

Like those mild days of the year, those 60s or low 70s and sunny days, they blur in the background of the weather extremes, but really those days were probably the most mood boosting of the year.

Shall the Shades of Pemberly Be Thus Polluted?

One of the few things that gave me joy during that week of sickness was BBC’s Pride and Prejudice 1995.

It was my first watch. I’ve read the book and watched the 2005 version, but this series had escaped me. I think I put it off because I though it was a hipster scheme. How could this one be so much better than the 2005 movie? With its soundtrack and cinematography? The hype was real, it’s spectacular.

It’s a series I could watch again, and again, for those nature shots and the beautiful furniture. The costumes are true regency in design, compared to the 2005 version. Each character is flushed out like book and it is simply a treasure. 😍

Nothing Nice to Say

February and January to be honest have been a challenge for me creatively. I haven’t known what to write about without it sounding like I am complaining. There is a lot of crap going in the world and it’s been a struggle for me to keep my eyes fixed on the good.

When I’m in this mood, like I was during our house buying process in May 2024, I struggled to write on here as well. I didn’t want to complain and also didn’t feel inspired because of the distractions. And so, time passes.

In this time I’ve been listening, reflecting. I’ve been enamored by the latest Bible Project series. I’ve been waiting for the final blow for Joann’s which happened. I’ve been researching new sources of yarn and fabric, keeping my eyes and ears open for new brands to fill the void.

I started reading again – beginning with an attempt to re-read Crime and Punishment which I shelved for now after Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov‘s long rant in the bar. I was feeling too sick at that point to envelope myself in that misery and pivotted to Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim.

I have filled my days with the soundtrack of Aespa, Stray Kids, and Red Velvet. We even started a new K-drama, Crash Landing on You, which I’d like to write about along with Business Proposal and Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

We’re re-watching Only Murders in the Building and laughing our way through Impractical Jokers. All the while I’ve been working on several knitting WIPs that I look forward to sharing! Along with a Mia update, she is one happy bun, and has become a cuddly little friend who desires our company. My heart is full. 🥰

I hope wherever you are in the world, you are feeling healthy, loved and know how much I appreciate you, reader, who spend time with me here. I wish you a lovely weekend!

Using Spreadsheets to Plan Our Garden

Confession time: I love spreadsheets. Dating back to middle school when I first took a Microsoft Excel class, I’ve enjoyed using spreadsheets to organize things, including addresses, finances, birthdays, and more. I love being organized but don’t always take the time to be organized. Thus, I’m very thankful that spreadsheets exist because they help with sorting, filtering, and searching through information much faster than we can do ourselves.

How does this apply to our garden? When we started looking through catalogs and initialing the seeds each of us wanted to grow, I quickly realized that we needed to figure out a way to keep track of everything. In a previous post, I mentioned that we looked at over 5,800 seeds and probably initialed over 1,000. Because of that, it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed by an abundance of choices. I’d like to share the system I came up with to help you if you too have felt overwhelmed by garden planning.

Initial Marking of Seeds

I’ll keep this section brief because I’ve touched on it in other posts, but our planning process started with both of us flipping through the catalogs and marking the seeds we were interested in. We went through all sections in every catalog and marked any seeds we even had the slightest bit of interest in, flowers included. Some of the choices weren’t all that realistic because they don’t grow well in our area or are above our gardening ability at this time, but we didn’t want to miss anything.

A helpful note: Use a pen rather than a pencil and choose one with an ink color that will stand out from the text and page color of the catalog. I made the mistake of using black ink on the Fedco catalog, which is all black and white, and it was easy to overlook some of our marks. I also recommend giving each person a different color of pen. That will make tracking everything even easier.

From Catalog to Notebook

The next step in the process was figuring out what seeds we initialed the most. A lot of the seeds were found in multiple catalogs, so it was important to know which ones we marked more than once, which would indicate the varieties we were most interested in. Eventually, the goal was to track this information in a spreadsheet, but I started with a notebook so that I didn’t have my laptop and all the catalogs in front of me at one time.

I devoted a page in the notebook to each vegetable and went in alphabetical order, beginning with beans and ending with tomatoes. I combined some together on one page to make it easier:

  • Watermelons, canteloupe, muskmelons, and honeydew
  • Radishes, turnips, and parsnips
  • Cabbages, mustards, Asian greens, spinach, and bunching onions

From there, I looked at all the varieties of one vegetable in each catalog, taking note of the ones we initialed. I wrote down the seed name and what catalog we found it in, using an abbreviation for each company. Using beans as an example, it looked something like this:

  • Blue Lake 274 – RS (Rohrer), PG (Pinetree Gardens), NE (NE Seed), BC (Baker Creek)
  • Provider – FS (Fedco), HMS (High Mowing Seeds), PG
Here is the corn page from the notebook I kept. My handwriting isn’t the best, but as you can see, all the varieties are written on the left and the seed companies to the right.

I did this for every vegetable/fruit. And by tracking how many catalogs we found the seed in, I could see how interested we were in that seed. So, if a seed was marked in 7 of the 10 catalogs we looked at, it indicated we were more interested in that seed than one we only marked in 3 of the 10 catalogs. That didn’t mean we always purchased the most popular seeds, though. Some seeds were only found in 1 or 2 catalogs, but we were so interested in them that we were going to buy them anyway. Finally, being able to look at a notebook page and see trends across the most popular seeds (such as picking a lot of bush beans, pickling cucumbers, or paste tomatoes) would give us an idea of what we were most interested in even if it wasn’t always the same specific seed.

After I wrapped up tracking everything in the notebook, I moved everything to a spreadsheet.

Building the Spreadsheet

Figuring out all the columns to include in the spreadsheet was the most difficult part of this process. I started by determining the goals of the spreadsheet. I knew that I wanted to be able to visually see which seeds we picked the most from the catalogs, compare the price of the same seed in different catalogs, and have links to quickly access the seeds’ pages on the companies’ sites. With those goals in mind, I set out to create columns that would include the most important information. I created columns for the following:

  • Seed Name
  • Variety/Type – This column wasn’t used for all vegetables. I used it for beans (bush/drying, long beans, edamame), corn (flint/dent, popcorn, sweet, ornamental), cucumbers (pickling, slicing, specialty), husk tomatoes (ground cherries, tomatillos), other greens (cabbage, onion, mustard, spinach), melons (cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, specialty), peas (snap, shelling, snow), peppers (sweet, hot), potatoes (early, mid, late, fingerling), squash (winter, eggplant, specialty, kabocha, yellow, zucchini), and tomatoes (beefsteak, cherry, paste, pear, plum, slicing)
  • Organic? – This was a drop-down with “Yes” and “No”
  • Seed Company – This also was a drop-down with an option for each of the seed companies we were considering.
  • Page Number – The number in the catalog where the seed is found. The goal here was to make it easy to find the seeds again.
  • URL – The link to the seed’s page on each site.
  • Price – How much does the seed packet cost?
  • Quantity – How many seeds do you get in a packet?
  • Special Notes – This was the place to add a note if the seed is an heirloom, if it’s sold out or is back-ordered, or is a pollinator in the case of flowers.
This is the Husk Tomatoes page of the seed information spreadsheet. This is one of the smaller pages, so everything can be viewed.

