Start Planting Vegetable Seeds Indoors for a Head Start

Credit: Michelle O

Get a headstart on your garden and start planting vegetable seeds indoors

For a thriving summer vegetable garden, start planting your seeds indoors

Gardeners with an eye on the calendar know that spring is just around the corner! 

And in places like Vancouver, where the weather can be cold and wet well into the year, there are several good reasons to start planting vegetable seeds indoors.

Why You Should Start Planting Indoors

• You gain 4-6 weeks over outdoor crops.
• If where you live has short summers, heat-loving plants like tomatoes will mature sooner, allowing you to harvest and enjoy them before the cool weather returns. Plus, they will be better able to withstand small temperature dips in the early season.
• If you live in an area where your summers heat up really fast, or you have a short growing season, planting early increases your chances of getting a good crop of spring vegetables that like cooler temperatures – like peas, head lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.
• You’ll have many more varieties to choose from, because you are not limited to what’s available at your local nursery.
• For full-sized gardens, it’s less expensive to grow your own plants than to buy them.
• When the soil outside hasn’t had time to warm up, the seeds will rot in the cool. If you have to wait till the soil warms up, your growing season will be that much shorter, limiting what crops you’ll be able to grow.

Watch my vlog and see which crops to plant now that will produce bountiful crops of edibles this summer.