When to sow seeds

When to Sow Seeds

There are few things more exciting for a gardener than seed sowing. The joy of tucking seeds into compost never leaves you, and after months of planning, finally getting your seeds in the ground is a great feeling. Seeds can be sown from spring right through until autumn, particularly when it comes to quick-growing crops, such as radishes and lettuces.

In the middle of summer, we can sow seeds that will take us right through the winter, but the majority of seeds are sown in spring.

Springtime Sowing

For springtime sowing, we need to ensure that there is enough light and warmth for plants to thrive. In organic gardens, the health of plants is incredibly important, as healthy plants can handle pests and diseases much better than weaker plants.

Personally, I wait until after Valentine's Day to sow my first seeds, but I do the majority of my seed sowing around 20th March, which is the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere and means that the days and nights are of a more-even length.

Sowing from this date onwards means you'll get shorter and squatter plants, which are really robust, rather than long and leggy ones, which are generally much weaker.

Caring for Young Tender Plants

Tender plants won't tolerate frost, so they can only go outside once it is warm enough. The best way to ensure they don't suffer from frost damage is to find out the last frost date in your area.

You can then sow your tomato plants indoors around six weeks before this date, and they'll be ready to plant out once the risk of frost has passed. I tend to play it safe, and sow my seeds a few weeks after my final frost date, which means I sow my tomato seeds around the middle of April.

While it can be tempting to plant seeds earlier in the year, you'll get much faster germination and stronger plants by holding off.

Caring for Young Hardy Plants

Hardy plants can tolerate the cold and can last all the way through the winter months. Hardy edible plants include kale, chard, chamomile and calendula. You can keep sowing these plants as long as the light levels are high enough and you have somewhere warm to germinate them.

Once they have germinated, you can leave them outside throughout the winter months and they'll be absolutely fine.

Your Assignment: List of Practical Things to Do

• Find out the last frost date in your area.
• Learn about equinoxes and solstices and how these influence daylight hours.
• Work out how much indoor or greenhouse space you have to germinate seed.
• Collect containers to sow your seed in.
• Learn about the different germination temperatures of seeds online or in books – the info on the back of seed packets can be vague or may even be just plain wrong.