After that, I started filling everything in. If figuring out what to include in the spreadsheet was the most difficult part of the process, filling it out was the most time-consuming. I tried to get through one vegetable per day, but the whole process took roughly 10 days. Once I was done, though, I was able to quickly access any seed, either its webpage or in the catalog, and I could sort by seed name, variety or type of vegetable/fruit, and price, among others. Being able to do that when it was time to make final decisions was priceless.

Lessons Learned/What Did & Didn’t Work?

There were a few things that ended up not being ideal even though there was no way to plan for it or nothing that could be done about it. One was receiving two seed catalogs in the mail after I started filling out the spreadsheet. This meant that the drop-down menus were missing the two catalogs, and I didn’t want to change the drop-down rules and potentially mess up the entire column. Instead, I manually entered the seed company’s name, overriding the drop-down menu entirely.

The second not-so-ideal thing is how big the spreadsheets got. Before starting, my plan was to use the drop-down menu for the seed companies and select all the companies where a seed was available. That wouldn’t have been an issue. The issue would have been adding the URL, page number, price, and quantity for every seed since they all would have had their own line. So, if we found the seed in 8 catalogs, each cell would have been 8 rows tall. It also would have been difficult to compare across the columns.

Now on to some things that I didn’t think about including or messed up and will fix for next year’s spreadsheet. The biggest oversight on my part was not including the price per seed when I originally built the spreadsheet. I only included the price of the packet and the seed quantity, not realizing that it’s more important to know the price per seed since there were large quantity differences. For example, consider the Ping Tung eggplant. We found it at 3 companies. NE Seed sold 750 seeds for $8.95, MI Gardener sold 30 seeds for $2.00, and Baker Creek sold 25 seeds for $3.00. Given the difference in price and seed quantity, it was hard to figure out what was the most cost-effective. I eventually used a blank column to the right of everything to calculate the price-per-seed cost. In this case, NE Seed was the cheapest at $.01/seed. MI Gardener was $.07/seed, while Baker Creek was $.12. Funny enough, we actually bought the seeds from Baker Creek because we weren’t buying anything else from MI Gardener and we didn’t need 750 eggplant seeds from NE Seed.

Similarly, I wish I had created distinct columns with yes/no drop-down menus for heirloom, if flowers are pollinators, how much sun a flower requires, and a separate special notes column where I could write if a seed was out of stock. In general, it was a great first edition of the spreadsheet, but there is always room for improvement.

Bonus: Tracking Growing Information

After we ordered our seeds, I created two more spreadsheets. The first is a general growing guide with information that serves as a guide that we can quickly access, sort, and search. Initially, it was just to track the start dates of everything so we could sort and know the order of when each seed needs to be sowed. It expanded to also include columns for germination time, distance between seeds, soil PH, fertilizer needs, watering information, and any other helpful notes. I want to keep much of this content in a field notebook that we can carry out to the garden with us, but this is helpful because it can all be viewed on one screen.

Seed starting information currently sorted by direct vs. indirect start.

The second spreadsheet I created was a companion growing guide. Companion planting is when you grow plants close to each other that benefit one another. The plants can be all vegetables or a mixture of vegetables and herbs or flowers. The idea behind companion planting is that some plants are natural pest or animal deterrents that reduce the need for pesticides or barriers and keep said pests or animals away from plants that normally attract them. Companion planting also works to put certain nutrients (such as nitrogen) back into the soil so that heavy feeders (like corn) will have quality soil throughout the growing season. This can reduce the need to fertilize as often or as much. In the future, I will likely write a standalone post about companion planting, so I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but it’s something Magz and I are interested in. So, I created a spreadsheet to track what plants should be grown in close proximity and which ones should be kept far apart.

A small glimpse at the companion planting guide.

How Do You Plan Your Garden?

I probably overthought organizing and planning our garden, but spreadsheets greatly helped me keep track of everything. Do you use any tools to organize and plan your garden? If so, what is your go-to method? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and if you found this information helpful, please let me know.

1

Guide to Choosing Vegetable Seeds

Tomatoes, Beets, Beans
Up from the ground, watch them grow
Decision Fatigue

The above poem was a bit of an homage to James May who ended each episode of his Amazon series Our Man in Japan with a Haiku. I’m not overly good at them but find them a joy to write. The point of that Haiku, and this post, is to discuss the difficult decision of choosing what seeds to buy and grow.

So Many Seeds!

In our previous gardening post, I covered the seed catalogs that we requested and reviewed the ones we ordered from – 7 of them. In total, we ordered 82 seed packets and got an additional 3 for free from Baker Creek. A rough estimate shows that the companies we ordered from are offering more than 5,800 seed varieties this year. So, we ordered less than 2 percent of the seeds we looked at. It’s a lot, and toward the end, all of the seeds sound the same.

Where to Start

The first thing Magz and I did when thinking about seeds was to figure out what types of vegetables we were interested in. We knew we wanted to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, beets, potatoes, and carrots. We also have experience growing beans, corn, melons, peas, and pumpkins and wanted to give them another go. In the past, we grew all of these in containers and want the chance to grow them in a more traditional, in-ground garden.

There are also a lot of new seeds we’re going to try:

  • This winter, we’ve remembered how much we enjoy eating broccoli and want to have it fresh throughout the summer.
  • Aldi sells an avocado tomatillo green salsa that we’ve been buying for years and are going to try growing tomatillos.
  • Similarly, ground cherries sound very tasty and, like tomatillos, are husk tomatoes.
  • We love to cook Asian food and want to give different greens and cabbages a try. These include mustard greens, bok choy, and bunching onions.
  • At the last minute, I noticed that Baker Creek sells Scotch Bonnet pepper seeds. Scotch Bonnet peppers are used in Caribbean jerk marinade and are tough to find in our local grocery stores. We’re going to grow those to give us an authentic flavor.
  • Similar to Asian greens and cabbage, we’re going to give radishes and turnips a try. We have a great climate for these and both are healthy. Also, I think Animal Crossing (Stalk Market) and Stardew Valley may have influenced our decision.
  • Finally, we get to squash. We have been eating a lot of green and yellow zucchini this winter, and both grow very well in our region (6A). We also like eggplant and are going to give a couple of winter squash varieties a go. These are similar to pumpkins but are technically squash.

