WHEN I STARTED my first vegetable garden more than 30 years ago, I puzzled over whether to direct sow my seeds in the soil or start them indoors on a windowsill. “Or maybe I should just buy a bunch of seedlings from a local garden center and plant those.” So many options!
I soon learned that I didn’t need to pick just one planting technique. In fact, vegetable gardeners generally use a combination of direct sowing and transplanting, with the planting method based on the individual crop and the length of the local growing season.
For example, tomatoes are typically transplanted because the growing season for most gardeners in North America isn’t long enough for direct-sown plants to grow, flower and produce mature fruits. Spinach, on the other hand, is a quick green that doesn’t transplant well and should be direct seeded outdoors. There are also
