Is it because of the tasteless tomatoes we buy in grocery stores or the prices we pay for fresh veggies? Or is it just a healthy desire to get our hands back into the dirt?

Whatever it is, the demand for seeds for veggies and herbs is skyrocketing this year.

Three big seed suppliers in the metro area report their spring sales are up as much as a third over last year.

“Our year doesn’t end until June 30, but we believe our sales for vegetable seed packets are up about 30 percent,” said Lori Townsend, operations manager and seed buyer for Lake Valley Seed Co. in Boulder. “The same is true for herb seeds. Flower seeds are up about 10 percent.”

She thinks the poor economy has left people with less money for groceries, so they’re looking for ways to eat better food. “I think you’ll see a big increase in storage, canning and freezing later in the season,” she said.

Lake Valley is a wholesaler, selling about 9 million seed packets for home gardeners across the country each year, she said. She’s optimistic enough that she hired a second shift of workers in anticipation of an even greater demand in 2010.

Sales at Rocky Mountain Seed Co., which sells bulk seeds to commercial growers, farmers and garden centers as well as seed packets to home growers, are up 20 percent to 25 percent this year, said Ed Barraclough, who runs the 89-year-old Denver company with his wife, Barbara.

“Our largest customer base is the commercial farmers and greenhouses, where we’re up 15 to 20 percent,” he said. “Seed packets are up at least 25 percent, with organic seeds up about 22 percent. I don’t know if that’s from a health concern or more from the economy being down.”

The company prides itself in supplying seeds for free or at a deep discount for urban gardens for the indigent and for the more than 80 gardens operated in the metro area by the nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens.

Broomfield-based Botanical Interests, which sells about 5 million to 6 million seed packets a year, has seen about a 22 percent increase so far this year.

The company focuses on home gardeners, particularly those new to growing or those wishing to get better at it, selling to 2,400 stores, including all Whole Foods and Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage stores. Each seed packet has elaborate graphics and contains extensive directions on preparation, growing, harvesting and consuming.

“We joke that we’re an information company that sells seeds,” said Curtis Jones, who started the company 14 years ago with his wife, Judy Seaborn.

He estimates that about 15 percent of the increase is from existing customers buying more seeds. The rest he attributes to new customers gardening for the first time.

Jones believes people feel a greater need to become self-sufficient. “Things are so bad now, I should be able to take care of myself,” he said. “If there’s a break in the distribution of food, or a natural disaster, people want to be able to take care of themselves.”

Lake Valley’s Townsend says experienced gardeners can grow roughly $600 worth of vegetables from $20 worth of seeds.

Jones estimates a 12-inch pot could yield about $75 worth of basil, but acknowledges that in some communities, there may be more forces than the budget at work.

“For Boulderites, it’s more of a sustainability thing,” he said. “Grow locally, use less fuel, smaller carbon footprint.”

Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com

Grow your gardening skills

Experienced gardeners caution beginners against diving in too quickly and spending way too much, citing William Alexander’s book, “The $64 Tomato” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007), in which he tells of the extremes he went to in taming nature to produce a table full of fresh vegetables for his family. After wrestling with fancy hoes, pesticides, fertilizers and electric fences on his Hudson River garden plot, Alexander guesses in the final chapter that the heirloom tomato he is eating cost him about $64 to grow.

This doesn’t have to happen to you. Many towns and cities support community gardens — often staffed by master gardeners or populated by those who are really good at growing food — where you can get started on a manageable scale and get mentoring if you need it.

Here are a few to check out:

Denver Urban Gardens: Members pitch in with the work and with teaching others about gardening (dug.org).

Growing Gardens: This group manages eight community gardens in Boulder and Louisville (growinggardens.org).

CSU Extension: Many extension offices have community gardens, and if they don’t, they’ll know where you can find one in your town. Go to www.ext.colostate.edu, and search for your county office.