Choosing What Varieties to Grow

Once you determine what vegetables you want to grow, you have to decide what varieties to grow. I’ll go over some of the decisions for each vegetable/plant as well as what seeds we purchased. I didn’t include radishes, turnips, Asian greens, or cabbages in this list because I’m not familiar enough with growing them to discuss the decisions you need to make when picking seeds.

Beans

Decisions to Make:

  • Bush vs. Pole: This refers to how the bean plant grows. Bush plants have a bushy growing habit, staying compact and growing their beans in bunches. Pole beans, also known as runners, require trellising or another type of support that the plant’s vines will climb. Some varieties can climb 8-10 feet. Historically, Native Americans would grow their beans at the base of corn plants because the bean’s vines would climb the corn stalks.
  • Snap vs. Shelling: Snap beans are typically eaten fresh or stored via canning, freezing, or pickling. Green beans are snap beans. Shelling beans are also called drying beans and are left on the vine for the pods to dry. Once dried, they are shelled, the beans are removed, and stored. Black beans, pinto beans, and navy beans are all of the drying variety. They need to be rehydrated before cooking and consuming.
  • There is also edamame or soybeans. These grow similar to bush beans; however, you shouldn’t eat the shells.

What We Picked:

  • Provider Green Beans – A variety that’s been around for five decades and is a staple in American gardens. We got ours from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Red Swan Snap Bean – Another bush variety with a red pod and green beans inside. These came from Baker Creek but were bred by Robert Lobitz.
  • Jamapa Dry Bean – A style of black bean used as a side dish with tacos or in Frijoles Negros. This seed is similar to the popular Black Turtle Beans but originates from Veracruz, Mexico. We got our seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
  • Kebarika Dry Bean – Another bush variety, this bean comes from Kenya. Produces a purple and white speckled bean. Can also be consumed fresh if picked in time. These also came from Southern Exposure.
  • Chinese Red Noodle Long Bean – A Chinese heirloom that produces pods around 18 inches long. The plant has to be trellised as the vines can reach 8-10 feet. Bought from Baker Creek.

Beets

Decisions to Make:

  • Color: Red beets are the most common in the United States. They’re consumed fresh, cooked, and canned/pickled. Golden beets are typically more mild than red beets. White beets can either be albino versions of red beets or sugar beets, which are used to make beet sugar. Finally, there is a specialty beet called Chioggia, or candy striped. The root has alternating white and red stripes and is beautiful when sliced.

What We Picked:

  • Chioggia – As mentioned above, this variety is also known as the candy-striped beet. It’s an Italian heirloom variety that dates back to the 1840s. We got our seeds from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Cylindra – This variety has more of a carrot shape than the traditional globe shape of most beets. Their roots can reach 6-8 inches deep. A Danish heirloom that dates back to the late 19th century. Ours also came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Detroit Red – The Detroit Red is the most popular beet grown in the United States and is considered the standard for home gardeners. It can be eaten fresh, canned, and frozen. Once again, ours came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Golden – Similar to the Detroit Red but won’t stain your hands, clothing, counter, or cutting board. We bought ours from Baker Creek.
  • Wintersonne – Also known as Winter Sun, this variety is a Swiss heirloom. It’s sweet and earthy but extra crunchy. This seed also came from Baker Creek.

Broccoli

Decisions to Make:

  • Broccoli: I’m unsure if this deserves a more specific name, but by broccoli, I’m referring to the plant that produces green heads.
  • Broccoli Raab: Spicier than regular broccoli and doesn’t form heads. Matures much quicker.

What We Picked:

  • Calabrese – The Calabrese broccoli has a relatively compact plant and produces a 3-6 inch main head with multiple smaller side heads. It originates from Italy and arrived in America in the 1800s. Our seeds were purchased from Pinetree Gardens.

Carrots

Decisions to Make:

  • Orange vs. Specialty Colors: We typically think of carrots as orange because that’s what’s in our grocery stores, and it’s what Bugs Bunny ate (side note: rabbits shouldn’t have a lot of carrots as they’re high in sugar). However, the first carrots were actually purple. If you’re looking for the traditional carrot, you can’t go wrong with orange, but if you’re interested in experimenting, growing purple, red, or yellow carrots can be a lot of fun. Non-orange carrots even have different nutritional benefits.
  • Early vs. Main Season: Early season and main season correspond to how long it takes the carrot to reach maturity. Early-season carrots can take between 50 and 70 days to mature, grow fast, and tend to be shorter. These are great carrots for Northern gardens and in containers. Main-season carrots can take anywhere from 55 days all the way up to 100 days. These tend to have deep roots and store better. Grow some of both types and succession garden to have carrots all season.

What We Picked:

  • Black Nebula – A deep purple main-season carrot that takes 70 days to mature. The roots grow to 6-8 inches in length and the color is so rich that it can be used as a dye. We bought ours from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Bollin – An orange main-season carrot that takes 75 days to mature. Its roots also grow to 6-8 inches in length and have great storage properties. It matures about 20 days sooner than similar varieties. These seeds came from High Mowing Seeds.
  • Dragon – A beautifully colorful carrot that is reddish-purple on the outside but orange inside. It takes 85 days to mature and grows 7-inch roots. These came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Little Finger – An early-season carrot that only grows to about 3 1/2 inches long and matures in 60 days. We’re planting it because it can be grown in succession and can be planted close together. These also came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Uzbek Golden – The Uzbek Golden carrot hails from Central Asia and is an important ingredient in making plov, one of the most famous dishes in the region. It’s golden in color and has a consistent shape that doesn’t taper like most carrots. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.

Corn

Decisions to Make:

  • Sweet vs. Popcorn vs. Milling: Most home gardeners will grow sweet corn, but there are also popcorn and milling/flint varieties. Sweet corn is eaten fresh or preserved, popcorn is dried and popped, and milling corn is dried and ground for cornmeal or flour. There are also some ornamental varieties that are dried and used as decorations during the fall. Within the family of sweet corn, there are bi-color, yellow, and white kernels as well as different levels of sweetness. Traditional sweet corn is sweet but not overpowering, but we’ve since developed hybrid varieties that are super sweet.
  • Stalk Height: This may seem like a weird category, but it is important depending on your garden’s location. Previously, we had some success with growing a shorter, 4-5 foot variety in containers. The roots took and the stalks grew, but they didn’t reach maximum height and the ears didn’t fill out as much as we would have liked. If you have a well-established garden with loose soil that is rich in nitrogen, you can grow corn with stalks greater than 7 feet tall. How much wind your garden receives also plays a role in how tall you want your stalks to be. If your area isn’t windy or you have a wind barrier such as sunflowers, a solid fence, or a building, you can have taller stalks than a garden with no protection.
  • Kernel Color: Most sweet corn varieties fall into one of three categories: yellow, white, and bi-color (yellow & white); however, some heirloom varieties will have dark, blue/black kernels. Flint, popcorn, and ornamental varieties can be a wide range of colors, including blue, red, purple, orange, black, and brown. Heirloom varieties are incredibly colorful.

