The Best Seeds to Start Indoors Ahead of Your Growing Seasons

Starting seeds indoors can quickly put your gardening skills to the test. If you're new to seed starting, go easy on yourself and stick with seeds that will fill your trays and eventually your garden without too much fuss.

Before we get into these non-fussy plants, let's consider what it means to be "easy" to start from seed.

In my opinion, easy seeds have the following characteristics:

• they are simple to plant
• they require little care to germinate and grow
• they almost always show up

Basically, they're the seeds that make us feel like a pro even if we've never started a single seed indoors before. You're about to devote 6 to 8 weeks of care to these little plant babies, so you want to make sure you'll get good results from all your efforts.

Here are the seeds that have proven their worth to me over and over again.

A List of the 30 Easiest Plants to Start Indoors

You'll notice this list contains a lot of herbs. That's because I believe everybody should be growing their favorite herbs at home, even if it's just in some containers, and all these herbs can be grown from seed just in time for spring. The rest of the plants will fill your garden with even more delicious things to harvest and enjoy.

• basil
• sage
• oregano
• thyme
• rosemary
• cilantro
• dill
• parsley
• celery
• kale
• bok choy
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• cabbage
• spinach
• Swiss chard
• radicchio
• red lettuce
• marigolds
• calendula
• tomatoes
• peppers
• eggplants
• tomatillos
• watermelons
• peas
• onions
• chives
• leeks
• okra

Now let's look at each of these plants grouped by plant family to make it really easy to know when to start them by seed.

Basil, Sage, Oregano, Thyme, & Rosemary Are Easy Herbs to Start Indoors

A lot of people buy herb plants from the store instead of growing their own from seed, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I will say, these herbs are pretty simple to start indoors for those who are interested. The only difficult thing about starting them is handling the tiny seeds. (Seriously, grains of sand are bigger than some of the seeds in this family.) You just have to slide a couple seeds onto your fingertip and sprinkle them over your cells as best you can.

Other than that, the important thing is to start early. Except for basil, these herbs can take a while to germinate and grow into plants large enough to move to the garden. They all hold up to transplanting really well and will give you so many delicious leaves.

Let's look at each of these herbs in order from easiest to start indoors to most challenging:

Basil

Sure, basil seeds are tiny, but you can thin your seedlings once they've sprouted and enjoy the extras as microgreens. Basil germinates and grows really quickly as long as you keep the seed starting mix moist.

I typically start basil seeds about 6 weeks before moving them outside. Make sure to wait until all chance of frost has passed.

Basil might be an annual plant for most of you, but you can take cuttings from your mature plants before your first frost and root them indoors over winter. That way, you have new plants ready to go in the spring without starting seeds. That's what I like to call garden magic! (Learn more about growing basil.)

Sage

Sage actually has seeds you can see without squinting. They're still pretty small but much easier to separate and plant out than the others in this family. Sage also germinates really quickly. (Learn more about growing your own organic sage.)

Oregano & Thyme

These seeds are itty bitty. Try your best to drop just a few in each cell because they can be a pain to thin out later. (Find more tips for growing your own oregano and thyme.)

Rosemary

Rosemary takes the longest of all our favorite herbs to sprout and grow. Unless you get at least an 8-week head start on your growing season, it's best to just buy a rosemary plant from your local nursery so you can get delicious leaves soon. (Learn more about growing rosemary.)

Cilantro, Dill, Parsley, & Celery Are Easy Plants to Start Indoors

Oh, look—more herbs! Cilantro, parsley, and dill are great herbs to start over winter to get a jump start on the season. They're frost tolerant, so you can plant them out as soon as your soil can be worked. Celery is also in this family, and it takes a really long time to grow. You'll definitely want to get your celery started indoors as early as possible.

Cilantro & Dill

Cilantro and dill love cooler temps and will start to go to seed when the weather warms. What I do is start plants indoors about 100 days before my last frost date in spring so that I can enjoy these flavors ASAP. Once my last frost date has passed, I direct sow new cilantro and dill plants in my garden every couple of weeks. Direct sowing delays bolting as you move toward summer.

