Are You Ready To Grow Healthy?

One of the silver linings from 2020 is that a lot of families started gardening, growing food and flowers, and a lot of them did it by planting seeds. Planting from seed has several advantages over buying potted plants that are garden-ready, including lower price, wider variety, and the ability to swap seeds with gardening friends.

There are many vegetables that you can grow by planting seeds directly in the garden, or into outside containers, at the right time of year. These dates are not hard and fast, they depend on the weather, but as a guideline:

Up through early May you can plant arugula, beets, carrots, Swiss Chard, lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage, pak choy, mustard greens, and radishes. Seed packets will give you more information about when to plant, how deep, how far to space the seeds, etc.. Quick growing greens such as lettuce, spinach, and kale, can be cut when small for fresh salads and they’ll regrow to be cut again.

In late May or early June, you can plant beans, cantaloupe, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and most herbs, including basil and cilantro. These plants need warm soil to thrive, so resist the temptation to plant too early.

Brighton Shares The Harvest is a Nonprofit that works with local gardeners to grow food for their families and for sharing. We have established a partnership with a local seed company, Botanical Interests: they will give us a rebate on all online seed orders that go through our website. To shop, simply go to www.BrightonSharesTheHarvest.org and click on the Botanical Interests Shop Now banner (scroll down; it’s on the left side). This takes you to their website where you can browse and shop for organic, heirloom, and hybrid vegetable and flower seeds.

If you have questions about this rebate program with Botanical Interests, please contact Linda Young, Executive Director of Brighton Shares The Harvest, at Linda@BrightonSharesTheHarvest.org or on 720-301-0949. Grow something!