Plant Material And Planting Methods.

Looking through seed catalogues during the winter months is one of the pleasures of the gardening year

. From mail order nurseries, High street shops and garden centres they sell about 90 million packets of seeds each year, half are vegetables and half are flowers. Many gardeners gained their first horticultural experience with a packet of Radishes, Nasturtiums or other hardy annual. Perhaps we move too quickly from sowing seeds to buying bedding plants and container-grown specimens.

A much wider range of annuals and biennials can be raised from seed and some perennials can readily be obtained in this way. Poor storage greatly reduces germination capacity. If you wish to save left seed then you need to tightly close the package and place it in a jar with a screw top. Close the top securely and state the variety and date on the label. Store in a dark and cool place. Do not store opened packets of pelleted or dressed seed. Starter kits are widely available - plastic trays filled with pre-sewn seed compost. They are useful if you are short of time, but the range of plants offered is limited and the cost is understandably higher than starting from scratch.

Sowing seeds indoors:

Some popular flowers are too tender to be grown outdoors until the end of spring. The seeds are sown in compost in March or April and the trays or pots are kept in a greenhouse, garden frame or on the windowsill. The seedlings are set out in the garden in late May or early June. Some half-hardy vegetables (Tomato, Cucumber, Aubergine etc.) are also sown indoors in early spring for greenhouse culture or for planting outside when the danger of frost has past. Indoor sowing is not restricted to half-hardy subjects. It is also used for raising hardy types of flowers and vegetables when early blooms or early crops are required. Transplanting indoor sown plants rather than sowing on site is useful for wet and cold areas.

Sowing seeds outdoors:

In order to germinate a seed must have warmth, air and moisture. March and April are the usual months for sewing hardy annuals, when the soil is warm enough for germination and dry enough to allow you to make a seed bed. The weather is more important than the calendar - hold up operations if the weather is cold and wet, even though it might mean being a couple of weeks late. Some annuals (Larkspur, Cornflower, and Pot Marigold) can be sown in September - these autumn-sown annuals bloom earlier than their spring-sown counterparts. Half-hardy annuals can be sown outdoors in late spring when the danger of frost is past - these outdoor-sown ones bloom later than bedded-out ones. It is quite impossible to generalise about the correct time to sow vegetables, it depends on the type grown and you should consult the seed packet or a guide book.

Sowing bulbs:

Bulbs are one of the most popular types of planting material. If the soil is reasonable and the bulbs are large and healthy enough then hardly anything can go wrong. The general practice is to plant in autumn for flowers to brighten up the spring garden, but this basic pattern can be greatly extended. By careful selection you can have bulbous plants in bloom all year round.

by: Stephen Drummonsy

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