Growing Heirloom Vegetables in Your Garden

There are many advantages to growing heirloom vegetables and plants in your garden. These open-pollinated plants have been loved for generations and are often the tastiest and most interesting vegetables you'll find anywhere. In recent decades, there has been more of a focus on hybrids and standardized varieties of vegetables for home gardens. As a result, many of these old favorites have almost been forgotten. Although heirloom vegetables aren't always a good choice for large farming operations, they are ideal for home gardens. When grown organically in your backyard, you can almost guarantee that you will have the most interesting, beautiful and delicious vegetables in your whole neighborhood.

Choosing Heirloom Varietiesr
You'll be able to find a huge variety of heirloom vegetables from which to choose, especially if you do your searching online. There are seed companies and seed saver organizations that specialize in these interesting vegetables. It's not unusual to find seed companies that offer hundreds of different varieties of heirloom vegetables. Some seed companies even specialize in certain kinds of vegetables, such as tomatoes. If you've become accustomed to the three or four tomato varieties that you can find at your local garden center, you will be truly amazed at the rainbow of colors, shapes and sizes of heirloom tomatoes you'll be able to find. The trick will be not ordering so many seeds that the plants won't even fit into your backyard garden.

Growing Your Own Plants from Seedsr
Unless you are able to find a garden center or nursery that offers heirloom vegetable plants, you will probably have to grow them yourself from seeds. Actually, this not at all difficult, and can be inexpensive and a lot of fun. Simply use some planting containers and a good quality of sterilized potting soil. Plant two or three seeds in each compartment, and cover them according to the packet instructions. Keep the planting flats in a warm location until the seeds sprout then place them under fluorescent light fixtures. Keep the lights within just a few inches of the tops of the plants so that they don't get "leggy," moving them further upwards as the plants grow. Thin the plants so that there is just one per growing compartment. Once they get a little larger, transplant them into larger containers to give their roots more room to develop and water them with a half-strength solution of water soluble balanced fertilizer whenever they are dry. Harden the plants off by allowing them to stay outside during the day for about a week or two. Then, you'll be ready to plant your healthy heirloom vegetables in the garden.

The Advantages of Heirloom Vegetablesr
One of the main advantages of heirloom vegetables is quality and taste. Commercialized vegetable varieties are often bred for qualities such as shipping and a long shelf life, instead of taste. There are also environmental advantages to growing heirloom vegetables. By helping to encourage the diversity of the kinds of vegetables that are grown, you are reducing the chances that one bad plant disease could wipe out most of the known varieties of vegetables. It's also a lot of fun to grow these interesting and beautiful plants for your own family and to share with neighbors and friends.