By Sonya Welter

The easiest way to start your garden is with transplants from a nursery, and for some plants this makes sense.

Here in Duluth, Minnesota, and in other cooler climates, the growing season simply isn’t long enough to grow hot weather crops like tomatoes or peppers from seed outdoors, and if you want to grow these vegetables at all, you’ll need to start seeds indoors several weeks from the last predicted frost.

Transplants cost more than seeds, but that way someone else does all the hard work of adjusting grow lights and fussing over humidity levels.

But there are some vegetables that, no matter where you live, should always be started from seed, because they grow quickly or don’t like their roots to be disturbed. It’s also a lot of fun to start some vegetables from seed, because that way you get to go out to your garden every day hoping to see little green leaves poking out through the dirt and reaching for the sky.

Radishes
Radishes are the sprinters of the Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

There’s a vegetable that’s perfect for getting your young kids started in gardening.

It also will go great with your salads and more.

What could it be?

Why, radishes of course.

It’s a great starter vegetable for kids because of the quick turnaround time. In less than a month, you’ll be able to pull out your mature radishes.

There’s two times of the year that are good for planting radishes, since they are a cool season crop. In the spring, start planting seeds as soon as the ground has thawed enough. Since they are so small, they are also a good candidate for container gardening. You can also plant another crop in the fall as the temperatures cool.

Mix some Read the rest of this entry »