Heirloom

Heirloom tomato and vegetable seeds and plants for the best garden tomatoes and vegetables.


So you have your vegetable garden and you are getting some of the best tomatoes and vegetables you ever had.  That is as good as it gets, right?  Wrong, time to step it up a notch with heirloom seeds and plants.

Many of vegetables have been bred by agriculture industry for uniform size, color, ability to be shipped long distances and to withstand the mechanization of harvesting. In this process they seem to forgot about flavor. Many of the plants or seeds you purchase from local nurseries, department stores are an offshoot of this industry. Many of them are hybrids which cannot be used in a sustainable garden. If you plant the seeds from a hybrid plant you will get something completely different from the plant it came from, if they will grow at all, many of the seeds are sterile.

With heirloom plants you can save the seeds from tomatoes, vegetables or herbs and plant them the next season. Once you learn how to properly save the seeds, you do not have to purchase them ever again, unless you just want to try a different variety. This makes them perfect for the sustainable garden or farm.

Heirloom plants on the other hand have been kept alive for generations of backyard gardeners who have been preserving the original plants through open pollination. These plants go back a time when plants were grown for flavor not the ability to be shipped across the country. If you plant the seeds from a heirloom plant you will get that plant, (making sure that there is not cross pollination), making them good for a sustainable garden.

With open pollination there is more biodiversity and they tend to develop resistance to disease and pests naturally. Now many of these gardeners are finding that they can sell their seeds over the internet, and they are starting to receive the acclaim that they deserve.

There is some controversy over what makes a plant a heirloom variety , but most agree on a few points, it must go back to 1951 when hybrids were introduced (most can be traced much further back) and the must be open pollinated (except in a few cases like potatoes that are from root cuttings).

Advantages of heirloom seeds or plants:

  • plants are more vigorous, disease and pest resistant.
  • Vegetables and tomatoes taste much better.
  • The seeds can be saved and planted , resulting plants will be of same quality as parent. Making them perfect for the sustainable garden or farm.
  • You can join other farmers and gardeners to carry on varieties that may otherwise be lost.

disadvantages of heirloom seeds or plants

  • They are usually more expensive to purchase.
  • They are usually more difficult to find locally.


The diversity of heirloom plants and seeds available from the heirloom growers is amazing, the colors and flavors are fantastic, in a word, simply delicious.

Wow friends and family with delicious heirloom vegetables you grew in your own garden, chances are they never knew vegetables could be so tasty and full of rich color.  You can save the seeds from your heirloom plants  and never have to purchase seeds again, creating a sustainable garden.   A good place you can get heirloom seeds are from Shop Burpee.com for Heirloom Seeds
, they have quite a large selection of heirloom plants. Another source for heirloom plants and seeds is
The Cook’s Garden Vegetable Seeds

Interplanting heirloom vegetable plants with companion plants can cut down on pests and disease even more. It is best to use heirloom plants for all of your plants, both the vegetables and the companion plant, for example tomato and marigold planted together, the marigold protects the tomato from many insects and parasitic worms called nematodes.

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