> carrots straight out of the ground taste significantly different than store bought
I'd grow a garden today just for the tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes are nothing like the ones I remember growing years ago. But another issue I noticed is that even with the best of soils and care, whatever grows from seeds and seedlings I can procure now still tastes closer to supermarket vegetables than home grown. I'm not sure if the genetic material is to blame or the garden/practices (from my perspective the same as in the past).
Which seedlings are you getting? If you're able, skip the ones at the building supply store's garden center and see if you have any heirloom seedling sales/exchanges in your area (though maybe not this year...).
The fruit we get from the heirloom plants is head and shoulders above the others— Brandywine and Cosmonaut Volkov are two particularly delicious beefsteak-type "slicing" tomatoes.
If you're up for starting your own seedlings, there are also obviously loads of places to order specific varieties of seeds online.
> If you're up for starting your own seedlings, there are also obviously loads of places to order specific varieties of seeds online.
Just be careful where you buy seeds from. I have ordered some lemongrass seeds on Amazon (before learning how to grow more from an adult plant). Those came from China, were seized by customs, sent to a lab, then promptly destroyed. I got a letter in the mail, with the results of the analysis.
There was no indication anywhere that they would come from overseas.
I shudder to think what would have happened if the supplier also sold something like marijuana and my packet was "contaminated".
Lemon grass: go to your local asian market and get lemongrass stalks with the bottom bulb intact. It doesn't need to have roots showing. Place in a jar of water and they will sprout roots in a week or so. Then plant in a pot, it will grow into a big grassy plant.
It depends. Some people know their plants; other just want your data (aliexpress, ahem...), and will send you anything instead to justify the order. You could end with invasive species (just because there is plenty of them), or sowing canary's food.
For a newbie, is safer and easier to start with commercial packed seeds.
Oh yeah, that's true. Even at an exchange, seed fair, whatever, I would probably still only buy seeds from an actual vendor. I'd never considered buying something like seeds from an eBay seller. But yeah, lots of organic heirloom varieties are packaged for commercial sale, eg:
Seedlings are different since with a bit of experience you can tell what most plants are, at least within the broad family— you might end up with hot peppers when you expected sweet ones or something, but you're not going to get marijuana when you thought it would be tomatoes.
I'd grow a garden today just for the tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes are nothing like the ones I remember growing years ago. But another issue I noticed is that even with the best of soils and care, whatever grows from seeds and seedlings I can procure now still tastes closer to supermarket vegetables than home grown. I'm not sure if the genetic material is to blame or the garden/practices (from my perspective the same as in the past).