One of the questions I’ve seen asked over and over again is: “What do I plant first to get a garden started?” It can be both fun AND overwhelming to see all the zillions of varieties of seeds and plants, read the information on the packets and figure out what to grow. So, I just did a 45-minute live video in my Instagram (@crownhillfarmny) sharing some of my favorite seed picks for starting your garden along with tips about planting them.
Also, a regional seed company by me, Fruition Seeds, just shared this FANTASTIC blog article about Effective Containers for Seed Starting (and why egg cartons are NOT it!).
First thing is first: Not all seeds work best started indoors. Some are best planted directly in the garden outside (this is called “direct sow”). I didn’t know this when I first started growing food and had a number of failures on that account. Also, be aware of what grows best in your region and seasonal cycle. What I share below has worked for me, growing in zone 6b — Western NY.
I have chosen to grow all Heirloom variety seeds. You can read more about why I grow Heirloom varieties on the Products Page of this website. My favorite place to order Heirloom seeds is Baker Creek Seeds and the bulk of my seeds come from them. When I order from other places, I always check to see that the seeds are marked as Heirlooms.
Seeds to Start Indoors for Transplant:
Lettuces: the first thing to understand is that lettuces are mostly a cooler weather plant. So spring and fall are the best time to grow them. Most Romaine types will grow in the warmer weather so I choose my varieties based on the part of the season I’m growing them. Right now in spring, I’ve started varieties like Merveille Des Quatre Saisons and Merlot. As I get into summer, I’ll switch to Amish Deer Tongue and Parris Island Cos varieties.
Onions: some folks like to get seed onion sets (little onions you plant) but I start a bunch by seed about this time of the year. Your bigger yellow and red onions (storage onions) are slow growers so make sure you plan them for a part of your garden that they can stay for some time. Yellow of Parma and Rosso di Milano are two great storage onion varieties. I am a big fan of cooking with leeks, so I LOVE to plant those. King Richard Leeks have been strong growers for me. In addition, for some earlier varieties, I plant scallions or green onions. White Lisbon Scallions is this year’s variety, but there are also a ton of Asian green onion types.
Peppers: First of all, remember you’ve got your sweet bell peppers and then hot peppers. Once you move these to the garden, you want to keep them in separate areas. They don’t grow well together. For a sweet bell variety, I love the Chocolate Beauty which grow easily and get a beautiful rusty brown/red color when ripe. For a hot (but not too hot) variety, I love the Black Hungarian (which is in the Jalepeno family). They dry to have a bit of a smokiness that is great for winter cooking. In the middle are one of my all-time favorites, the Poblano Pepper which can have some kick but often are mild. I love to hollow these out and freeze them as whole shells to stuff later on.
Eggplant: Eggplants are pretty easy also and I personally think that the Asian eggplants, like Ping Tung Long are perfect for a home garden. They are smaller fruits that are delicious and easy to cook up in a stir fry or bake in the oven. You don’t have to cut up a huge fruit and they are tender and flavorful. Also, being a small fruit, they don’t take up quite as much space in your garden. If you want a larger variety, I found the beautiful Rosa Bianco to be tender and sweet without the bitterness sometimes associated with eggplant.
Tomatoes: Well, I don’t know where to start with tomatoes, except the range of colors, shapes, sizes and flavors of good heirloom tomatoes is vast! I go mostly to Brad at Wild Boar Farms for my heirloom tomato seeds. You can get lost in all the varieties! The best thing is to know how you like to use tomatoes. I go for the paste and roma varieties to make sauce and canning because they are less watery like a 10 Fingers of Naples. The cherry sizes for salads and snacks like a Black Vernissage or Brad’s Atomic Grape. The big slicers for eating with cheese, on a toast or sandwich like a Purple Cherokee, Costoluto Fiorentino or Hillbilly/Flame. If you only have a small windowsill or patio space with pots, the Red Robin is a small plant with cherry sized fruits or Tumbler is good for a hanging planter.
Herbs: And, there is truly nothing more satisfying than to reach over to a windowsill and cut some fresh herbs for your meal. Now (mid April) is about the time for my region to get herbs started. With those, you can have fun with all the flavors and even different varieties. I love Basil - Genovese, Cinnamon Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil are all delicious varieties. You can also plant Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Chives, Sorrel, Oregano, Tarragon, Thyme, Rosemary, or Sage. The list goes on depending on what you like to eat/cook! My favorite Oregano is one called Za’atar Oregano that is perfect for meats, dressings or hummus adding a mediterranean flavor. Another fun and interesting leafy herb to grow is Shiso which is an Asian plant - purple or green - that has a delicious, citrusy flavor to it. It also makes a fun color-changing “lemonade” drink that ends up as a lavendar/pink color.
Seeds to Direct Sow:
Peas: are a good cool weather plant and one of the first things ready to eat in spring. Now (mid April) is the time to get them planted in my region. I can’t speak to a specific variety as I’ve not grown them before but knowing that they are high in iron which is immune supportive, I’m popping a few in the ground this year. This is a good example of experimenting with a few things that you have grown or eaten before. Learn what did and didn’t work and then you know what to do differently next time. Trust me, 3 years ago, I’d barely ever grown a thing and now look what I know that I can share with you!
