Although tomatoes are easy to start from seeds, I purchased several different varieties of heirloom tomato transplants from Home Depot. They were selling them for $3.48 each, and they came in 5" peat pots. So why did I purchase transplants if tomatoes are so easy to grow from seeds?
- Early Harvesting Time. Transplants have been started indoors from seeds several weeks prior to the spring planting season. This means my newly purchased tomato transplants will set fruit much earlier than a tomato plant started from seed during the normal planting season. It will continue to set fruit until the first frost in fall.
- Cheaper for People with Limited Gardening Space. Unless you harvest seeds from an heirloom tomato from the market or can get them on the cheap, it may be slightly more expensive to buy a standard pack of seeds. For example, Burpee is selling a packet of 50 Black Krim seeds for $3.95. That packet of seeds cost $0.47 more than a transplant.
- Limited Space. I do not need 50 Black Krim tomato plants. I only want one for now. I do not have the space for it, and I am more interested in having a variety of plants in my garden.
- Free Future Seeds. I can still easily save seeds from the tomatoes my transplants will produce this year, and start my own transplants early next year.
in my garden this year. Sweet corn will have priority over vegetables like broccoli because broccoli is only $0.79 per pound and it has a long shelf-life. 
and 
so I allotted a good chunk of my garden to tomatoes and bell peppers. For this reason, I will probably not plant eggplant this year although one of my favorite dishes is Thai green curry chicken. I do not eat eggplant often enough, and that space would be better utilized by planting vegetables I frequently consume. 
is a perennial (meaning it will live for years without needing to be replanted) this small initial investment will provide me years of future enjoyment. I will have the freshest possible asparagus spears only steps away from the kitchen. If you want to grow asparagus for consumption, skip the seeds and purchase the 
are easy to grow, and generally do not require a lot of space. They provide great flavor with a negligible amount of calories, and they are packed with vitamins and minerals that give our bodies many health benefits. Fresh herbs can also be pricey, they have a short shelf-life, and they are not always available at the grocery store. So invest a little time, money and space to an herb garden. Trust me, the next time you have a recipe that calls for a couple of tablespoons of four different herbs, your pocket book will thank you.
, to make the most of my available garden space. I find his planting diagrams under the "Crop-by-Crop Guide" chapter most helpful. Now I know I can fit four swiss chards in one square foot! 
