I like to grow vegetables. I grow without chemicals. I use only organic fertilizer for my tomatoes and other plants, and I always use seeds, never store-purchased plants. I’m frequently asked why I choose to do it my way - to most gardeners it seems like a great deal of work.

The average home gardener buys most or all their plants from a home garden center, and they get plants ready to go and grown. These plants start producing fruit quickly and can give people a large yield. It is efficient for those who want to plant all of their garden at once, it’s easy and fast. Truly a modern miracle of agricultural economics.

So why do I grow all my plants from seeds? The easiest answer is price - it costs pennies on the dollar to grow from seeds. An average tomato plant, started in a hot house and grown to a height of a foot or more, costs about nine dollars. The cost for a pack of 50 seeds is typically less than a dollar, though there are more expensive varieties. I also purchase the starter soil, but that is fairly cheap, and I have many starter trays. My plants might never get as big as a store bought one, but I can grow dozens of plants that easily beat the yield of any single plant. By the end of most seasons, I get hundreds of tomatoes for a couple of bucks and a bit of hard work. It’s totally worth it!

Many home cultivators are a bit wary of growing large gardens. Keeping the patches free of weeds, well-maintained, and watered takes a certain level of commitment. It can be hard work and your muscles will feel it after a day taking care of your plants. I love that. I enjoy the physical activity and I like working in the dirt. I get sweaty and muddy, but I shower, and that goes away. The work I do in the yard stays. After weeks of effort, something happens that is hard to explain. One day you have barren patches of dirt and the next, like magic, little seedlings pop up to say hello. It’s a moment of both joy and anxiety. This tiny thing is your responsibility, and each day that it gets bigger is a small miracle. If you just plant an already grown plant, you will never get to feel that joy.

There is great joy from a garden that produces a vast bounty, and your store-bought plants will get you there much faster. So why be so down on going to Lowe’s or Ace? One word: fungus! Just one plant with fungus can kill a whole garden and I have gotten fungus from plants purchased from garden centers. I figure 1 in 20 have a disease that is dangerous to your vegetables. People think they over-water or take poor care of these plants, but the truth is that any mono-crop breeds disease, and all these plants are grown together in hot houses. One year you might get lucky, maybe two years, but eventually it gets everyone. I decided to stay away from store-bought vegetables and instead I save seeds. I take the best looking produce from my garden and I save the seeds to plant next season. I’ve had great luck with tomatoes and peppers.

Many seeds are just so cheap that we choose to buy different varieties each year. Zucchini, squash, beans, carrots, potatoes, and more; basically we grow what we like to eat and preserve. When our summer harvest starts coming in, it’s both a moment of happiness and of sorrow. We are all glad at the volume and we are really sad about the amount of effort needed to process all that stuff. Lucky for us it tastes really good and makes the effort totally worth it. Growing from seeds is cheaper so it allows for a larger garden where you can grow many plants and keep only the good ones. Cultivating a large area is good exercise and extremely rewarding work. The incredible joy of watching from seed to final fruit is an amazing process and can be fulfilling. Starting seeds protects you from large grow fungus and keeps your garden organic and free of chemicals.

Why start your garden from seeds? It’s only the coolest, healthiest, environmentally friendly, sustainably wonderful, and will change you for the better.