The nice thing about these seeds is their size, especially for cilantro (those seeds are what we call coriander). They're really easy to handle so you can plant just one per seed starting cell. These plants also grow quickly from seed. In fact, dill seeds are often among the first to germinate in my herb trays. Their lives are short, but they'll give you hundreds, if not thousands, of new seeds by the end of the season. (Learn more about growing cilantro and dill.)

Parsley

Parsley is a little slower to take off than its cilantro and dill cousins. Its seeds are also a lot smaller. The good news is they're lighter in color than all those dark and tiny mint plant family seeds, so at least you can see where they've landed on your seed starting mix.

Parsley is actually a biennial plant. As a reward for your efforts, you'll be able to enjoy your parsley plant for many months to come. (Here are more tips to grow your own parsley from seed.)

Celery

Celery is a large cool season plant. It needs quite a long period of cool weather to grow to maturity in the garden, so it's really important to start celery indoors long in advance, at least 100 days before your last frost date. After trying to transplant celery seedlings that were just 70 days old one spring, I decided it's best to start these guys as early as the fall so they're ready to go out to the garden in February or March. So start early if you want to grow your own celery from seed.

Head's up: Celery seeds are also very tiny.

Kale, Broccoli, Cauliflower, & Cabbage Are Easy Vegetables to Start Indoors

These are all large brassicas that will spend a good 100 days or so in your garden before really producing. They're cool season plants that thrive when temps range from 35°F to 75°F. You can maximize the time they get to spend growing in your nice, cool garden by starting them indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost of spring. This is the best way to get a faster harvest.

After starting brassicas indoors, plant them out as soon as they have a couple sets of leaves (typically about 30 days after sowing). You can plant them out when there's still the threat of frost in your area, as long as the soil is workable; you might just want to have some frost cloth on hand for nights that dip below 32°F.

If you want to branch out this year, I recommend starting bok choy inside as well. I had so much success with my bok choy last year—I'll definitely be starting seeds again soon!

Kale

I start dozens of plants for Toscano kale, Red Russian kale, and Blue Scotch Curled kale indoors every year. Kale seeds are pretty small, so shake a couple out and plant just one per hole. They don't need to be planted very deep.

I've always had great success starting kale from seed indoors. (Maybe too much success some years because I always end up with more kale plants than can actually fit in my garden!) (Find tips for growing your own kale.)

Broccoli & Cauliflower

These plants need at least 90 days where temps don't push over 85°F to form full heads for you. I always find that spring heats up too quickly for my broccoli, so I actually prefer to start it about 4 months before my first frost. That way, I can transplant seedlings to the garden around October, about 60 days before frost. The plants have time to get established before the arrival of cold weather, and a little bit of frost won't hurt them at all. (Learn more about growing broccoli.)

Cabbage

Cabbage is really easy to start indoors, but you have to get the timing right if you want a nice, full head. Some types like red and purple cabbage take 180 days to grow to maturity. If you have a shorter cool season, I recommend my favorite, Napa cabbage, which grows in just 60 to 80 days. (Find more cabbage growing tips.)

Spinach & Swiss Chard Are Easy Leafy Greens to Start Indoors

These plants from the Amaranthaceae family like the same kind of weather as brassicas, and they can also handle a touch of frost. Seeds from this family are on the larger side (and somewhat strange looking), which makes them really easy to plant out.

Spinach

Spinach grows super quick from seed, so it's typically easiest to direct sow it once the weather is right. That being said, I get so excited about homegrown spinach leaves that I often start a tray or two indoors. You can plant your spinach seedlings outside as soon as your soil is workable. (Learn how to grow your own organic spinach.)

Swiss Chard

The directions on the back of the seed packets typically say to direct sow Swiss chard, but I've had great results from starting my seeds indoors and then transplanting the seedlings. Swiss chard seeds can be slow to sprout and take off, so starting them early gives me a jump on the season.