Radishes: are one of my favorites. I never liked them before but now that I’ve grown and eaten them I have a whole new enjoyment of them. Radishes can be steamed, roasted, pickled, or eaten raw and put on all kinds of dishes and sandwiches. Some radishes are best in spring and others for fall/winter so you do want to pay attention. The spring radishes are great because they are FAST growing so you get some rather instant gratification with them. The varieties I like best in spring are French Breakfast and Cherry Belle.
Beans: Now, don’t let beans scare you. Not all beans require trellises and poles. I found Bush Beans to be the perfect kind of bean if you are just starting out to grow them. As per the name, they grow on low bushes that don’t need any kind of support. These are usually going to be the varieties best eaten as string beans and are also good to blanche and then freeze for winter use. I love the Cantare (green) , Beurre de Rocquencourt (yellow), and Purple Teepee (purple) varieties. If you let them get oversized and even dry on the bush, you then have dried beans for winter OR to save the seeds and replant next season.
Cucumbers: Cukes are a summer favorite and technically can be started indoors and transplanted out. However, they are fussy about transplanting so I like to direct sow them. Sweet Marketmore is a great variety for your standard green cucumber perfect for juicing, pickling, snacking and salads. Lemon Cucumbers are wonderful as a snack or sliced in a salad - they look like Lemons but taste like a sweet mild cucumber. You don’t need too many plants. One or two each of either of these varieties will give you enough cucumbers to share with neighbors or family!
Beets: I’m relatively new to beets but have loved using them fresh on salads or mixed into my juicing. What is nice with beets is that the greens are also edible like a chard so you get two-for-one out of these. There is a huge range of colors and types but my all time favorite are the Chioggia beets which some people call candy cane beets. They are sweet, juicy and less “earthy” than your big red beet varieties. Beets were also a favorite of my local deer population!
Zucchini: Like cucumbers, Zukes can be prolific and so don’t need too many plants to get an abundant supply. For a basic green squash, you’ll do great with the Fordhook Zucchini and if you want a lovely yellow variety the Lemon Squashes are nice. Besides the zillions of ways to cook squash, they also can be chopped up and frozen for later use.
Let’s Not Forget the Flowers!
Now, my flower farmer, Nicole, is really the mistress of all things floral and you can follow her on Instagram at @ShopSvanur to learn more about all the wisdom of the flowers. However, I do have a few flowers that are great and super easy to start at home.
Marigolds: are the workhorse flower of your garden. First of all they are edible and beautiful added to a salad or sprinkled over a light summery pasta dish. In addition, they are known to repel a lot of insect pests from your garden, so starting a few marigolds and spreading them out amongst the other plants can help mitigate pests without the use of any sprays or chemicals. They also can add color and fullness to either a fresh or dried bouquet. There are ranges of colors and types but the Lemon Gem are the best for edible uses.
Calendula: Also edible AND medicinal, calendula is easy to grow with a range of golden colors. The petals are lovely sprinkled on a dish or can be used to help treat a wound and ward off infection.
Nasturtium: these wild and beautiful flowers, I’ve come to learn, have a variety of edible uses. Both the flowers and the young leaves are edible and unlike other flowers will add a peppery kick to whatever you dish you add them to. The leaves are great for a pesto with punch! In addition, the fresh nasturtium seeds are edible as well. I have a 2 year old jar of them pickling and they come out a lot like a cross between a caper and an olive—perfect to top a salad or sandwich or to add to a pasta sauce.
Borage: this herb grows easily and be aware might take over a big chunk of garden space. However, borage attracts all the pollinators to your garden AND the flowers are also edible. Borage puts out pretty little lavendar/blue flowers that, believe it or not, taste like a sweet cucumber! They don’t keep well, so pick them close to when you want to use them. I’ve even candied borage flowers, which was tricky but delicious all the same.
Snapdragons: are a beautiful flower that grows quite easily with little fuss. Their tall spires are gorgeous both in the garden and as a part of a vase arrangement. Snaps come in every color imaginable. My favorites are the Madame Butterfly varieties which are double-petaled and full looking. The Madame Butterfly Bronze look like a sunset of colors as the flowers go up the stalk!
Zinnias: like snapdragons, zinnias grow easily and will keep giving you blooms all season long. Zinnias are available in every color and size imaginable - white, red, pink, yellow, orange, salmon, green and more! Some of my favorites are the Queen Lime (blush, red or green), Benary’s Giant (in any color), and the Senorita which is a peachy pink with curly twisted petals
Whatever you choose to grow in your garden I think that the most important thing is to choose what seems fun and delicious to you. Three years ago I had hardly grown a thing and was utterly worried about choosing the right things, starting everything properly and at the right time, etc. In the end, we started everything at the same time and just picked what looked cool or delicious to us. Some things failed, but many thrived and most importantly I learned a TON. Now, a few years later, I think about that first season and how stress-free it was because I had no idea and just opened myself up to experiment and learn. I wish that same freedom and joy for you.
The satisfaction that comes from growing your own food and flowers is truly an unrivaled experience. I love to look at my dinner plate over the course of the year and watch the percentage of home-grown food increase into the fullness of the season when 100% of my dish could have come from my own work and care. Knowing exactly what has gone into your food and where it came from is empowering in a way that gives you the power of choice in how your body thrives through life. Even if you have a tiny apartment, my wish for you is that you grow just one plant that can feed you. It is okay that your entire plate might not have been grown by you… even that one step is a reclamation of your security, abundance and health!