10 Steps for Choosing the Best Seeds for Your Garden
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Have you ever received a seed catalog in the mail and excitedly opened it only to be completely overwhelmed by ALL the varieties and choices? Or maybe you’ve stood in the seed aisle at your local store and stared at the rows and rows of seeds and wondered “how on earth do I choose?” If so, it’s ok! I completely understand! I used to feel that way all the time. Let me help walk you through the process of choosing the best seeds for YOUR garden.
You could just grab a packet of seeds and plant them, hoping that they will do well. If we’re being honest, in many parts of the country they probably would. However, if you want your garden to do its very best or if you’re gardening in a harsh climate, then you will want to spend some time and pick out seeds best suited to YOUR garden.
How do I choose the best seeds for my garden?
There are several variables that go into seed selection. I’ve spent countless hours scouring seed catalogs and websites to find what works best for me. Here are my 10 steps to help you choose the best seeds for your garden.
1. Inventory your current seeds
Yes, really, lol. If you haven’t gardened before, then this is one step you can skip. However, if you have tried gardening in the last few years, I highly recommend going through your current seed stash. Some seeds can last many many years if stored properly, and some (like onion seeds) start to lose their ability to germinate as soon as the second year!
If you have seeds currently on hand that will work for this year, then it is best to go ahead and use them. If they are a variety that you no longer wish to grow, you can always sell them or give them away. Your local destash groups on Facebook are an excellent way to do that!
2. Get to know your garden’s climate
Now that you know what seeds you have on hand, the next step in choosing the best seeds for you is taking a look at your growing climate. The first place I always start is checking to see which USDA zone my garden falls in followed by finding my first and last average frost dates.
Some seed packets only list which USDA zones that particular seed is good to grow in and when it should be planted. I tend to rely more on my first and last frost dates as that will be much more accurate. If you use the calculator I linked to above and put in your zip code, it will give you the average dates when you are likely to have your last frost and the first frost of the year. I am in zone 6a, and my average last frost date of the year is May 6th. That means that there is a pretty solid chance that we won’t receive any more frosts after that date. Do random cold snaps happen? Of course, but at least I have some idea of when I can plant.
Learning your first and last frost dates also helps you to figure out your growing season length. Why is that important? If you want to grow a variety of tomato that needs 95 days, but your average growing season only has 110 frost-free days, you either will harvest none or very little fruit from that plant. That plant needs several more weeks of the growing season to provide you with a good harvest.
Another factor of your climate to consider is day length. Some plants (onions are an example) require a certain amount of sunlight in the day to even bear fruit. Using the onion example still, if you live where there are only 10 hours of sunlight per day but you have an onion variety that needs 14 hours to bulb up, you won’t reap much harvest from those plants.
Rainfall and wind are two things you will want to consider as well. Do you live in an area that receives a lot of rain or are you more arid? There are many varieties that do better in one extreme or another, so make sure you check into that. Do you need to erect a windbreak for your tender plants? Where we live May tends to be VERY windy. I have to put up windbreaks or the wind will literally kill all my new transplants.
Will you be growing in full sun, shade, or partial shade? Different plants have different light requirements (which is a bit different than day length). Tomatoes need at least 8 hours of sunlight per day. If you planted them where they only received 4 hours of sunlight per day, your plants would not grow or produce very well. Leaf lettuce and peas don’t mind some shade, and in fact, they really appreciate it when the weather starts to get hot!
As a very general and broad rule, vegetables that we grow for their roots (carrots, radishes, etc) and leafy greens can tolerate partial and full shade to at least some degree. Vegetable plants that we grow for their fruits (tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc) need full sun for at least part of the day. Each vegetable is different, as are flowers and herbs. It is best to consult the back of the seed packet or the seller’s website for the exact light requirements.
Taking a bit of time to get to know your garden’s climate will benefit you greatly in the long run. You’ll be able to choose seeds best suited for your specific climate that should do well for you.
3. What type(s) of plants do you want to grow?
This may seem like a silly step to include, but you need to know what types of plants you want to grow before you choose your seeds! Do you want to grow a vegetable garden? An herb garden? A flower garden? Do you want to grow some flowers that pollinators will love or some that will help keep pests away from your vegetables?
Fortunately, you don’t have to pick just one type, but it is good to have an idea of what you want before you get started with seed shopping. Personally, I suffer from “shiny seed syndrome” (definitely just made that up), and when I’m seed shopping, I get distracted easily by new fun seeds!
One thing I try to do when seed shopping is to choose seeds that can serve more than one purpose. Pollinators love basil, and just one plant can provide you with plenty of fresh leaves for cooking. Marigolds are bright and cheery and also help keep pests away from your vegetables. Dill is great if you want to make pickles or just use it as an herb for seasoning, but it is also the perfect host for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. By doing a little research you can find varieties that will give both your garden and your kitchen a boost.
4. Look for disease-resistant seeds
Is your garden one that is more prone to disease? One of the perks of living in a very dry place is that I don’t have a lot of disease pressure in my garden. Getting adequate rainfall is a blessing in that you don’t have to water your garden, but if your plants don’t have a chance to dry out very often they will be much more susceptible to diseases.
There are more diseases than I could ever cover in this blog post, but one way to combat them is to choose seeds that are known (heirlooms) or bred (hybrids) to show resistance. I found this great list of disease-resistant seed varieties that should help you choose some that will be perfect for your garden!
5. Choose seeds that fit your space
What type of space will you be growing in? Containers? Raised beds? Larger open spaces? Will you be trying the square-foot gardening method? If you’re growing in a large open garden, you don’t need to focus so much on how big your plants will get except to make sure that you’ll have room for everything.
