When the price of a punnet of tomatoes or strawberries seems to excessively high, you can be sure that most of the cost is for fertilizer that is used to grow the plants. When growing your own food, you take back some of the power corporations have over you.

If you decide to start a vegetable garden, obviously you will have to purchase seeds.  Please make sure that the seeds are fresh or they won’t sprout and you’ll be disappointed straight off. You can get some seeds from a friend who is already growing their own produce but, again, make sure they’re no older than last year’s harvest. Most commercially grown vegetables are specifically grown to be sterile, so that the seeds cannot be used.

If the soil in your garden is not very fertile, you will have to purchase some compost and potting soil to start your garden off with. After this, dig in your kitchen scraps from peeled vegetables, rotton fruit and tea and coffee grounds (never meat or bones!).  The worms will do the rest.  It’s magic!

Place your seeds in potting trays and keep moist with a spray bottle, whenever the soil starts to dry out. Your seeds will need plenty of sun and warmth to germinate. A heat mat is very useful.  Loosely covering with a thin plastic sheet or dome will help to keep the moisture in.

Who knew that planning a garden was a much better idea than just planting wherever the fancy takes you?  This was my system for a long time but now I’m growing vegetables and want to get the most out of my small patch, I’ve become a ‘planner’.

One of the first thing to do when planning your vegetable garden is to decide how big an area you have to work with and how much space you can allocate to each vegetable. I’ve had really good luck with growing in raised beds.  They seem to yield a much bigger harvest.

Make your selection of seeds based on what you like to eat.  It’s no good growing vegetables that you don’t like, except to make compost with. Then you should consider how much space the plant needs to fully mature. The easiest way to do this is often by reading directions on the seed packet; they should indicate how much space is required between plants and rows. It will also tell you how to propagate the plants.

If you live in or near Calgary, where the frost free date is around May 24th, it’s a bit early to start your tomato and pepper seeds indoors. Best to wait till the end of March at least. However, when you start looking for seeds, you can grow varieties that are simply not available at nurseries and garden centers and have a much more varied and flavorful garden.

A good way to start seedlings is to have some good seed starting potting soil, rather than actual garden soil which is too heavy and can easily cake up. Potting soils should be made up of peat moss and perlite or vermiculite with little, if any actual garden soil in them. Hydroponic growing medium is another good way and eliminates the need for soil in the house.

Definitely one of the most enjoyable things for a gardener is planting seeds and watching new plants grow. It’s such a joy when one of your plants you grew from seed or cutting starts to flourish and  then flowers for the first time.

However, there’s always the problem of getting to many. We quickly fill up  our garden  space, trying to tuck in as many as possible and even end up throwing some out. Don’t stop growing new plants. The solution is to sell some. Put a notice up in your local shopping centre and in your community newspaper.  You’re sure to get lots of calls, especially if you grow what’s popular.  Apparently, petunias are always a favourite.  You could end up financing your whole summer gardening.

The most fulfilling part of gardening indoors is when you see your seeds start to grow. Once you see the  first shoot pop up from the seed you planted you will feel great happiness and excitement.

There are a number of things to think about, though, before this can happen.  You need to choose the growing medium carefully.  Soilless growing media gives you better transplants compared to mineral soils.

Next, the container. Whether it’s a peat pot, fiber block, plastic pots, trays, or any other planting container, make sure it provides drainage of excess water to keep your medium from staying too wet when watered.

The amount and source of light is next on the list. Six to eight hours is usually the ideal timeframe for direct sunlight. As for the source of sunlight, windowsills and basements don’t usually provide sufficient light. LED grow lights are now proving to be an ideal light source and a great investment.

The temperature to germinate the seeds depends on the type of plants you’re growing.  The seed packet is has all the information you need on that subject and should be read carefully.

Most of us will tend to setup our seed growing operation in the basement or some other out of the way location.  These are probably not the warmest spots in our homes.  We need to supply some extra heat. The best solution is a heat mat that is designed for the purpose.  It’s water proof and has a thermostat (to avoid actually cooking the seeds). Your tomato seeds would like a soil temperature around 75 F / 24 C and are quite happy if the air is several degrees cooler.

For the vast majority of our seedlings, ordinary fluorescent light will be more than sufficient. Keeping the tubes within an inch or two of your plants is the big secret to success. This requires some method of adjustment so that the distance can change as the plants grow.