What We Picked:

  • Hopi Blue – A flint/flour variety that is one of the oldest grown in North America. Early versions of it date back 800 years in Northern Arizona. The Hopis used it to make ceremonial bread. It has tall 9-foot stalks and grows 8-10 inch ears. We bought ours from Fedco, who pays Indigenous royalties on it.
  • Black Iroquois, Mexican Sweet – This is the heirloom sweet variety referenced above in the kernel color section. The kernels are white for most of the growing process and turn black/blue late in the milk stage. It’s a shorter plant at 5 1/2 feet. The seed dates back to the 1860s in Upstate New York and likely originates from the Iroquois Black Puckers. Our seeds came from Southern Exposure.
  • Butter and Sugar – A classic bi-color sweet corn, Butter and Sugar is one of the most popular seeds available. The stalks are 5-6 feet tall and the ears are 8 inches long. We bought ours from NE Seed.

Cucumbers

Decisions to Make:

  • Bush vs. Vine: As discussed with beans, this has to do with the growing habit. Bush cucumber plants stay relatively contained and compact. They can grow a couple of feet tall and may need a stake for support but don’t sprawl. Vining cucumbers, on the other hand, do. Their vines can spread 7 feet out from the hill and take over entire sections of your garden. Bush plants tend to have smaller fruit than vining plants.
  • Pickling vs. Slicing: This decision is pretty straightforward: Do you want your cucumbers to mostly be for fresh eating (slicing) or pickling. Pickling cukes tend to be crunchier than slicing cukes, but both types can be eaten fresh and pickled. To be safe, you should grow both and eat a lot of cucumbers.
  • Specialty Cucumbers: These are cucumbers that either aren’t green in color, don’t have a traditional cucumber shape, or don’t taste like most cucumbers. I recommend growing these in addition to a pickling or slicing cucumber but not as a replacement.

What We Picked:

  • Boston Pickling – An heirloom variety that dates back to the late 19th century. Grows on a vine and remains crunchy when pickled. Small enough to be pickled whole but can still be sliced into spears or chips. Ours came from Southern Exposure.
  • Tendergreen – A slicing cucumber that is nearly a century old, Tendergreen grows on a vine. It can be harvested young for pickling or left to mature to be a slicer. It’s a burpless variety that doesn’t have the aftertaste of other cucumbers that some find off-putting. Our seeds came from NE Seed.
  • Richmond Green Apple – A specialty that’s an heirloom from Australia. Harvested when it’s the size of a lemon and is green with white stripes like a watermelon. The texture is crispy like an apple. We’re very excited to grow this variety. Our seeds come from Baker Creek.

Melons

Decisions to Make:

  • Picking a Type to Grow: There are a lot of fruits within the melon family, including cantaloupes, muskmelons, honeydew, watermelons, and varieties popular around the world that I’m uncertain how to categorize. As a side note, most of the fruit we call cantaloupes in the United States aren’t actually cantaloupes. They’re muskmelons. Muskmelon refers to the larger family of fruit, while cantaloupe refers to a single variety. Within each type of melon are a seemingly-endless number of seed varieties to pick from.
  • Will it Grow Where You Live?: Most melons require hot temperatures and the right climate to fully mature. That’s why the majority of the watermelons we see in grocery stores are grown in Florida. The state’s climate and sandy soil make for a perfect environment. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have success in other locations. Just take note of the temperature and soil requirements of a seed before purchasing. If you live in a Northern climate, you can also give the seeds a head start by starting them indoors.

What We Picked:

  • Ali Baba Watermelon – This heirloom comes from the Middle East, with these seeds originally being sent from an Iraqi man over two decades ago. This seed produces fruit in the 12-30 pound range with a light green rind. They store exceptionally well and grow in a variety of conditions. Said to be one of the best-tasting watermelons. This seed came from Baker Creek.
  • Noir des Carmes Cantaloupe – This is a true cantaloupe that dates back to before 1787 and was named for the Carmelite monks in France. Grows 2-3 pound fruits that transform greenish-black to orange and yellow when ripe. Bred to successfully grow in Northern climates. These seeds are organic and come from Southern Exposure.
  • Tigger Melon – This melon doesn’t fit into a pre-existing category. It has a creamy white flesh with a fiery red and orange skin. Much smaller than other melons at only 1 pound but has high yields. It’s an Armenian heirloom that grows in mountainous valleys along the Tigris River. Our seeds were purchased from Baker Creek.
  • Kajari Melon – Another melon that doesn’t really fit into a category, although it does have green flesh like honeydew. This Indian heirloom comes from the Punjab region and produces an abundance of 2-pound fruits that have orange and green-striped skin. These too come from Baker Creek.

Peas

Decisions to Make:

  • Shell vs. Snow vs. Snap: Shelling peas should be removed from the shell prior to eating them. The shells aren’t toxic but fibrous and difficult to consume and digest. Snow peas are pods that are harvested while the peas are immature, so the pods remain flat. Snap peas have fully mature peas inside an edible pod.

What We Picked:

  • Avalanche Snow Pea – These pods are 4-5 inches long on 3 to 3 1/2 foot plants. A very prolific variety that doesn’t require trellising. Our seeds come from High Mowing.

Peppers

Decisions to Make:

  • Sweet vs. Hot: Do you like sweet or hot peppers? Sweet peppers are self-explanatory, but there are many levels of heat with hot peppers. At the low end are jalapenos that are used in salsas, eaten fresh, or stuffed, while at the upper end is Pepper X, the hottest pepper in the world. Personally, I like spicy food but want flavor, so I typically top out with habaneros or scotch bonnets. Keep in mind that peppers love hot weather, and the longer they can stay on the vine in hot weather, the sweeter or hotter they become.
  • Shape of the Pepper: Sweet peppers tend to have the classic “bell” shape, but there are sweet peppers that have the shape of hot peppers.
  • Color: Sweet bell peppers can come in a variety of colors with the most popular being green, yellow, orange, and red. There are also some exotic colors like purple, brown, and white. All bell peppers start green and mature into their final color the longer they’re on the vine. So, green bell peppers are more bitter than red ones. Even bell peppers that are bred to stay green when mature will eventually turn red if left on the plant for too long. Hot peppers also come in many colors. Jalapenos are green, wax peppers are yellow, and habaneros can be many colors.

