Weekly Garden Update #12 – Transplanting Starts, Watering, and Starting the Last Beds

In this week’s update, we were able to finally get our vegetable starts in the beds, spent a lot of time in the garden watering and weeding, and got a start on the last two garden beds. Plus, I share a few mistakes I’ve made with our garden and my plans to remedy them.

Transplanting Starts

In last week’s update, I mentioned that we had transplanted a bunch of flowers we bought last weekend. Those were planted in various places throughout our yard; however, due to cool overnight temperatures (high 30s) and a ton of rain (over 3 inches in a 24-hour period), we were uncomfortable with transplanting our vegetable starts. This past weekend, we were able to get them all in the ground. That included all the plants I started from seeds as well as a few starts we bought from the greenhouse. These were Black Krim tomatoes, tomatillos, ground cherries, and spaghetti squash. These were plants that we either didn’t have seeds for or wanted more security in transplanting larger starts.

Gardening, transplants, tomatoes — Transplanting a tomato start

Transplanting these was straightforward but time-consuming. Fitting the starts into beds that already have seeds takes some planning. We want our plants to complement each other by pulling and supplying nutrients in a mutually beneficial relationship. We also want to make sure we’re giving them enough space while also planning for more starts to be transplanted in the future. This process appears to have been successful.

We were very intentional in adding the appropriate soil amendment for each plant and also tried to keep the soil loose around the plant. If you remember back to the beginning of my writing about our garden, our soil is compact clay. We don’t think it’s ever been grown in, so the grass was pretty thick with well-developed roots.

Spending Time in the Garden & Watering

With seeds and plants in the ground, we’ve been able to spend a lot of time in our garden. We’ve largely transitioned from the planning phase to the establishing phase. We’re in the garden on a daily basis, checking for progress and assessing the need for natural pesticides or weeding. We also water on a daily basis at this stage while the seeds are still germinating or the transplants are taking root, and it takes a lot of water! We really enjoy watering with cans because it’s a more hands-on experience and bought a second watering can to help.

Regular watering also means we’re getting to put our rain barrel to use. Earlier in the spring, we bought a 55-gallon blue barrel and converted it into a rain barrel with water coming from our garage’s downspout. It’s difficult to believe how quickly it fills. A steady rain over a few hours will fill it from empty. It’s been nice not having to pay for the water we’re using. At the time of writing this, we have only had to fill one watering can with city water. Everything else has come from the rain barrel. I’m sure that will change throughout summer when it’s hotter and we may go a week or two without rain, but it’s still a wonderful blessing. We also plan to buy a second barrel for the other side of the garage. It’d be nice to eventually have three or four barrels around our house so we only have to use city water on rare occasions.

Starting the Final Beds

On Sunday and Monday, we got the final two beds started. On Sunday, Magz mowed down a large portion of grass and did the first pass with the tiller. On Monday, I followed up by tilling it a second time and also going back to a bed I started a few weeks ago and giving that one its first pass. With those beds started, we can see the finish line. We’re only a few tiller passes away from being done with that step in the gardening process, which feels like a huge accomplishment. It will also mean that the hardest work is done. When they’re done, the work will mostly consist of what I call maintenance: watering, weeding, and amending the soil. That will eventually lead to harvesting time.

What’s Next? Recognizing Seed Starting Mistakes

Between now and next week’s update, the plan is to continue tilling the last two beds, build a raised planter box for our long beans, and restart some seeds. The plan was always to start additional seeds once the first batch of seedlings was transplanted. We want to take advantage of the beds we have and grow as much as possible. What I didn’t plan for was the mistakes I made when starting our initial batch of seeds.

I have experience starting seeds and have had success doing so. However, before this year, it had been three years since we gardened, and I felt rusty. I turned to YouTube and blogs to refresh my memory, and I think they led me a bit astray. When putting the seed starting mix in the cells, I kept the soil loose rather than pressing it a bit, which resulted in the roots struggling to develop. I noticed a big difference between our starts and the ones we bought at the greenhouses. The greenhouse starts had roots that wrapped around the soil and allowed everything to come out in one cube. Meanwhile, our starts were loose with shallow roots. I think the soil composition had something to do with this. Other things I’m confident I messed up are how I watered the seedlings and the way I thinned them.

Moving forward, I’m going to make the following changes:

Tamping down the soil a bit before adding the seeds and also pressing down the soil that is added on top. In recent days, I’ve read about the importance of having contact between the soil and seed, which makes sense.
Pre-moistening the soil rather than relying on watering after the seeds are sown.
Watering from below rather than above. I went back and forth between using a spray bottle and a cup to water the seeds/starts. It became difficult to not flood the cells or potentially damage the young starts. This time, I’m going to fill the trays and allow the cells to dry out a bit in between waterings.
I will be thinning the starts by cutting them at the soil surface rather than plucking. I’ve learned that pulling the starts disturbs the roots of the plants you want to keep, which I saw evidence of.

I will follow up with how successful these changes are. Have you made mistakes in your garden that forced you to make changes? If so, I’d love to hear about it. I hope the mistakes I learned can help you in your garden. Happy Gardening!

