We want to be successful with our gardens, so anything we can do to cut down our workload and help us get started is worthwhile. But we also want to keep the process affordable.
One question that comes up is, “Do I have to use organic seeds in order to grow organic vegetables?” The assumption is that only organic seeds can be used in an organic garden. I’m a huge fan of the Green Movement, but I’m disappointed with organic seeds. They are often much more expensive and give you fewer seeds per package. In reality, what makes a garden organic are the conditions in which the plants grow, not whether the seeds were raised on an organic farm. In fact, unless seeds came from Three Mile Island or Love Canal, they’re fine. Just avoid using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in your garden.
The same applies to buying transplants. Many people ask, “Are they organic?” I recommend using transplants for your summer garden for Tomatoes, Eggplants and Peppers. Herbs are also commonly purchased as transplants. This allows gardeners to avoid the work of trying to sprout seeds inside, keeping them alive and hardening them off, so they can be planted outside without dropping dead from shock.
A concern is that some growers might use synthetic fertilizers in their potting mix. But honestly, once your plant is in the soil, the tiny amount from the original pot will make no real difference. So I recommend that you buy local transplants and support local growers at nurseries, garden centers and farmers markets. By doing so you’ll be able to try several different varieties of each crop.
Instead of organic seeds, I recommend growing heirloom varieties instead. So what are heirloom seeds anyway? One of the problems that came with modern farming is that as newer seed varieties were developed almost all farmers used the same types. They were bred for qualities like shelf life, appearance, durability, and ease of use with mechanical harvesting and processing. Notice I didn’t mention taste! The result was that many older varieties, which tasted great but didn’t grow well on a large-scale farm, were set aside and never grown again.
Several groups have come forward to reclaim and recover these unique historical varieties, usually by acquiring them from home gardeners or established older farms, and growing them again as a source of fresh seeds. This practice goes a lot farther than just heirloom Tomatoes like ‘German Johnson’ and ‘Cherokee Purple.’ There are thousands of varieties of unique garden vegetables from which to choose.
Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa is one of the leaders in the effort. Networking with thousands of farmers and home gardeners to gather rare seeds, Seed Savers Exchange then sells them to the public to be grown across the country. Their collection is extensive and includes crops like Beans carried during the Cherokee Trail of Tears March, Beets striped like a bulls-eye, purple Carrots, Cucumbers that look like miniature Watermelons, and Swiss Chard with stems in five neon colors.