What We Picked:

  • California Wonder – A classic red bell pepper that has been bred to have strong disease resistance. Great when eaten fresh but also large enough to be stuffed. Our seeds were purchased from NE Seed.
  • Jamaican Scotch Bonnet – Scotch bonnet peppers and seeds are not easy to find where we live. They’re a vital ingredient in Caribbean cooking, including Jamaican jerk marinade. While habaneros are often used as a substitute, they’re not authentic to the culture and cuisine. We found our seeds at Baker Creek and are from a Jamaican farmer.
  • Banana – This seed was one of the free packets from Baker Creek. I love banana peppers, so we’ll definitely grow this seed. This variety of banana pepper is a sweet Hungarian wax with a pale green color that will develop into a red-orange if left on the plant. Despite its name, the Hungarian wax pepper originated in North America and was introduced to Central Europe in the 1500s.

Potatoes

Decisions to Make:

  • Early vs. Mid vs. Late Season: This refers to how long it takes for the potatoes to grow and when they’ll be ready for harvesting. Early-season potatoes can take between 65 and 80 days, mid-season potatoes between 80 and 90, and late-season potatoes more than 90 days. Early potatoes are great for fresh eating, midseasons have some storage properties but are generally a quality all-around potato, and late potatoes do well in long-term storage and can last through winter.
  • Color: Just like the potatoes you can buy in-store, you can buy seed potatoes for red-skin and yellow-skin potatoes. There are also purple-skinned potatoes, blue-skinned potatoes, and even potatoes with colorful flesh. Colorful potatoes are fun to grow, but the flavor isn’t different from white or yellow potatoes. They make for some interesting roasted potatoes or fries, but the color does leach out when placed in water.

What We Picked:

  • Dark Red Noland – These are our early potatoes for this year’s garden. They are a red-skinned potato with white flesh and were bred to grow well in Northern climates. They were developed by the North Dakota Agricultural College in 1957. Our seed potatoes were purchased from High Mowing.
  • Huckleberry Gold – A mid-season potato with a purple skin and yellow flesh, these potatoes are similar to Yukon Golds but are more resistant to tuber malfunctions and hollow heart. These seed potatoes were also bought from High Mowing.
  • Red Pontiac – We bought these to be our late-season potatoes. They have a red skin and white flesh and have a history of producing large yields. They store very well and will keep long into winter. They were first introduced in 1945 and are named after Chief Pontiac, an Odawa tribe war chief from the 18th century. These seed potatoes were bought from Fedco and a portion of the money is given to a Wabanaki project in Maine via Indigenous royalties.

Squash

Decisions to Make:

  • Summer vs. Winter: The most important decision to make when choosing squash seeds is summer vs. winter squash. Summer squash are green and yellow zucchini (yellow zucchini is often called yellow squash) and patty pans. I would also put eggplant in this category even though they aren’t technically squash. Winter squash varieties include acorn, butternut, buttercup, spaghetti, kabocha, and hubbard. Summer and winter refer to the time of the season when they’re harvested. Summer squash grow quickly (40-60 days) and are harvested before they’re fully mature, so their skin is still soft and edible. Winter squash, however, grow slower and fully ripen on the vine (80-100+ days). They develop a tough skin that is inedible but allows for the squash to store through winter in the right conditions. Pumpkins are also a type of winter squash.
  • Use: Summer squash is used fresh and can be consumed raw. We typically use green and yellow zucchini Asian stir-fries or rice bowls, but a lot of people will marinade and grill them or batter and fry them. Zucchini bread is also very popular and eggplant is made into eggplant parmesan. Meanwhile, winter squashes typically have to be roasted to be soft enough to eat.

What We Picked:

  • Ping Tung Eggplant – These eggplants are from Taiwan and have a long, cylindrical shape rather than the bell shape of most eggplants. This variety is an heirloom that was first introduced to the U.S. in the mid-1900s. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.
  • Zapallito Del Tronco – A green squash that has the shape of a small pumpkin (roughly 2-4 inches in diameter), this squash is also referred to as an avocado squash due to its creamy texture. It’s an Argentinian heirloom. These seeds also came from Baker Creek.
  • Candy Roaster Melon Winter Squash – Truly an American heirloom, this melon/squash was grown by the Cherokee people in Western North Carolina, and they shared the seeds with the Europeans who settled in the area. According to West Virginia University, there are 40 known varieties of this squash and 4 different shapes they can have. Our variety is pink and orange with some blue and green and has a pumpkin shape. The seed comes from Southern Exposure and is part of Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste.
  • Queensland Blue Winter Squash – A flattened round squash that can grow up to 20 pounds. A native of Australia that dates back to the 1880s, this seed arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s. The skin is a lovely blue color, but the flesh remains orange like a pumpkin. These seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Golden Glory – A classic, straight variety of yellow zucchini. It grows fast at 50 days and produces lots of fruits 7-8 inches long. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Black Beauty Zucchini – Iconic zucchini shape and color with dark green skin and firm flesh. An heirloom variety that dates back to the 1920s, Black Beauty grows fast at 55 days with 5-6 inch fruits. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • White Scallop – A scallop-shaped squash that grows fast at 50 days. A very old Native American heirloom with Europeans first depicting it as far back as the 1590s. An abundant crop that will produce a lot of fruit and has an excellent flavor profile. These seeds came from Baker Creek.
  • Seminole Pumpkin – An heirloom pumpkin variety that dates back to the 1500s and was grown by the Seminole tribe in Florida. Grows extremely well in hot, humid conditions and will produce 6-8 inch fruits that can store up to 1 year at room temperature. Our seeds are organic and were purchased from Southern Exposure.

Tomatoes

Decisions to Make:

  • What do you want to grow tomatoes for?: This question will determine what seeds you’ll want to grow. If you want to make sauce or tomato paste, you’ll want paste tomatoes. These tomatoes have fewer seeds and less water content than other tomatoes, producing a less watery sauce. If you want tomatoes for fresh eating, either as a snack or on salads, a cherry, grape, or pear tomato is your best option. These tomatoes are bite-sized and don’t need to be cut and grow abundantly. If you want a tomato that can be sliced for sandwiches, cut up for salads, or stuffed and grilled, you’ll want a larger, beefsteak tomato.
  • Determinate vs. Indeterminate: Determinate tomato plants have been bred to only grow to a certain height and often produce all of their fruits at one time. Often, paste tomatoes are determinates because you want as much fruit at one time as possible for sauce purposes. These plants usually don’t require support and only a stake instead of a cage when they do. Indeterminates, however, can grow very tall and need a cage or other support system to hold them up. Which style you choose will often depend on how much room you have to grow them in. If you’re growing in containers, you’ll want determinate varieties, but if you have an in-ground garden, you can grow either type.
  • Color: Do you like the traditional bright red tomato color do you want a rainbow of colors? Not many people are aware that they can buy yellow, orange, purple, blue, purple, and even green tomatoes. Growing a variety of colors can make for a beautiful garden.

