When & What Seeds To Sow
You can have success with successional sowing of seeds.
A wonderful variety of colour from a mixture of hardy annuals and hardy perennials.
Sowing seeds is great fun. The good news is that there are different types of seeds that can be grown at different periods of the year. Apart from October – December there is probably some seeds that you can be sown under protection of gentle heat. This could be a sample seed sowing season
January – February.
This is time for early season crops like lettuce and spinach. They will need heat and cloche protection to grow. But, vegetables like Spinach may do better in colder times because they are less likely to grow from seed. Later crops may bolt in the heat of summer. February is also a good time for slow growing annuals like Datura.
However, if you do sow in February, growth will invariably be slower because of the lower light levels. Seed grown early, will need more care and time, but, can reward the patient garden with early season flowers and vegetables.
March / April.
This is the peak season for sowing hardy annuals and also half hardy annuals. Seeds grown in April will soon catch up with earlier grown seeds. Half hardy annuals can be sown in March but will need to be kept under glass for two months before risk of frost has passed. Some hardy annuals like Sweet Peas are worth sowing early as they are less likely to be affected by powdery Mildew.
May and June.
May and early June is the last chance to sow annuals of fruit and veg. Some good veg include Runner Beans which have a short and dramatic growing season. Even in late June, Runner Beans can be cropping by the end of summer. Good flowers to sow late include Sunflowers.
For more delicate veg like cucumbers and peppers, May is good time to sow for a late season crop.
June / July.
June or July is a good time to start thinking about bi-annuals like Foxgloves, Wallflowers, Sweet Williams, Penstemons e.t.c Sown in June or July, the plant will get established before winter, ready to spring into action the following spring / summer.
August / September.
For an early hardy annual crop, you can try sowing some plants in late summer. They will offer an early flowering season. It is a good technique if you have some spare land, you want to cover. e.g. Daisy, and Tagetes. You can also sow a green manure for covering bare soil over winter. – A good way to protect against soil erosion and weeds.
- Seed Selection at T&M
- Check out Gardeners tips for February
Californian Poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are best sown directly into the soil in April / May. They can grow quickly once established, and do well in hot, dry conditions. They dislike being pricked out intensely.
There are a bewildering array of different seeds on the market. See: Tips on Growing Seeds for more advice. These are some of the different types of seed that you can use.
Saved Seeds.
A rewarding aspect of gardening is using saved seeds from your own garden. This is particularly useful for many types of vegetable seeds. If you want to win at a flower show, try getting hold of some seed from a prize specimen. Using saved seed works for many traditional cottage garden plants such as sunflowers, marigolds, nigella and foxgloves. However, it is not worth saving seeds from F1 bred bedding plants like Begonias.
F1 Seeds.
An F1 seed is one that has been carefully grown by selecting two particular pure bred parents. F1 often give great colour variations and offer great uniformity for display. They can be more expensive because of the care gone into growing them. Seeds from F1 types do not necessarily follow their parents.
F2 Seeds.
F2 are seeds from F1 plants. They tend to be a bit cheaper and not as uniform.
If you let foxgloves set seed, they will produce similar plants next year. However, if you get a special variety of foxgloves (e.g. alba varieties), you may want to sow direct from packet, as you cannot guarantee that a white foxglove will produce white children.
Coated Seeds. It is possible to buy seeds coated with fungicide to help protect against rot and aid germination. This is unnecessary if you maintain warmth, good hygiene and prevent waterlogged soil.
Open Pollinated Seed.
If it is not F1 or F2 seed then it is probably going to be open pollinated seed. This means that there was no specific crossing of seed, but, it comes from nature’s choice.
- Seed Selection at T&M
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