The days of the casual gardener being restricted to buying vegetable seeds from the local hardware store or nursery, or from a Burpee catalog by mail, are mercifully long gone. That said, the new challenge--deciding on a vendor--can be bewildering, given how many choices there are. In Houston this past Thanksgiving, for example, a savvy nephew and I (both visitors) went to a recommended shop to select wines for six people and three meals. "There're almost too many choices," he said in an aside. The same might be said for narrowing one's sights on vegetable seeds online.

Buying Vegetable Seeds

On the one hand, for example, is an Asian specialist, offering more than 300 varieties of seeds imported from Taiwan, India, Thailand, Korea, China, and Japan. From six different Yin Tsai (Chinese spinach) to Japanese greens including Misome, Komatsuna, and Okahijiki (Land Seaweed), both seeds and detailed growing instructions are available. If you want a particular Yu Choy for Cantonese cuisine, chances are good that among eight or nine you'll find it.

On the other--let's say you're looking at sweet corn to enjoy in high summer with perhaps steak off the grill, or a tray of blue crabs for picking, and a plate of sliced lightly marinaded tomatoes--you'll find all the detail on the differences between corn hybrids you periodically wonder about. From silver corn choice hybrids (highest natural sugar content, superior tenderness) to silver queen hybrids to sun and stars hybrids, you'll be able to choose wisely what's best for your garden and your table.

On still another front is the amount of detailed information on planting and climate. Whether you're growing for the market or for home consumption, what you need to know is easier to learn than it ever was. How many seeds there are to a packet, how many seeds it takes for a 100-foot row, how many to sow an entire acre--all this data is readily at hand. For sowing, you see the distance between seeds, between rows, how deep to plant, when to plant, and days to maturity. What's most helpful is the comparison charts that help so in decision making.