What do you actually need to start growing food, even if you don’t have a garden?
In this video, I’m unboxing a collection of seed starting trays, pots, and microgreen supplies I’ll be using for an upcoming gardening workshop—designed to help new growers succeed in any space, from windowsills to balconies to full backyard gardens 🌱
I also share the new seed varieties I’m trying for 2026 from West Coast Seeds, and how I’m thinking about choosing crops that work across different growing setups.
This isn’t a “buy everything” seed starting haul—it’s a practical look at flexible, beginner-friendly supplies that can help you grow food no matter your space, budget, or experience level.
In this video:
-Seed starting trays and pots for small-space and flexible growing
-Microgreen trays for indoor food production year-round
-New 2026 seed varieties (vegetables, flowers)
7 Comments
West Coast Seeds are a pretty cool company, our local garden club here in Ontario has someone who is able to get a bunch of their previous years seeds that they share around with everyone in the club. I've been able to grow out a bunch of their seeds and have had nothing but positive results. My only issue with their seeds is their premium price and small amount of seeds per pack, totally fine for urban gardeners, but for us hardcore rural gardeners we have to look for better value in our seeds.
10:42 it's refreshing to hear a true gardener say this about saving seeds from F1 plants. So many people will say either you can't save the seeds or they strongly emphasize that you won't get the same plants from that saved seed. While the last part is true, and you loose the hybrid vigor that the F1 had, you can and will likely still have an awesome result from that saved seed. I save seeds from F1 plants all the time and can't tell you one time where I was disappointed in the progeny of those F1 plants, sometimes you actually end up with some really cool results. One year I'd saved seed from a store bought muskmelon, almost 100% guaranteed they were F1 hybrids. I ended up have many unique varieties of melons from that saved seed, and one was an absolute surprise and grew to be Charentais melons. They were the sweetest, tropical flavour when ripe, obviously Charentais melons must have been crossed with a muskmelon variety to create the one I'd bought at the grocery store.
friendly note for microgreen growers— a top tray lain flat on top of the newly sown seeds is to encourage the seeds to grow to an even height. When I sow my seeds I don’t bother with light, but I will put that tray on top with a light weight(acts as a humidity dome) and as soon as the seeds grow and push the tray up, that’s when I remove it and give them light. There are some seeds it won’t work with though— like wheatgrass or some shoots but that is another story. Great video! I am happy to see someone encourage others like that… I wish I had that option when I first started. Happy Growing 🌿
Sometimes I'm a little cheeky and I buy 'utility' (imperfect) tomatoes from the local farmer's market in the fall and save the seed. One bag is $5-10 and usually has half a dozen or more varieties of heirloom or otherwise interesting varieties. The only thing is you don't know exactly the varieties, but at least you already see the fruit! Last year I got paste tomatoes, Berkeley tie dye (best guess from the fruit), several large pink slicers, and a few yellow ones which I tend to skip when buying seed. This also works with melons at, say, Trader Joe's and of course any squash or pumpkin seed leftover from Halloween. I've also had success with micro tomatoes from the local supermarket and snack peppers – as far as I can tell, none of these have any issues from being F1 originally, if they were in fact.
I grew pink berkley last year it grew about 3ft tall
Great video, thanks! Appreciate the background info on how seeds are collected for market.
I’ve sown birdseed sunflowers and it’s quite nice. The white seed kind. Talk about value pack, ha ha ha.,