Your Greatest Gardening Resource is Your Local Grocery Store

And what if I told you could get them at a store at which you already shop in your own neighborhood! It's true; it's at your local grocery store.

Seriously, seeds sold in packets or from mail-order catalogs can literally be more expensive by weight than gold!!! However, many high quality plant sources are available for quite a bit less money at your local grocery store. And they're guaranteed to be food quality as they are currently being sold as actual 'food'. Since they're oh-so cheap, you can plant massive quantities for overwhelming results. Both food and flower seeds are available. I've done this for years and never have had any problems.

The only thing to keep in mind is that you cannot plant seeds from hybrids and expect them to reproduce true to the mother plant. Hybrids are crosses between two different strains of a plant. The next generation of offspring from these plants is a genetic crap shoot where you are all but guaranteed NOT to get a high quality result. So, unfortunately, this means no tomatoes or fruits. If you're not sure if a plant is a hybrid strain, the information is readily available online.

That said, there's a huge amount to choose from. Almost no root crops are hybrids. Savings on shipping alone is large with these relatively heavy plants. My favorite home gardening plant from the grocery store is plain old garlic. Super cheap at the store yet expensive to buy and ship mail-order, just break up and plant the cloves and you'll soon be eating the freshest garlic you've ever had. Potatoes and Jerusalem Artichokes are also absurdly inexpensive to buy for planting, simple to grow, and terrific to eat. Cut them into pieces with an eye or dimple on each piece and plant them the same way as if you'd grossly overpaid for them.

Of course, the grand mother load of seedly goodness at the grocery is to be found in the spice aisle. Yes, these are exactly the same seeds sold for planting. A seed is a seed is a seed and the ones in tiny packets aren't magic beans. For the same price, you get an entire bottle full of seeds instead a few measly grains in a tiny envelope. If you've got old seeds in the cabinet and you aren't sure if they are still viable, just test them (it's not like you don't have plenty to test). To test seed viability, sprinkle a few on a moist paper towel, put them in a Tupperware container, and leave them in a warm place (like on top of the refrigerator). After several days, see how many have germinated. The great thing here is that even if you get a low germination rate, you've got so many seeds that you can simply make up for it in volume i.e. if only one quarter of the seeds germinate, just plant four times as many seeds. Two of my favorites that I have grown successfully are coriander seeds which grow into yummy cilantro plants for Mexican food, and poppy seeds which grow into beautiful flowering poppy plants. But don't be afraid to experiment with many others. If you don't have success, you can just eat up the rest of the bottle as spices with your meals.

So, what are we missing when we buy our seeds this way? Primarily, anti-fungal agents and desiccants (such as the pink chemicals that come pre-coated on some seeds). If you are a farmer growing a hundred acres and your livelihood depends on your crop's success, I do not recommend you buy all your seeds down at the Piggly Wiggly. However, if you're a home gardener growing a single bed of a crop, then anti-fungal chemicals are total overkill and truly are unnecessary. Desiccants are there to keep the seed dry during shipping and storage so are not necessary for grocery store gardening either. After the plant sprouts, these chemicals cease to have any value at all. If you are worried about low sprouting rates, since you have so much, just plant extra. In my experience, this only leads to more work thinning out the extra plants.

When you head down to the grocery store this week, save your money and have your biggest garden ever this year. No muss, no fuss, all wuss. Just remember not to plant seeds from hybrids and you'll do great. This summer I'm going to plant an entire field of Black Oil Sunflowers (the tall ones with massive heads) and guess where I'll get that much seed? I'll buy a bag of bird feed at the grocery, of course. If you have any suggestions for other easy to grow plants from the grocery store, please leave a comment.