May 27, 2025 0

Weekly Update #10 – Installing Our Fence, Exploring Greenhouses, and Planting Flowers

In this week’s update, the rest of our fence materials arrived, and we were able to install it around the majority of our garden beds. We also visited two local-ish greenhouses on Saturday and Sunday. This is our first chance to buy flowers to decorate our yard since we bought our house last year, and we’re taking advantage of it. After we bought the flowers, we spent some time this weekend planting the majority of the flowers we got.

Installing Our Fence

If you’ve been following the blog for a bit, you’ll know that we recently decided on the type of fence we’re using with our garden and purchased the materials we needed. As a refresher, we are using an extruded plastic mesh fence that is often used at orchards to prevent deer from getting to their fruit trees. Our fence came in 7-foot x 100-foot rolls and included zip ties and ground staples for anchoring. We bought 5-foot bamboo stakes in a pack of 50 that we attached the fence to.

The stakes went into the ground 8 inches, giving us roughly 50 inches above the ground. We placed a stake every 5 feet and used 3 zip ties per stake to attach the fence. We then put a garden staple between the stakes to anchor the fence to the ground. In general, it was a great process, and I think we made the right decision. It took about 45 minutes to install the stakes and another 45 to attach the fence. We were surprised by how easy it was to unfold the fence since it was folded into fourths. We also didn’t have too much of an issue with the fence stakes pulling over as we tensioned the fence.

We know that this fence won’t keep out everything, and a deer could jump it if it really wanted to. But at the same time, we’re pleased with how durable and affordable it is. We would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a cost-effective garden fence option, especially if you’re planning to upgrade it in a year or two. As an aside, we initially planned to put a smaller fence around each of our individual garden beds but ultimately went with one big fence to simplify things.

Greenhouse Exploration

This weekend was highlighted by visiting two greenhouses in our area. Both are family owned and have been in operation for over 80 years. Actually, one has been in business since 1919. Between the two greenhouses, we bought quite a few plants, including hibiscus, salvia, and begonia. The majority of them are perennials that can overwinter here. We also bought a few annuals and wildflower seeds for our furthest back flower bed. Almost all of the flowers and seeds we bought are pollinators.

Finally, we also bought a few vegetable starts. They are either plants that we didn’t have seeds for or really like the vegetable and wanted to ensure we had a great start to build upon in case we have trouble transplanting our starts. We also bought two cilantro plants to keep Mia (our bunny) in a constant supply.

After we got back from the greenhouses on Saturday and Sunday, we planted some of the flowers but still have a few that need to be transplanted. The weather was uncooperative both days, with a cold front coming through our area, which has led to cool weather, cloudy skies, and wind. It’s not a lot of fun out in the garden when it’s that windy and cold, so we planted the flowers we could and will handle the rest over the coming days.

Up Next

With the fence up, we are finally comfortable with planting most of our remaining vegetable seeds and transplanting our starts. The starts have been on our screened-in porch hardening off so that they won’t experience shock when transplanted into the ground. With the fence up, the risk of little critters getting to the plants has dropped considerably. We’re going to start transplanting our starts today.

We have been having successful germination of the seeds that Magz directly sowed last week. All of the greens and brassicas have germinated, while the root crops (carrots, beets, parsnips, and radishes) should germinate sometime this week. Once the rest of our seeds are planted and the starts have been transplanted, we’re going to start some more seeds inside to increase our potential yield, get our potatoes into the ground, and finish the last two garden beds. At that point, all of the prep work will be done…finally.

How is your garden coming along this year? Have you been able to get your seeds or plants in the ground yet? We’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading. Happy gardening!

May 19, 2025 1

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

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.

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.

March 9, 2025 0

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.

February 24, 2025 4

Why Garden?

If you’ve ever watched the Sean Brock episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, he tells the story of his upbringing in Southwest Virginia in Coal Country. His dad passed away at a young age, which led to Sean and his mom moving in with his grandparents where they had a massive garden. He talks about spending countless hours in the garden beds and kitchen with his grandmother sowing, growing, harvesting, and preserving all the food that came out of the ground.

I didn’t grow up in Coal Country and I didn’t lose a parent at a young age, but I am from the Appalachia region of Pennsylvania, specifically Central PA in the ridge and valley geological system. I grew up in a valley that was bordered on two sides by ridges. At both ends of the valley, it narrowed, but in the middle was vast farmland full of fertile soil. That type of setting led to a very simple lifestyle, one that still exists today. Nearly everyone has a garden in their yard and there is a large Amish population, so there are produce stands that dot the landscape during the spring, summer, and fall. Like Sean Brock, I spent a lot of time in gardens growing up. Whether it was a family member’s, a friend’s, or someone from church, there was always great conversation to be had when surrounded by plants. Because of all those memories, the garden is more than a provider of food. It’s a place that holds great importance to me. It’s become a home to me.