What We Picked:

  • Yellow Pear – An heirloom variety that dates back to before the 18th century. An indeterminate variety that produces a lot of fruit and is resistant to heat. Our seeds are organic and were purchased from Southern Exposure.
  • Black Krim – An heirloom slicing tomato that originated in the Crimea region of Ukraine along the Black Sea. It’s an indeterminate variety that produces an abundance of dark purple, nearly black fruit that darken as they ripen. These seeds come from Sow True Seeds.
  • Queen Aliquippa – Another heirloom variety, this time from Pennsylvania. It was named after Queen Aliquippa, a leader of the Seneca tribe in the 1700s. This variety stays green even when ripe. An indeterminate variety that produces pear-shaped fruits. These seeds were also purchased from Sow True Seeds.
  • Indigo Pear Drop – A pear-shaped tomato with lots of orange fruit that ripen to have purple shoulders. An indeterminate variety from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Principe Borghese – An Italian heirloom that can be used for pastes and sauces or left out for sun-dried tomatoes. This variety dates back to the early 20th century in Southern Italy. Our seeds come from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Blue Beauty – A moderately-sized slicing tomato that ripens from red to dark purple. These were developed in the 1960s at Oregon State University. An indeterminate variety. These too came from Pinetree Gardens.
  • Mushroom Basket – The only beefsteak-style tomato that we bought, the Mushroom Basket tomato originally came from Russia and was bred in the late 1800s. The Mushroom Basket has fewer seeds than most beefsteak tomatoes. Grows fast at 75 days. Indeterminate variety. These seeds came from Baker Creek.

Have you ever grown any of these seeds? If so, did you have success? We’d love to hear about the seeds you’re growing this year and what your favorites are.

4

Remaking My First Sewing Project Four Years Later

Last September, I felt this aching in my creative heart to make what I didn’t make well the first go around. A project that some would say was insane to attempt as a beginner because of the difficult nature of velvet and the frustration that is sewing with stretch fabric. The dress pictured below was my first wearable garment. I saw the same purple stretch fabric on sale for Halloween at my local Joann’s and my heart skipped a beat. It still exists – I could try again!

You see the first dress I made was constructed so poorly that I ended up cutting it down into a skirt because I was embarrassed to continue wearing it out. After all, the bodice was bunching up and gathered strangely in the back. I lacked the confidence to keep going and try to alter the dress for success. I see now that it would have been an easy make to take out the gathers and bunches of fabric for clean seams, but that kind of thought came with trial and error. I needed a bit more experience and patience to make it right, and at the time in 2020, my younger self was not willing to wait.

But what if I am living in the past? My mind thought, maybe I should let it be and let the dress be a learning experience. I put the purple velvet down and left it, it was not on sale, it would be a sizeable impulse purchase at 15.99 a yard for 4 yards. I can’t justify 60 USD for a passing whim, that would be a poor use of money. So I left the daydream and moved on. Still thinking about that fabric. Another few weeks passed, finding myself in my local Joann’s again. It was my favorite place to explore. I went to the shopping plaza over the weekend where Joann’s remains live boarded up with the lights still on. It was eerie. I found myself thinking about what was blocked off inside? Was the fabric slumbering in the bolts, waiting to be made into something new? Would the yarn ever find a home in a fiber artist’s hands? It felt like a mistake, a bad dream, but it was not. It is over and now it is just a memory.

Anyway, on the second trip to Joann’s during the Halloween sales, I found my purple beloved. The bolt was still full, now marked down to 7 USD a yard. But this time I couldn’t get the project out of my mind. I’m glad I did give in to the creative urge or this project would be left without an ending. At the time, I had no idea Joann’s was going to go under. I thought I had plenty of time to remake this when in reality the window was closing. As I worked on this dress in 2025, I followed Joann’s story with frustration and weight of expectation. This remake is the final try, for this fabric I will never find again.

I made a different dress from the original and that surprised me. I believed going into the remake project that I would duplicate the same dress but with better technique. Instead, it was a project of feel. This time, I had a dress form I could drape the garment on. I had fabric clips with securely held the the slippery fabric together while on the dress form or for a quick test of fit on my own form. This time I understood proportion and where this dress would fit into my wardrobe instead of making a dress that only went with my moto jacket. I reinforced the shoulders and was thoughtful about my stitching, to make the garment strong. I added darts to pull the dress in where it was fitting baggy instead of leaving it like a velvet sack.

It became something new and I am okay with that. None of us are the same as we were years ago, we grow and evolve with every passing year. Making a dress for now, with the spirit and the fabric of my first garment, but with a new neckline and a new fit I think is an inevitability of learning and growth. I had the patience this time to try on the dress, mark what was not fitting right, and go back to work until it was correct. That was not something I was willing to do when I started, because it was all so new and confusing, but with time and practice, those new concepts became a familiar old friend. Like this tan carpet. It wasn’t until I looked at the 2020 mirror photo and the 2025 mirror photo that I saw it. The carpet in the house we bought looks just like the carpet in our apartment in Meadville. How random is that?

I have one more section of the purple velvet left over that I plan to make something with, possibly a mini dress, a blouse, or maybe a jacket. I think knowing this fabric is a relic now, makes me feel unwilling to finish this scrap project, because once it is done. I’m going to feel like my time experimenting with fabric from my first craft store is done. A chapter of my sewing life is over, and I hate saying goodbye. I’m a sentimental person. When things end, I take it hard. I dwell on the loss and muse on it. It might be unhealthy. It certainly makes life harder as a person who wants to keep things alive that are gone, it’s why I think I was drawn to study history in college.

As I keep making things, some of these projects become an archive of crafting past. What are some things in your own life that have moved from the present to part of your past? Does it surprise you to consider these things as your history instead of your current story? Thank you, reader, for joining me again down this sewing memory lane. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Where to Buy Garden Seeds?

A difficult decision when planning our garden for this year was which seed companies to purchase from. There are so many of them. Companies like Burpee, Ferry-Morse, Gurney’s, and Livingston have been around for over 100 years and have displays in Wal-Mart, Tractor Supply, Agway, and many other stores. They’re the companies that my dad and grandparents bought from and still do a very good job.

There are also many smaller companies that have popped up in the past 50 years that are focused on offering organic and non-GMO seeds. Some of the more well-known ones are Fedco, Territorial, and Baker Creek. These companies also usually focus on seed-saving and heirloom varieties. These companies tend to have a more local following but have grown in popularity thanks to YouTube gardening videos and blogs. With so many options, who do you choose?

Requesting Catalogs

When we gardened in the past, we ordered from Territorial, Fedco, and Baker Creek and bought Burpee, Livingston, and Ferry-Morse in person. We had successes and failures with all of them and don’t have an issue with any of the companies. Once we decided to grow a garden this year, we started casually talking about what we wanted to grow and what a garden could look like. Things didn’t get serious until November when I remembered that we needed to request catalogs. Maggie and I are both visual people who prefer the older system of looking at physical catalogs. I began by searching for companies that send free seed catalogs.

