To Seed or Not To Seed

Ryan's (@rsmartt) gardening saga continues.....

To Seed or not To Seed?

Every year, before I start my vegetable garden, I ask myself….should I use seeds or buy existing plants?

I see pros and cons to both.

When you use already grown plants, it’s as easy as digging a hole, planting them outdoors and taking care of them. However, it’s more expensive…and I personally feel like it’s cheating. I mean, all the hard work was already done for you, right?

When you use seeds, there’s an inexplicable pleasure in watching something grow out of the ground, and then enjoying the fruits of your labor. However, it’s much more work. Sometimes you have to start indoors (which could become a problem when you have a curious 3-year-old like I do) and transfer them outside. Plus the elements (and the critters) can be tough on a tiny sprout.

This year, I’ve done both. My tomatoes and peppers were plants when I bought them…my spicy greens and lima beans were seeds.

I also just planted some carrot and beet seeds I purchased at Strange’s. However, they’re not quite ready to pop out of the ground and deal with this Richmond heat wave.

Check out Week 7 of Garden Wars!

Strange's In July

Take a tour of our Garden Center and Greenhouse in July.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Everybody’s Got a Hungry Plant

Happy 4th of July- While you're enjoying your yummy hot dogs and hamburgers- Think about what Ryan Smartt (@rsmartt) has to say about hungry plants!!

Everybody’s Got a Hungry Plant

Food. We all need it. Some of us live to eat. Some of us eat to live. But did you know plants need food, too? I didn’t until recently.

In fact, I stumbled across this terrifically awesome blog post. It’s a blog for kids, but I consider myself a 7-year-old when it comes to gardening. So I personally thought it was useful information. Mostly because they mentioned pee and poo. (My wife loves how mature I can be. And you know what rhymes with mature, honey? Manure!)

But as I was saying, plants need food, a.k.a. nitrogen. Last year, Strange’s recommended I use plant food that was made out of fish…stuff. It worked well. But I only planted tomatoes and hot peppers, which I typically have success growing anyway. This year however, since I’m participating in Garden Wars, I have to step my game up and expand what I’m growing. So, I went to Strange’s last week and they recommended Foxfarm natural and organic liquid plant food, which is “made from earthworm castings and bat guano”. Which I believe is a fancy name for worm and bat poo. Delicious worm and bat poo.

I plan on using it every week, or at least every other week. We’ll see what happens!