If you are growing in containers or raised beds, you will want to pay more attention to the size of your plants. The back of your seed packets or the website where you purchase your seeds will tell you the approximate size that your plant will reach when mature. They will also tell you how far apart to space your seeds and your rows. These are great guidelines, especially if you are just getting started in gardening. As you learn how plants behave each year, you will get an idea of what spacing will work for your specific garden.
One of the wonderful things about the increase in popularity of raised beds and container gardens is that more and more seed varieties are being bred specifically for those types of gardens. Do you want to grow pumpkins, but are short on space? You can find them with a compact more bush-type habit than the sprawling vines you may be used to. You can even grow a mini tomato plant that only gets about 12 inches tall!
Make sure to take a few minutes to consider the size of your growing space. No matter the space you have to work with, there are seed varieties that will fit and maximize your harvest or blooms!
6. Purchase from reputable sources
I know it can be hard, especially when you are new to gardening, to know who you can trust. One of the perks of living in the age of the internet is being able to read reviews! There are many great seed suppliers out there. My very favorite is True Leaf Market (that’s my referral link, we both get $!), but I also use Johnny’s Seeds, Burrell Seeds, Totally Tomatoes, and Burpee on occasion. Those are just a couple, but there are so many more!
Why not just purchase any seeds you find? Well, you absolutely can, and I’m never going to stop you from buying seeds, lol. Here are a few reasons, though, to buy seeds from reputable sources:
- Quality and freshness – As we talked about above, seeds can and do lose their efficacy over time. By buying from good seed sources, you will get fresh high quality seeds.
- Customer Service – If for some reason you do have problems with the seeds you purchase, you will receive much better customer service from a reputable company. They want to make sure their customers are happy and will be there for you to help you through any problems you might encounter.
- Trust – If you buy from a reputable company, you know that you can trust them to provide what they say they are going to provide
7. Hybrids, Heirlooms, Organic… Help!
Seed selection can definitely be overwhelming, especially when you are new to all the terms! Let’s break them down so you know exactly what you want to buy!
Heirloom varieties are at least 50 years old and have been passed down through the generations. They have been carefully grown and saved in order to protect their genetics.
Open-pollinated varieties are those that can be self-pollinated or pollinated by another plant of the same variety, often by wind or other natural means. When the seeds from these varieties are saved and replanted (provided they were not cross-pollinated with another variety) they will breed true. What that means is that the plant and fruit characteristics from the initial plant will be found in the next generation of plants. Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated.
Hybrid varieties are those that have been specifically bred for certain traits through intentional cross-pollination of two varieties. If you save the seeds from these varieties, they will not breed true. Meaning, that, the resulting plants will be different than the hybrid plant you saved the seeds from. It may or may not have the traits you are looking for.
If your seed carries an organic label, it means that they were grown using the same organic methods required for our food to be labeled as “organic”. This does NOT mean they have never been exposed to any chemicals, as there is a list of chemicals that are allowed for organic farming use. Whether you wish to use only organic seeds is a personal choice, and I support you either way!
What about GMOs? As of the writing of this blog post, there are currently no GMO seeds available to the home gardener. Any seed company that advertises their seeds as “non-GMO” are simply using that as a marketing tactic as it is such a big thing on social networks right now. Here is a list of all the GMO varieties that are currently approved for the U.S.
So, what type of seeds should you choose? That’s completely up to you! I personally grow a mix of everything! Heirlooms are wonderful for their rich history, and hybrids are amazing for the traits that can be bred into them (like drought and heat tolerance!).
8. What do you and your family like?
Perhaps one of the most important points to consider is, what do you and your family like? What types of flowers do you want to look at and tend to all summer? What types of vegetables do you like to eat? Do you use herbs for cooking or want to start?
There is little reason to grow flowers that you don’t enjoy or vegetables that you and your family don’t care for. Tending to and growing a garden takes time, energy, and money. Make sure you are choosing seeds that are either visually appealing or that you will enjoy eating all summer long.
9. Will you preserve your harvest?
If you plan to grow vegetables in order to not only eat fresh but to preserve them as well, variety can play an important role. Let’s think about cucumbers for instance. There are cucumbers that are great for fresh eating but make terrible pickles! On the reverse, if you choose a pickling cucumber variety they probably won’t be the best for fresh eating, but will help you can some crunchy pickles!
Onions are another vegetable whose variety plays a big role in storage capability. Sweet onion varieties have a tendency to not store well due to the extra sugars in them. Even when stored properly, they may only last a couple of months before they start sprouting or go bad. The more pungent “storage” type onions will last for many months if properly stored, providing you with onions all winter and spring long.
If you are planning to preserve your vegetable harvest, be sure to check which varieties work better for the type of preservation methods you’ve chosen.
10. Grow something fun!
The previous nine steps have been focused on finding the right seeds for your climate, garden, and family in order to maximize your harvest and preservation. Why garden if you can’t have some fun doing it though?
After I have chosen all my “core crop” seeds, the ones that are going to provide for my family, I always choose something new and fun to grow! It may be a new vegetable I want to try or a new variety of tomato or pepper that just looks like fun! Sometimes I’ll get a new flower and a new vegetable variety just because it’s my garden and I can, lol.
Happy seed shopping!
Now that you are armed with ALL that information on how to choose the best seeds for YOUR garden, I hope that this will be your best garden year yet! I know I gave you a ton of information and it can be overwhelming. Take it one piece at a time, and once you get started seed shopping it will make more sense.
Don’t forget to have fun!
