TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 6 PM

TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 6 PM

Seedlings

Start the New Year with Plants Grown from Seed, Save Money

Carrots are among the vegetables that should be seeded directly into the ground—they don’t take well to transplanting.

January is a time for fresh starts and new endeavors. One fascinating new adventure to embark on this year is actually one of the oldest practices of civilization: Starting plants from seeds.

It’s true that in a few months you’ll be able to walk into a garden center or home improvement store and find row upon row of vegetables ready for you to transplant into your garden. But there’s a certain magic to growing plants from seed, not to mention opportunities to save money and grow exactly what you want. You can learn all about successfully starting plants from seed in our January 15 class taught by farmer and horticulturist David Cole.

“There are several reasons to grow plants from seed, and cost is definitely one of them,” says Cole, Learning Lab manager and adjunct instructor of horticulture at Tarrant County College Northwest Campus. “If you’re only growing a few plants, that may not be an issue. But even for a family-size lot, you can save a lot of money this way.”

Some plants simply make more sense to grow from seed. “Some vegetable crops really aren’t appropriate for transplanting, like carrots,” says Cole. “And for plants that are very quick to mature, like some greens or lettuce, there isn’t time to start from a transplant.”

Starting Your Garden from Seed
Jan. 15, 9 – 11 a.m.

For vegetables that do benefit from transplanting, such as tomatoes, which thrive when replanted deeper in the ground than in their original pots, starting your own seedlings gives you more control over the process. “You can really baby that seedling and make sure it’s getting the best start,” says Cole.

One of Cole’s favorite strategies is to use seeds to prepare for the fall growing season. Vegetables including broccoli, cabbage, and spinach thrive in autumn. Cole teaches his students to begin seeds in the ground in what he calls a nursery bed—a small garden bed where seedlings can be placed close together and shaded to protect them from the summer sun. As temperatures start to drop, these seedlings can be transplanted into a regular bed. “This is easier than starting seeds inside in late winter or early spring, especially if you don’t have a greenhouse and need to find a place in your house with the right light and conditions for seedlings,” Cole says.

Growing plants from seed requires a certain amount of faith, says Cole. “When you plant a seed, you don’t know what’s going on. Does it need more water? Does it need more light? Why hasn’t it come up yet? Newer gardeners are more comfortable with an actual plant where they can see what’s going on,” Cole says.

But understanding a few simple techniques will give you the confidence to work with seeds, he asserts. “There are some basic things that have been true since your grandmother had a garden, really since the beginning of civilization when humans started farming,” he says. “You just need some faith that nature is going to work.”

Related Articles

Herbarium specimen from AABP project - Blakea spindet
Newsletter

Armchair Botany and the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program: Volunteers Make Scientists’ Hard Work Accessible

Important botanical science happens in the field. Researchers tramp across habitats, sometimes in remote and rugged regions of the world, collect plant samples, document the distribution of species and study ecosystems in action. Later those scientists return to the lab with boxes of specimens, and a new and equally important phase of research begins. Scientists label, mount and digitize specimens to make them accessible to the global science community. They become a resource that can be studied in multiple contexts–as part of an ecosystem or as a member of a particular plant family, for example.

Read More »
Group of students practice tai chi
Learn

Meditation in Motion: Discovering Tai Chi

Slow, deliberate, beautiful movement is the essence of tai chi. A practice that melds the mind and the body, tai chi improves balance and muscle strength while reducing stress and calming the mind. And you can learn all about it in the Garden’s upcoming wellness series, 24-Form Tai Chi.

Read More »
Two yellow lemons on a tree
Garden

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Citrus Trees

Picture it: you wake on a lovely fall day, walk onto your patio and pick a Satsuma mandarin from your very own tree. You peel back back the bright orange skin and bite into a perfectly ripe, tart yet sweet, orange. This could be you–with a little time, a little knowledge and a citrus tree of your own. The good news? You can find the knowledge and the trees at the upcoming Fall Plant Sale. The time you’ll need to provide yourself.

Read More »
Spray of water from an outdoor fountain
Garden

The Wonder of Water: Take your Garden to the Next Level with a Water Feature

We love our water features at the Garden, especially in the heat of summer. The long, tranquil basin that greets guests as soon as they enter the gates, the gushing fountain that stands in the center of the Rose Garden, the serene koi ponds of the Japanese Garden—there’s nothing else like the relaxing sound and sight of water. What if you could bring that peace and serenity back home with you? With a little time and effort, you can—with water features for your home garden.

Read More »
Mother and daughters on the way to school
Newsletter

Strengthen Family Connections with Back-to-School Traditions

The start of a new school year can be both stressful and thrilling. Certainly for families with school-age children, it’s a time of nervous preparation, of anxiety about the year ahead, of shopping and scheduling and strategizing. But mixed into that stress is excitement about new things to learn and new friends to meet. To foster excitement and reduce anxiety, Education Program Coordinator Joanne Howard encourages families to mark the start of the new school year by establishing family traditions.

Read More »