This week’s 5 Minute Friday Gardening Tip is about why you should grow your own seedlings, check out the video below:

I’ve been growing my own garden seedlings for about 15 years now.  And boy am I glad I started.  I think everyone should learn to grow your own seedlings.  I have 3 reasons why.

Seedling Timing
The first reason I think you should grow your own seedlings is timing.  If you have any interest at all in Year-Round Gardening, or even just getting an earlier start on the season by using cold frames, hoop houses, or Wall O Water’s then you need to grow your own seedlings.  Let’s use early tomatoes as an example.  You can use Wall O Waters to set out your tomato seedlings 6 to 8 weeks earlier than usual.  But if you want a good selection of tomatoes to put out early your best chance is to grow your own seedlings.  Most commercial growers just aren’t ready for tomatoes in your area extra early.  So you need to grow your own.

The same goes for growing many of your favorite Brassica family crops in the fall.  Broccoli, cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, and kale usually aren’t available from commercial growers in the fall.

Cost Savings
Even the smallest yard and vegetable garden can require 200 or more seedlings.  Most years if you consider both flower and vegetable start we will plant close to 400 seedlings in our little yard.  At $2.50 for a 4 pack of plants that can get pretty pricey, very quickly.  If you learn to grow your own seedlings you can save yourself 100’s of dollars a year.  That is especially the case for those of you with large yards filled with flowers.

Greater Variety
The 3rd reason to grow your own seedlings is variety.  There are 100’s of different varieties of tomatoes out there.  They come in every color and shape imaginable.  But if you are buying seedlings from your local nursery then you may only have 10 varieties to choose from, and very few of those will be the extra delicious heirloom varieties.

Growing your own garden seedlings opens up a whole world of vegetable and flower varieties that you have never experienced before.

Resources for Learning How to Grow Your Own Seedlings
I have a whole bunch of resources to help you learn to grow your own seedlings.

First on the list is my Seed Starting Simplified Video course.  This 2.5-hour course will teach you everything you need to know to grow your own seedlings.  It normally sells for $30 but my Stoney Acres readers can buy it for only $15 by following the link below.
https://onlinegardeningschool.com/p/s…

Other Articles on Seed Starting

Seed Starting Basics
https://ourstoneyacres.com/the-basics…

Build Your Own Indoor Seed Starter
https://ourstoneyacres.com/indoor-see…

Making Homemade Seed Starting Mix
https://ourstoneyacres.com/making-hom…

Zone 5/6 Seed Starting Schedule
https://ourstoneyacres.com/zone-56-se…

Seed Starting Container Ideas
https://ourstoneyacres.com/seed-start…

Hardening Your Seedlings
https://ourstoneyacres.com/hardening-…

Using a Soil Block Maker
https://ourstoneyacres.com/using-a-so…