I recommend starting these seeds at least 90 days before your last frost date. Go ahead and move your seedlings out as soon as they're ready. They can handle some frost and snow; just give them protection from heavy frosts. You can also start Swiss chard seeds indoors in late summer if it's still hot outside. Move them out in the fall once the temps have finally dropped to the 70s.

The great thing is Swiss chard is actually a biennial plant, so it's motivated to survive in your garden for several seasons. Your seed starting efforts will be well rewarded with tons of delicious leaves and crunchy stems. (Find more tips to grow Swiss chard from seed.)

Marigolds & Calendula Are Easy Flowers to Start Indoors

The Asteraceae family is my favorite because it contains all the lettuce varieties I hold so dear. Lettuces grow so quickly and have such delicate little root systems that it's not a great idea to start them indoors and then move them. The exception would be radicchio, a close lettuce cousin, and red lettuces, which are a bit hardier than green types.

If you want to start those indoors, I recommend using biodegradable pots that you can plant straight in the garden when the time is right. That'll avoid any disturbances to those fragile root systems.

My favorite plants in this family to start indoors are actually the flowering herbs like marigolds and calendula. You can easily save your own seeds from the dried flowering heads for next year, which means these flowers just keep on giving.

Marigolds

Marigolds have incredible germination rates and grow very quickly and easily from seed. (You probably know this if you've ever grown one marigold and then gotten about 20 volunteer plants the next year.) Marigolds are great flowers to have in your kitchen garden because they attract beneficial insects and can even repel certain pests. Start marigolds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your final anticipated frost. (Learn more about these super low-maintenance flowers.)

Calendula

Calendula seeds are shaped like little squids and are super fun to handle. In my very unscientific tests, calendula was the first out of 15 other types of seeds to germinate and grow. Like marigolds, calendula flowers are both beautiful and beneficial to your garden space. You'll definitely want to start these several weeks before frost so you can have them as companion plants for all your leafy greens. (Here's how to grow your own calendula.)

Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, & Tomatillos Are Easy Fruiting Plants to Start Indoors

Since you have to leave these plants in your garden long enough for them to form and ripen fruit, you definitely want to start them early so that you can maximize their growing time outdoors. These plants like warm to hot weather and need at least 65 days from being transplanted as seedlings outdoors before they'll have fruit ready for you to pick. Fortunately, they're not hard to start indoors.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are often a gardener's first foray into seed starting indoors. You'll want to have your tomato seedlings ready to plant out as soon as you pass your final frost date to make the most of your warm weather. Find your last frost date and count backwards 30 to 60 days to know when to start tomato seeds indoors.

When you transplant your tomato babies, bury them deeper than you'd normally plant something to encourage your plants to produce more roots. (Explore our complete guide to growing tomatoes.)

Peppers & Eggplants

Starting your own peppers and eggplants indoors is a great way to have lots of fun varieties growing in your garden. They both grow really easily from seed and stand up to being transplanted to the garden space once the soil is nice and warm. To know when to plant your peppers and eggplants indoors, subtract 45 days from your last frost date. (Read up on how to grow your own peppers and eggplants from seed.)

Tomatillos

If you have a hot season (a period of 6 or more weeks where your daytime temps stay above 85°F), then you'll love growing tomatillos in your vegetable garden. They're beautiful plants and super productive, assuming you grow two so they can cross pollinate. Tomatillos are super easy to start from seed indoors. Instead of counting from your last frost, you'll subtract 45 days from the first month when your average high temp will be above 85°F to know when to start these plants indoors.

Watermelons Are Good Candidates for Seeds to Start Indoors

I don't recommend starting most plants in the Cucurbitaceae family indoors. That includes cucumbers and some types of squash. They have fragile roots that damage easily, so transplanting them often delays their growth by quite a lot. Watermelons are really the one type of plant in this group that are worth starting indoors.

That's because watermelons need many long summer days to complete their growing stages (80 to 120 days to be more precise). If you live somewhere colder, you might not have 100 days of warm to hot weather, so it's worth your while to start watermelons by seed under lights indoors about 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost date.

