Garden Planning 101: Selecting Seeds and Plants

• It is important to know your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone, which is based on the average lowest winter temperature for any given location.  Especially if you are investing in perennials, like asparagus, berries, or fruit trees, you are going to want to make sure that they will successfully overwinter.  There were some rather significant changes made to the map in 2012, so be sure to double check if your zone has changed in the last year. 

• It is also important know is your frost free dates, or the average date when your location is usually past the risk frost in the spring (and on the flip side, the average date of the first frost in the fall). This is going to be important in determining if your growing season is long enough to grow that late heirloom tomato that looks so good--and when to start the seeds indoors.

• Know the best variety or type of vegetable for your intended use.  There are differences between the cucumbers you will want to grow to make pickles and the cucumbers you will want to grow for slicers.  Pay attention to descriptions and search garden cookbooks for suggestions on good varieties for different purposes.  

• Know how much you need.  Just ask yourself this, how many zucchini will you really eat?  Do you have some preservation goals for the season?  How much space do you have in your freezer? Work backwards and figure out how many pounds of tomatoes you'll need for a batch of sauce or how many cups of green beans you need to freeze to get through the winter.  

• Experiment in moderation.  Growing what you eat doesn't mean you can't try something new; in fact, I encourage you to try new varieties!  I just want you to be smart about it.  Sure those funky looking African melons look cool and would make an great conversation piece at backyard barbecues, but before you buy 4 different varieties, just start with one hill to see how you like them and then plan accordingly for future years. If they don't live up to your expectations, you'll be glad you saved the extra space for something else.  

Learn to Speak Seed Catalogese

• Days to Maturity is the number of days from when the seed is sown or transplanted  to when you can expect to your first harvest. This number needs to be smaller than the number of days between your frost free dates.  

• Sun Exposure refers to the ideal number of hours of daylight a plant needs to grow and produce.  The term, full sun, usually means 6 or more hours of direct sunlight, while partial sun usually means the plant requires a minimum of 3 or 4 hours of direct sunlight. Plants that are shade tolerant will do well where there is indirect or filtered sunlight.  

• Heirloom is a bit of an elusive term, and there isn't complete agreement on what makes a variety an heirloom.  Some define a variety as an heirloom based on it's age (at least 50 years old), while others would argue that an heirloom is a variety that has been saved and passed down through the generations (and as such, always open pollinated). If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I advocate for selecting heirlooms for your garden for a lot of reasons. 

• Open Pollinated (often designated as OP) varieties are pollinated naturally by bees, insects, wind, etc. (also often included in this classification are the self-pollinators); in other words, nature is allowed to do what nature does best.  If you want to save seeds from your garden, you will need to choose open pollinated varieties, which are sometimes also called "true" varieties, meaning the seed will produce the exact same plant in subsequent generations.  An excellent source on choosing varieties for seed saving is the Heirloom Life Gardener from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

• Hybrid varieties are the result of crossing two different varieties, usually with the intent of getting some of the best features of each variety in one plant.  The seeds produced from a hybrid will not produce the exact same plant in subsequent generations, typically reverting back to one of the original parent plants.  Hybrids are usually designated with an F1 or F2, which will tell you it is a first or second generation cross.  Hybrids are not GMOs; they are the result of controlled cross breeding, not genetic engineering.  There are a lot of great hybrid varieties to choose from, and they are a good choice if you are looking for specific disease resistance or more consistent and predictable yields.  

• The Safe Seed Pledge was developed by the Council for Responsible Genetics with the intent for seed companies to pledge that they will not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seed.  For the most part, home gardeners do not need to worry about unknowingly purchasing GMO vegetable seed, because it's simply not in the supply at this time, but the Safe Seed Pledge is still a good way to seek out and support seed companies that are dedicated to pure seed.  

• Resistance to disease and insects may also be noted in catalog entries.  Again, a lot of hybrids are specifically bred to both produce prolifically and stand up to leaf spot (or whatever it is that ails your garden).  If you have known issues in your growing area, you may want to pay close attention to varieties that are more resistant.  

• Tolerance to hot or cold weather is often a hard phrase to decipher in catalogs, because it really all comes down to where the seed trial took place that came to that conclusion.  My definition of cold tolerant is going to be very different from someone else's description (especially if they live in a climate more amenable to human habitation than Minnesota in January), so just keep in mind that these descriptions might be more subjective than objective, and look for more definitive clues, like a range of zones.   

Labels: Garden Planning 101, heirloom, seeds