Side note: I’m never looking to take advantage of these companies. We won’t request catalogs from companies next year that we didn’t purchase seeds from this year. At the same time, though, we don’t want to pay for a catalog unless we’re certain to purchase from the company. I like when companies are willing to print and send their catalogs for free.

A Google search led me to a Farmer’s Almanac page that listed over 40 companies with free catalogs. Some of the listings were outdated, while other companies focused solely on flowers and trees. After filtering it down, we had a list of 10 companies:

  • Baker Creek
  • Fedco
  • High Mowing Seeds
  • NE Seed
  • Pinetree Gardens
  • Rohrer
  • Sow True Seeds
  • Territorial
  • Southern Exposure
  • Seed Savers Exchange

I requested a catalog from each and waited. If you’ve requested seed catalogs in the past, you’ll know that the time period between American Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is amazing because that’s when the majority of catalogs arrive. The first to arrive this year was Fedco, which was in our mailbox in late November, and the last was Territorial, which arrived after New Year’s Day. It got to the point where we were receiving catalogs that I forgot I requested.

The Joy of Seed Catalogs

Flipping through seed catalogs is one of the most enjoyable experiences of gardening. Maggie and I love the joy of having something on the television for background noise (nothing too engaging), each grabbing a catalog and a pen, and marking off seeds we’re interested in. I recommend using a pen to initialize any seeds you’re interested in. It’s a great way to not forget the ones you see, which is easy to do when looking at multiple catalogs or browsing a website.

When looking at multiple seed catalogs, you’ll find a lot of the same varieties. Almost every company sells California Wonder Bell Peppers, Amish Paste Tomatoes, and Provider Bush Beans. Those are all common and productive seeds that have been around for decades. Companies sell them because they have high success rates and good disease/pest resistance. What you’ll learn is that different companies have different niches. For example, High Mowing Seeds, which is based in Vermont, sells only organic seeds. Meanwhile, Baker Creek only sells heirloom varieties. Also, the company’s location plays a part in its offerings. Fedco and Pinetree Gardens, both based in Maine, sell a lot of root crops and cool weather vegetables (lettuce, spinach, turnips, greens), while Sow True Seeds (North Carolina) and Southern Exposure (Virginia) sell a lot of okra, melons, and southern peas.

Then there is the catalog’s design. Seed catalogs are great because each is unique. Does the company focus on the growing information, such as germination time, thinning distance, sowing depth, etc. or does it tell a story with each seed? Does each seed have an image of the grown vegetable? Does the company include all seeds in its catalog or do you need to visit their website to see everything? Do they include educational information like seed starting charts, isolation distances, or plant disease information? Finally, do they sell gardening tools, starting equipment, and soil amendments?

Who Didn’t We Buy From?

There were only two catalogs from this year’s group that we were underwhelmed by. Territorial out of Oregon had most of the same offerings as the other companies but at a higher cost. The other was Rohrer from Pennsylvania, which wasn’t expensive but also didn’t wow us. Seed Savers Exchange has a beautiful catalog and their main goal is to save seeds from going extinct. However, we didn’t buy from them because they were a bit pricey and we could find the same varieties from other companies.

What Were Our Favorites?

We bought from all the other companies listed in the bulleted list above. I’ll go over what we liked about each company and their catalog.

Baker Creek

Baker Creek offers two catalogs: a free one that is 164 pages and a 532-page version that is $14.95. We got the free version and found that it had plenty of seeds. Plus, you can look at their entire offering on their website. Their catalog is beautiful. The pictures are crisp and vibrant, the descriptions are detailed, and they offer varieties that other companies don’t. Two minor improvements could be having more growing information, such as germination time, sowing depth, etc., and how they have the seeds organized.

Their catalog is alphabetized, which is great, but some of the seeds are categorized in ways that make it hard to find things. One example is melons vs. watermelons. Both have their own sections in the catalog, while other companies keep them together. We bought a lot of seeds from Baker Creek. Their prices are reasonable, shipping was free and fast, and they include a free seed packet for every 5 or so you buy. We bought 28 seeds and got 3 free packets.

Fedco

Fedco’s catalog is one of the most interesting because it’s black and white. It looks like a 19th-century Sears and Roebuck catalog and is 175 pages, which I love. There aren’t photographed images, but instead, they use beautiful illustrations to show the plants and vegetables. Some illustrations are straightforward, while others feature fantasy or humor elements, such as wings on a Speckled Swan gourd or a T-Rex biting the leaf off Dinosaur Kale. I’m always tempted to grab colored pencils and color the pictures. Plus, they provide pictures of the vegetables on their website.

Fedco provides a wonderful explanation of each seed. They include information on the seed’s history, a description of the vegetable’s physical attributes, growing tips, disease resistance, and the seed’s breeder/keeper. This is important because some give royalties back to Indigenous tribes or to black farmers if the seed originated in Africa or is a part of black foodways. Fedco’s catalog is organized well and offers a lot of seeds. Our favorites are their potatoes and corn.

High Mowing Organic Seeds

Prior to this year, I hadn’t heard of High Mowing Organic Seeds, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to purchase from them. We love organic farming, but organic seeds can be expensive, so I was unsure if it’d be possible. As mentioned above, High Mowing is a 100 percent organic seed company based in Vermont. When the catalog arrived, I was blown away. It was 117 pages and included images for every variety, which is almost unheard of. The majority of companies have images for most seeds, but you need to visit their site to see the rest. High Mowing, though, includes clear images for every seed. The best part is that they use a common background for each vegetable. For example, all the beets are photographed against the same background, which helps to see the similarities and differences between the varieties.

The information they provide is helpful and succinct. Each vegetable has an introduction that describes soil needs, disease/pests, and transplanting information. Each variety includes the growing time, if the seed is a hybrid or is open-pollinated, if it’s an heirloom variety, and a brief description of the visual and flavor profiles. They then include a chart with the cost and quantity of each variety. It makes comparison shopping easy.

NE Seed

NE Seed is another company I hadn’t heard of prior to reading the Farmer’s Almanac page. The company is based in Connecticut and mostly sells to commercial growers, so their quantities can be massive if you’re a home gardener. However, they do sell a lot of seed packets, and their prices are amazing. Still, I wasn’t sure if we would order from them because I didn’t think it’d make sense to only order 1 or 2 seed packets from a company if we had to pay for shipping.

Their catalog is nice and easy to navigate. It’s smaller at 87 pages, but they include images for most seeds. They also organize their seeds alphabetically by vegetable and further separate them by variety. For example, in their corn section, they have bicolor, yellow, white, open-pollinated, popcorn, and ornamental. They also have a large Italian Gourmet Collection that features Italian heirloom seeds. These seeds are a bit more expensive than their regular seeds, but most companies don’t offer those varieties.

