Starting Seeds Indoors

The biggest way I save money and ensure that my family has quality food for little money is by growing our own food. Where we live, our growing season is a bit rough and requires some pre-planning to get the most of our season. We have a cool and short spring, and before you know it, summer is really heating things up. Once September comes, our focus shifts to harvesting and preserving as much as possible, as well as getting as many cool weather crops in before our first frost. In order to get the most out of our season, I begin by starting our seeds indoors, even some that I’m able to direct sow. Not only am I able to get a larger variety of produce than what’s available at my local supermarket, but it’s also really easy to do. And while it may take a little planning and pre-thought ahead of time, it doesn’t take a lot of hands on time.

Gather seeds for what you’re interested in growing. For me, I plant a lot of veggies, herbs and some flowers. You don’t need any fancy greenhouse set-ups, grow lights or heating mats that are sold at stores if you’re on a budget. As a matter of fact, if you’re just getting started, I’m going to recommend against it because it can get quite pricey. Nothing is worse than spending a bunch of money on something you’re still learning about. If you decide after experimenting a bit that you want to continue to grow your own food and starting seeds indoors is something you want to continue to do, then that’s the time to start investing. Believe me, the investment will quickly pay for itself.

If you’re just starting out, a warm, south facing sunlit corner has gotten me for many years, but it does take a bit longer to see any sprouts, especially when starting in January and February. They also get a bit leggy, so you do have rotate the plants every day or so. Instead of buying a ton of equipment, use some newspaper pots, recycled 6 cell packs from previous years, or even bottoms to water bottles and those red plastic cups. Your out of pocket cost up to this point will be just the cost of seeds and soil. Not bad!

Before you get started planting though, you need to determine your growing zone. Depending on where you live, a simple zip code look up may do. I prefer to use this interactive map. My post office, as well as all local towns, are in a valley, while I’m in a rural location on a mountain, nearly 800 feet higher in elevation. This results in a very different growing climate, to the point that I’m in an entirely different growing zone {and have gotten loads of unexpected sympathy from local nurseries as a result}.

After you’ve established your growing zone, you need to know what the average last spring frost date is. Keep in mind, this is an average. My zone says that my last frost date is roughly May 15th. We’ve had last frosts in the beginning of May, and some recent years, even more towards Memorial Day.

With your last frost date in hand, and a calendar nearby, start counting backwards. Depending on what you’re planting, you may need to start seeds indoors as early as January or February.

As a general rule:

Most herbs and brassica plants {broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.} are started indoors about 10-12 weeks before the last frost. They can be transplanted outside around 5 weeks before the last frost.
Nightshades {tomatoes, eggplant, peppers} can be started indoors about 7 weeks before the last frost. They can be transplanted at the last frost to 2 weeks after.
Zucchini and sunflowers can be directly sown at the last frost, but can also be started indoors 2 weeks before to speed up germination.
Cucumber seeds can be planted directly in the ground a week after the last frost, or they can be started indoors a week before the last frost.
Lettuce can be started indoors 7 weeks before the last frost, and transplanted outside at 5 weeks before the last frost. For a continual harvest of lettuce, keep planting at two week intervals.
Peas, carrots and beans all benefit from planting the seeds directly in the ground.

As you can see, planning out your growing season help you know not only when to start plants indoors, but it also gives you a rough guideline on when to plant seeds directly in your garden. This is not by any means a comprehensive list. I personally start a lot of my seeds indoors, and around the same time. Kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants all get started about 10 – 12 weeks before the last frost, or at the end of February. As I get closer to my last frost date, I do start other seeds indoors, such as pumpkins and melons.

Once you know what can be planted and when, all that’s left to do is grab some starter soil and get those seeds started! Happy growing!