Steph When you want to get started growing vegetables in your raised garden bed, whether you are using the square foot gardening method or just doing your own thing, a big decision is deciding how to plant. You don’t have many options, but there is one option that is clearly the best out of available methods.
First, you can buy a plant from a garden center. This is a very popular option because it’s super simple and not a lot of thought or labor goes into it. And let’s be honest, buying plants is really a lot of fun. But this method has a huge downside. It is super expensive unless you are just dabbling or filling in spots here or there. In my area these seedlings are around $4 a pop. If you are serious about growing your own vegetables, this method will likely be cost prohibitive. For instance, if you are growing ten square feet of peas or bush beans in your raised garden bed you can have up to 90 plants in this space. If you are purchasing these seedlings, that would run you almost $400. That is ridiculous and doesn’t even begin to make sense.
There is a much better way. Buy your own seeds and plant them. This is a very economical way to plant large amounts of vegetables or herbs on a relatively small budget. I know what you are thinking, it’s too difficult. Actually, it’s not difficult at all. Starting seeds inside, knowing when they are ready, hardening off? It seems like it takes a lot of research and knowledge to pull this off. This leads many would be urban farmers to feel overwhelmed.
Is all of that a little too much for you too? I completely understand. That’s why I say scrap it all and just direct sow your seeds. When you use this method, you just wait until after your last frost and pop your seeds directly into the ground where you want the plant to grow. There’s no guesswork in this method and it really does work well, and much faster than you would think. When I direct sow my vegetables and herbs in my raised garden beds I usually see all of my seeds peeking out within a week or two.
The biggest downside in the direct sow method is that it just takes a bit longer. Depending on the particular veggie, sometimes you might want to buy a seedling just to get a head start. I did that this year with my Black Prince tomatoes and Cherokee Purple tomatoes. I made the decision to do this because it was a colder than normal May. I ended up getting a later start on the tomatoes than I would have liked, so I decided to cheat. I did plant seeds for other tomatoes, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to catch up.