Transplant seedlings when they've developed a few true leaves, taking care not to disturb the roots. Keep an eye on your watermelon babies for the first couple weeks. (Find out how you can grow these huge plants in your raised garden beds.)

Peas Are Easy Plants to Start Indoors

I prefer starting peas indoors over direct sowing them because I've found I get much better germination rates. I do recommend using root trainers instead of normal seed starting trays for your peas to give the roots more room to develop. It also makes transplanting your pea seedlings without disturbing the roots much easier.

You can start your peas indoors about 100 days before your last frost date. Peas are, of course, nice and large—super easy to handle. Soak your pea seeds for about 12 hours before planting them in the root trainers. This speeds up the process of germination by penetrating the seed coat, which is particularly thick on peas. Peas are frost hardy, so you can plant your peas out in the garden before the threat of frost has passed, as soon as your soil can be worked. (We've got more tips to grow your own organic peas.)

By the way: Beans may be close cousins to peas, but they do best when direct sown in the garden once the weather is warmer.

Chives, Onions, & Leeks Are Easy Plants to Start Indoors

You've got to have at least one member of the onion, or Amaryllis, plant family in your garden. It's the law (my law), okay? Members of this family repel garden pests, making them the perfect companions for all your leafy greens like kale and spinach. They're also fairly easy to grow from seed—they do take their time though.

Chives

Chives are hardy perennials, so once you plant them in your garden, they'll pop back up every year as soon as the weather warms up. Start your chives indoors as early as 120 days before your last frost date so that these slow-growing little seedlings can be large enough to move outside as soon as your soil can be worked. Chives are frost tolerant, so they'll be able to thrive early in the season. (Learn more about growing chives.)

Onions & Leeks

Onions are super easy to start by seed indoors. You can just plant all your seeds in one tray and then separate them as you plant them out in the garden. Subtract 120 days from your last frost date to know when to start onions and leek seeds indoors.

Okra Is an Easy Plant to Start Indoors for Summer

Last but not least, we have okra with its beautiful flowers. This is a fun seed to start indoors for those of you with a hot season. Okra seeds are huge by kitchen garden seed standards, so you can see where you're sowing them. Check your seed package to see whether they recommend soaking the seeds for 24 hours immediately before planting.

Like with tomatillos, you'll count backwards by 45 days from the beginning of your hot season to know when to start these plants indoors. Wait a couple weeks at least after your last frost before you transplant okra seedlings. (Learn how to grow okra in your home garden.)

Tips to Start These Plants Indoors

If you're new to starting seeds indoors, check out our recommended list of supplies.

Depending on how many plants of each variety you want to end up with, you can plant members of the same family in the same seed starting trays. You could have, for example, a tray of kale and cabbage seedlings. Seeds in the same family tend to have similar growing habits. Some might germinate and outgrow the seed tray faster than others, but you can pop out the larger seedlings and pot them up or transplant them to the garden space as needed.

FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO START YOUR SEEDS:

• Moisten your seed starting mix in a bowl so that it's ready to be a good medium for the seeds.
• Fill up your seed starting tray, biodegradable pots, or root trainers with the moistened mix.
• Plant seeds in each row according to the seed depth on the package, and label the row with the plant type (use plant tags or painter's tape). Seedlings from the same family look alike, so you'll definitely want to label.
• Water the seed trays from the bottom and put under grow lights as soon as you see signs of growth.
• Keep grow lights on for 14 to 16 hours a day.

Follow the steps to harden off your seedlings once they're ready to move out to the garden for best results.

Enjoy a Garden Filled with Leaves, Flowers, & Fruit This Spring!

We're quickly approaching the time to start many of these plants from seed so that you can fill your garden this spring. In just 4 to 6 weeks, you'll have cool season plants that you can move out to the garden before the threat of frost has even passed. You'll enjoy the tastiest and freshest of homegrown harvests, and you can even save more seeds for next year from many of these plants.

I hope this inspires you to order your seeds, dust off your seed starting supplies, and get some plants started indoors right away. You'll be so glad you did in a couple months.

Thanks for growing with me!