Slice of MTV's "Pimp My Ride" and Urban Farming's Taja Sevelle lent a hand at the Triscuit and Urban Farming Community-Based Home Farm Groundbreaking in LA.

Whether it’s planting nursery seedlings of peppers and tomatoes in a spacious plot or tending to rosemary and thyme in a windowsill container, gardening always has been one of our favorite, soul-soothing pastimes. And while the grocery store snack aisle wasn’t where we expected to find inspiration for this year’s vegetable harvest, we noticed that Triscuit is giving away basil seeds with its original wheat crackers and dill seeds in its reduced-fat packages.

The seeds in 4 million Triscuit boxes are part of the Home Farming partnership with Urban Farming, a nonprofit that builds community gardens in unused city spaces. Triscuit and Urban Farming want to encourage people to grow their own vegetables, and they also plan to create 50 community-based gardens in 20 cities in 2010.

You’ll find plenty of gardening tips on the Home Farming site — from planting your Triscuit seed card to videos of expert Paul James, host of HGTV’s Gardening by the Yard, demonstrating the best way to thin veggie crops and mulch container gardens. There’s also a handy Start Your Home Farm questionnaire; simply enter in your ZIP code, select the amount of available sunny space (ranging from an indoor container to outside plots) and decide how much time you’re willing to devote to your vegetables. Based on your choices, you will receive advice about what type of garden to create, when to plant and what to harvest — and you can even save your results. To learn more about the recommended vegetables, click through the crop guide. Home gardening is on the rise — according to a survey conducted by Triscuit, two-thirds of Americans are interested in growing vegetables in their own backyard.

Taja Sevelle, executive director and founder of Urban Farming, says the Home Farming partnership with Triscuit helps to spread the nonprofit’s message of “having simpler food and growing it ourselves.” Ground was broken for the first community garden collaboration with Triscuit in Los Angeles on March 11. “The big piece of being able to get rid of hunger is really to encourage people to plant at home,” says Sevelle, a successful songwriter who started Urban Farming in 2005, when she saw a solution to hunger in empty Detroit lots and spaces. “When we say we want to get rid of hunger in our generation, that’s not a lofty concept,” Sevelle says, citing the success of the millions of victory gardens planted during World Wars I and II.

Sevelle says that in communities that already have the fence-free gardens, area residents have thanked her not only for the vegetables harvested, but also for giving them hope. “They’re inspired to plant at home and fix up their homes,” she says. “I never expected some of the responses that I’ve seen and just have really touched my heart.” Urban Farming supporters include Prince and Ed Begley, Jr., who appears on VIVmag’s latest cover with wife Rachelle Carson-Begley.

The Triscuit seeds and our conversation with Sevelle have inspired us to start on our gardening endeavors right away. Do you have a vegetable garden, or do you plan on starting one this year?

Photo credit: Casey Rodgers/AP Images for Triscuit

Tags: Agriculture, Business Partnership, Casey Rodgers, Community, Community gardening, Container garden, Detroit, Ed Begley Jr, executive director and founder, Garden, Gardening, Human geography, Human Interest, Los Angeles, Paul James, Person Communication and Meetings, prince, Rachelle Carson-Begley, simpler food, songwriter, Taja Sevelle, Triscuit, Urban agriculture, Urban Farming, Victory garden