From Seed to Plate:
Starting From Seed
According to Lisa Hilgenberg, horticulturist at the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden (ChicagoBotanic.org), in Glencoe, the best way to decide what to grow is to focus on vegetables that people and their families like to eat.
Preparing a Backyard Vegetable Garden From Scratch
“There are a whole slew of herbs, flowers and vegetables that can be started in February,” says Hilgenberg. During this month, gardeners can begin crops that have a slow germination time, so they can give them a head start and they’ll be sturdy plants by the time gardeners experience the last frost, Hilgenberg adds.
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Swiss chard growing in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
y February, many people begin dreaming of warm spring days and spending more time in their gardens. This month is the perfect time to begin preparing outdoor spaces, which includes starting seeds indoors.
For those new to gardening or seed starting, Marlene Fisher, a Master Urban Farmer and Master Gardener trainee, recommends people first ask themselves what they like to eat and also discover where in their garden they can get six hours of full sun needed to grow many favorite vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. Then they can enlist the aid of other gardeners or neighbors to help. A few years ago, Fisher repurposed a vacant city lot in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, on Chicago’s South Side, into a thriving garden that has won awards including several in the Chicago Excellence in Gardening (ChicagoGardeningAwards.org) competition. “I offered to help people garden by beginning with my friends and the community,” Fisher says, adding that it all began with 24 tomato seeds. While she didn’t need 24 tomato plants, she decided to grow all 24 from seed so she could give away those she didn’t plant. Fisher’s efforts rapidly expanded into a community-focused garden she named Greasy Garden, and her plant giveaways, nicknamed Greasy Free, now serve more than 60 neighborhood gardeners.
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Photo credit Chicago Botanic Garden
by Megy Karydes
Due to germination and outdoor planting dates, not all seeds can be started the first week of February, and this is where using a sowing calendar can be helpful. Hilgenberg recommends the sowing calendar on Johnny’s Selected Seeds website (JohnnySeeds.com) available under the Grower’s Library and named Seed-Starting Date Calendar (JohnnySeeds.com/growers-library/ seed-planting-schedule-calculator.html). The interactive calendar allows gardeners to input the last frost date, and the calendar will automatically calculate the date they can begin certain vegetables and flowers from seeds indoors. In the Chicagoland area, this year’s last frost date is likely around April 17 to 23, according to Hilgenberg. Using April 17 as the estimated last frost date, gardeners can start seeds indoors for produce such as cabbage, collards and kale seeds the first week of February, followed by beets, eggplant and Swiss chard in the third week, according to the sowing calendar. Some tomato varieties with longer days until maturity (see the seed packet) may also be started the last week of February, although many Chicago-area gardeners choose to wait until mid-March, as seedlings may get “leggy” or too large before optimal outdoor planting time.