Pinetree Gardens

Pinetree Gardens is another company I hadn’t heard of before this year. Like Fedco, they’re based in Maine. For some reason, we seem to really like Maine seed companies. Pinetree is a small company that’s been around since 1979. I get the impression that it’s a family-owned company that cares about its employees, customers, and products. The catalog is 130 pages and is everything you want: quality images of every seed, good organization, simple descriptions with enough information, and clear icons for pollinators, organic, sun requirements, etc. They also offer a lot of growing supplies, teas, and bulk herbs. We were impressed and bought a lot from them. The seeds took a bit to ship, which was fine given the company’s size. They communicated with us the entire time and included personal touches in their emails.

Sow True Seeds

Another seed company we were unfamiliar with (there’s a theme here) is Sow True Seeds based in Asheville, North Carolina. Sow True is an employee-owned company that has been around since 2009. They’re devoted to only selling non-GMO seeds, offering educational opportunities, and giving back to the communities that helped to save seeds throughout history. Located in the South, they offer seed varieties that are vital to Southern cuisine and culture, including collards, okra, southern peas, and beans. They also sell varieties with interesting histories, including the Queen Aliquippa tomato, which was named for a Native American leader of the Seneca tribe who spent much of her life in Western Pennsylvania. That sold us on the company.

Their catalog is beautiful. It is shaped more like a book than a typical catalog. It is 103 pages and has lovely artwork on the cover, similar to the artwork found on some of their seed packets. The catalog is perfectly organized – everything is alphabetized and each seed type has a chart with information about planting depth, germination time, and spacing. There are descriptions of each seed and they’re clear about the number of seeds you get in each packet, which isn’t always the case. There is even a section in the middle with a planting guide for all seed types, a companion planting chart, and a seed starting guide. The only negative I have for their catalog is that they don’t include images for all seeds.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Finally, the last catalog we ordered from: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE). SESE is another wonderful seed company dedicated to preservation, education, and community improvement. They do a lot of work to help the hungry and partner with a program called Plant a Row to provide for those with food insecurities in their area. That is something important to Maggie and me. SESE’s catalog is 92 pages and has the classic newspaper page feel. Maybe I’m weird, but I like the texture of flat (unglossy) pages. Their catalog is full of seeds important to Southern foodways, and they include origin and breeder information.

Southern Exposure’s catalog is also visually stunning with lovely artwork on the cover that depicts faeries and elves (maybe gnomes) stacking stones for an exterior wall of a house. The faeries have butterfly wings on their backs, and there is a massive watermelon in front being cut with a two-person crosscut saw. It’s pretty enough that we may end up framing it. They also have lovely seed packets with colorful illustrations of the fruit on a simple white background.

We Could Never Only Choose 1 Company

Maggie and I knew that we were never only going to buy from one seed company. Going into this process, we were interested in multiple companies because we wanted to buy a wide variety of seeds that couldn’t all be purchased at one company. After looking through the catalogs, we fell in love with the companies’ missions, which we wanted to support. We are pleased with the companies we purchased from. We’re also confident that we’ll continue to purchase from them moving forward.

If you’re unsure about who to purchase seeds from, I recommend determining how many choices you want to have. If you only want to grow a few plants and have the most success you can, the seed displays in Tractor Supply or a feed store are great options. They typically carry the most popular varieties with a lengthy track record of success. However, if you want to look at as many varieties as possible or are interested in heirloom varieties, I recommend requesting a few of the catalogs in this post. You’ll be able to read about the varieties, compare them, and take notes all in one place.

Do you have a favorite seed company or any experience with the ones in this post? We’d love to hear from you. Happy growing.

8

Character Design: Mabel Mora and Her Sweaters

Going into the show, Only Murders in the Building, I knew the concept of the show was intriguing. It’s set in New York City, in a classic building, where whodunnit murders take place which the trio solve through their of the time true-crime podcast. The age difference between Selena Gomez and the other two leads Martin Short and Steve Martin gave the story layers from the trailer alone. I was pleasantly surprised by the character design and the costuming which layered depth to each character’s story, like a real person would express through the clothing items they choose.

The most relatable to my taste is Mabel Mora because she not only “knits” as a plot device for “Bloody Mabel” but also wears clothing that looks like someone who knits. Her knitwear throughout season one looks like pieces made by someone who enjoys knitting. They are not your typical off-the-rack sweaters and appear to be knit by hand instead of machine. What makes it feel real to me is the weight of the yarn compared to the knitting needles shown in her apartment. The needle she says would be her self-defense weapon of choice is a thicker needle, for bulky weight yarn. My guess would be somewhere between a size 11 and size 13 needle which is appropriate for bulkier projects.

The wooden knitting bowls, the needles, and the unusual designs of the sweaters featured in this scene speak to the craftsmanship of a hand-knit sweater and place Mabel’s knitting needle in her world. They appear to be knitting which is not always the case in TV shows or movies that feature acts of knitting, the best example of this being Gromit from the Wallace and Gromit series.

Although we don’t see this craft as often in Mabel’s scenes as we see her paint or sketch, the evidence of this hobby is peppered throughout the show from her infamous dream, her carrying the needle in her bag when she jumps tie-dye guy or what lands her the moniker “Bloody Mabel” in season two. Movies and TV shows of the last five years have fallen into a telling not showing manner of character development. For example, in the 2022 remake of Persuasion, Anne Elliot breaks the fourth wall to tell views that she and Frederick Wentworth are “exes” instead of developing the story through interactions, long drawn-out glances as we see in Emma (2020), or Pride and Prejudice (2005 & 1995).

Only Murders in the Building did not take the bait, and instead showed what a 20-something knitter would wear in New York City winter – her handmade sweaters made with yarn colors that look like you could buy them from your local yarn shop. It was a clever character hobby to give Mabel as knitting was growing in popularity with people my age and beyond in the last decade, truly exploding in popularity with the rise of crochet in the 2020s. Every sweater she wears in seasons one and two looks like something you could find a pattern for on the site Ravelry.

It was such a great way to add nuance to Mabel’s character, because how many characters in TV shows knit that aren’t older? She’s a girl with a troubled and complex history, you would expect her to be a party girl or have a dark streak, like the characters of Effie Stonem, Serena Van Der Woodsen, or Jenny Humphrey, but instead, she paints, she knits, she is relatable in a plot that can be quite over the top compared to reality. Mabel is a character I can relate to, which pulled me in from the start to a show that doesn’t feel like it is a modern TV show because of how thoughtful the writing is. It never feels like a cash grab and that has given me hope that maybe this time of reboots and CGI reliance will go out of fashion for stories that once again feel handmade, like a good hand-knit sweater.

Have you watched Only Murders in the Building? Did you like it?

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