Should You Buy Seeds or Plants for Your Vegetable Garden?

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Inside: Beginning gardeners often wonder if they should buy seeds or plants for their garden. The answer is likely some of both. Learn what vegetables to buy as plants and what you can buy as seeds to save money.

Things to Consider When Deciding Whether to Purchase Plants or Seeds

There are many things to consider when you are deciding whether to purchase plants or seeds for your vegetable garden. Some vegetables don’t transplant well, so they should be started directly from seed in the garden.

But other things such as how many vegetables you are planting or how late in the season you are starting your garden are things to consider as well. Read on to learn more about how to decide whether to buy vegetable plants or seeds for your vegetable garden. Just a hint…it’s likely to be some of both!

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How Many Vegetables Are You Going to Plant?

One thing to consider is how many of each vegetable you plan on growing.

Only need 1 tomato plant? It is probably best to just buy a single plant at the hardware store.

Do you want to plant a dozen plants so you can preserve those tomatoes? You might want to start them from seed. (Though you need to be sure you are starting them early enough and provide grow lights for them.)

Purchasing 12 tomato plants can set you back about $60 if you buy transplants from the big box stores. That can get expensive in a hurry. And what if you also need pepper plants, eggplants, and squash? You could easily spend a couple hundred dollars on plants.

Your Frost Dates

Sometimes, when buying plants or seeds, you may need to consider your first and last frost dates and what date you are planting those crops.

For instance, if your last frost date is May 15, you should have started pepper plants about March 15. If you didn’t, you may not have enough time to get the pepper plants started and grown before your first fall frost occurs. It would be wise to purchase plants from your local nursery.

If your last expected frost date has already passed, you may need to buy plants anyway so that they have enough time to produce tomatoes before your first fall frost.

Do You Have a Grow Light?

It can be very difficult to get good sturdy plants started without a grow light. (I didn’t say it was impossible, just hard.)

Many homes, mine included, don’t receive enough direct sunlight during the day to grow healthy vegetable plants without supplemental light, especially during the late winter and early spring months when you should be starting seeds.

You need a minimum of 8 hours a day of direct sunlight inside your home to start plants successfully. And up to 14 hours is better and will produce healthier plants.

If you don’t receive that much natural sunlight in your home (and most people don’t during the winter) you will need to use grow lights to start your plants as well as room to set it up.

If you don’t want to purchase a grow light or have room to start seeds indoors, you may be better off purchasing plants for your vegetable garden.

What Do You Want to Grow?

As I mentioned earlier, some plants need to be started directly outdoors in the garden while others can be difficult to start outside. Root vegetables almost always need to be started from seed directly outdoors in the garden since they don’t transplant well.

But some plants can do just as well if you are starting from seed or by buying plants. The following lists will help you, as a beginning gardener, know what to start from seed outside and what to purchase plants for or start them yourself indoors.

Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs to Start From Seed

I always start these vegetables from seed, directly in the garden. Buying plants from the store costs way too much money, and honestly, you don’t save much time anyway. And a few of these vegetables are nearly impossible to transplant anyway.

• beans
• beets
• cantaloupe
• carrots
• corn
• kale
• lettuce
• okra
• peas
• potatoes – called seed potatoes.
• pumpkin
• radishes
• spinach
• squash
• Swiss chard
• turnips
• watermelon
• winter squash
• zucchini

I used to recommend buying seeds or plants for lettuce, spinach, and kale, but the store prices on the plants has gotten ridiculous. I’ve seen a single lettuce plant for $5!

You can buy organic lettuce from the store for less than that. Buy the seeds. You’ll get a whole lot more greens for a whole lot less money.

Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs to Purchase as Plants

These are the vegetables, fruits, and herbs I always purchase as plants unless I start my own indoors weeks before my last frost. Many of these take a while to reach full maturity so starting indoors gives you a head start on your harvest.

And some of these vegetables that like cooler weather, need warmer temperatures for the seeds to germinate, but will bolt if the weather gets too hot.

While you can find most of these plants (sometimes called “starts”) at big box stores, I encourage you to buy them locally if at all possible. Many times the plant quality is much better and often they are much cheaper too.

You will also get varieties that do well in your area and sometimes the workers can help you with growing tips as well.

As you get more confident in growing your own garden, you may prefer to start some of these seeds indoors as well.

• asparagus
• blueberries
• broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• eggplant
• onions – called sets
• oregano
• peppers
• raspberries
• rosemary
• strawberries
• sweet potatoes – called slips
• tomatoes

Keep in mind, that there are exceptions to these lists, but for most beginning gardeners, this should cover the majority of the plants they would like to grow. Is there a plant not included on this list that you hoped to see? Leave me a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

Related Posts

• The 10 Easiest Vegetables for Beginners to Grow
• How Long Does it Take to Grow Vegetables from Seed?
• How to Plant a Garden in Grow Bags

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