What to consider before you start sowing

What to Consider Before You Start Sowing

I start planning the next year's sowing before Christmas. It's an uplifting thing to do when it's dark and wet outside. I start looking through seed catalogues and get excited about what I want to grow.

For sourcing seeds, you will have a lot of options, wherever you are in the world. I buy many of mine from Chiltern Seeds, which has a really good variety of flower seed in particular.

How to Use a Wider Variety of Flowers in Your Garden

The fantastic thing about growing from seed is that you can grow so much more, as you won't find a very wide range of annuals in garden centres. The varieties you do find might not be to your taste in terms of colour, etc.

When you grow from seed, you have control and you can make the selections and grow those beautiful plants you wouldn't find elsewhere.

• You can make your own collection from this vast selection of seeds out there and work out your personal favourites.
• You can grow different things every year and try new things. The world is your oyster.

Things to think about when choosing:

• the effects you want to create
• what you're using the plants for – e.g. cutting, pots, borders
• the height of the plant – you can find this out from the seed packet or by searching online
• For containers, you don't want something too tall
• For example, some cosmos are very tall and willowy so not good for pots, but you can buy dwarf cosmos varieties for pots.

Everyone has their own preferences and tastes and there will be lots of things that you will be drawn to. Go out there and see what you can find.

The Four Groups of Plants You Can Grow from Seed

1. Hardy annuals: annuals are plants with a one-year lifecycle – they germinate, flower, seed and die all in one year. They are the easiest group to grow from seed. Hardy annuals are frost-hardy annuals, e.g. cornflowers, marigolds and sweet peas.

1. Half-hardy annuals: plants that are often perennials in their natural habitat but are not hardy in the UK so are grown here as annuals, e.g. cosmos (perennial in native Mexico). Since they are not hardy, these are sown a little later than hardy annuals.

1. Biennials: plants with a two-year lifecycle – they produce leaves in their first year, flower in their second year and then die.

1. Perennials: plants that come back year after year. May form clumps that last for many years or even decades, which you have to divide every few years.

• Short-lived perennials: perennials that only live for 3-4 years but may regenerate by self-seeding. They set seed after flowering, the seed disperses naturally and seedlings pop up, and you can then move these around or leave them.

Growing the Right Number of Plants

Don't Sow Too Many

It's so easy to sow a full tray and end up with loads of seedlings you can't use. If you have time you can grow them on and give to friends, but my advice would be not to sow too many in the first place. Use a smaller seed tray and raise fewer seedlings.

Be Aware of How Many Seeds Are in a Packet

Sometimes you're restricted by the number of seeds in a packet. Seeds are becoming more expensive and sometimes there are only a few seeds per packet, especially for rarer plants. Check how many are in your packet when you buy and sow.

Calculate Roughly How Many You Need

Think about the number of plants you ultimately want, and what you'll be using them for, and try to visualise those plants growing and the size they'll eventually be.

• You probably only need about 12 of a certain plant if you're using them for containers.
• I've sown Verbena for my pots this summer. I'll probably plant them in threes but I've worked out roughly how many I need for those containers, and as I have a fair few pots I'm growing about 20.