The Garden Is Home

Some of my earliest memories happened in or around a garden. My grandparents, with whom I was extremely close, always had what felt like a huge garden. They had a big yard behind their garage (some would call it a back forty), and I remember them growing potatoes, tomatoes, and green beans. I’m sure they grew a lot more veggies than those three, but I can still feel the dirt on my hands as we pulled potatoes from the ground and brushed them clean just like I can hear the snap of beans as we broke the stems off before they were steamed or prepped for canning. And because I lived with them when I was younger and later spent my summers there, I was always with my grandma in their garden or kitchen, learning the little nuances of when a certain vegetable is ready to be picked or how moist the soil should be.

The image quality isn’t very good (it was taken on a phone in 2012), but these are my grandparents.

My dad has always had a garden too. At the house he rented when I was younger, he had a small garden across the creek in the backyard. He was always interested in growing fruits and veggies that aren’t always common in Pennsylvania. He was the first person I can remember trying to grow cantaloupes (they’re actually muskmelons, but that’s another story for another time). Here in Pennsylvania, not a lot of people try growing melons in their gardens because the growing season isn’t the longest. But he did. They produced fruit but never grew bigger than a softball, and to my knowledge, he never tried growing them again. But his willingness to try something out of the norm has stuck with me all these years and influences my approach to gardening, which you’ll learn through my writing.

He continued gardening when he bought the property and built the house where he still lives. The soil was so rocky (PA is known for its widespread shale deposits) that it took years to get it workable, but he persisted. Today, he has 3 or 4 large beds. He largely sticks to the popular crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and onions, but he is still willing to experiment. Years ago, he learned about wild asparagus that grows along the side of the road and went on a hunt to find it. He did, and since asparagus is a perennial, he’s been transplanting and harvesting from the original starts 15 years later.

My mom and stepdad kept a modest garden most summers and only stopped within the past 10 or so years. They were always interested in growing paste tomatoes for sauce and later planted strawberries. They only stopped because it became too much work, but even then my mom would grow cherry tomatoes on her back patio that our German Shorthaired Pointer, Jasper, would eat off the vine. I hope I never forget the memory of him carefully plucking a ripe tomato off the vine. My mom would feign being upset, but I know that it brought her humor and happiness. I grew up surrounded by vegetable gardens and love passing time walking through rows of crops and talking about their progress or just discussing life in general.

When I went to college in 2010, things naturally changed. I didn’t travel back to Central PA as often and my mom stopped having a garden. Looking back, I was disconnected from nature in a way that I had never been before, which greatly impacted me. It took until 2015 for me to begin finding that again. Maggie says that she doesn’t have the same connection with gardens that I do, which is true, but I’ll never forget meeting her grandparents for the first time. They lived on a property in Western PA that everyone in the family referred to as the farm. At one point before they moved there in the ’70s, it had been a working farm, but Maggie’s grandparents used it as more of a hobby farm. Over the years, they had horses and chickens. They also worked the different fields, growing corn and other commercially-grown crops. When I met them, though, they were focusing their attention on a large garden where they grew LOTS of tomatoes. That first visit to the farm was incredible. I got to know Maggie’s grandparents by walking through their garden beds and grass fields, and it was the most welcoming first meeting with a significant other’s family that I ever had. It wasn’t necessarily because they did anything different from others, but the fact that we were able to spend time in a place that was so familiar to me made all the difference. That initial meeting led to more gardening conversations in the years that followed, and even though Maggie’s grandparents have since passed away, her aunt has carried on the gardening legacy started by her parents.

This year will be the first in-ground garden Maggie and I’ve had together. In her post introducing the gardening portion of the blog, she mentioned that we’ve given the Greenstalk a go and later did an all-container garden. Both were valuable experiences. We established our all-container garden in rows, so we could walk between the plants and feel the leaves. In the quiet moments when neighbors weren’t being nosy or gossiping, dogs weren’t barking, and mowers weren’t being run, it was magical and felt like home. The garden we’re building this year will be different, though. We’re going to have the chance to put down roots (both metaphorically and literally) on this property that God placed in front of us.

There are plenty of reasons to garden. I didn’t touch on the importance of knowing where your food comes from or how invaluable it is to have a pantry of food for the winter. I also didn’t touch on why we should focus on saving heirloom seeds that have been passed down through history. Those are all important reasons to garden. But for me, it all comes back to feeling at home. My senior seminar in college was on the subject of place, what it means, and its importance. I won’t bore you with what I wrote my senior thesis on, but looking back, I wish I had written about the importance of the garden in my life. Perhaps I would have been unable to write about it at that stage in my life, but I feel qualified now – it’s one of my homes.

With the increasing reliance on technology, I find myself missing simplicity more and more. My career requires me to be on my computer during the day. I love my job and am so thankful that God has me where I am. Yet, I still find myself longing to get away from technology and offline. I want to feel real tangible things, like fully ripe vegetables and properly drained soil, just as I did as a kid with my grandma. I choose to garden because it means being in touch with my roots. I’m able to feel a connection to my family members that transcends miles and years, and it takes me back to a much simpler time.

We look forward to sharing our garden with everyone, explaining our processes, and exploring the different seeds we are choosing to grow this year. We hope everything succeeds, but odds are, not everything will. So we want to share both the successes and failures and learn from what went wrong. Why do you choose to garden? Happy growing.

February 15, 2025 2