IT’S SOW SIMPLE
Raising plants from seed is so easy, says Monty Don – all you need is the will and a sunny windowsill
LOTS of us will be getting out into our gardens this Easter as – weather permitting – spring has arrived. For many people this will be the first real opportunity, and the first time they’ll have had any inclination, to do so after a long winter.
Of course, there will be a lot of tidying to do, old growth to be cleared away, the grass to be mown, a bit of tying up, and maybe even a trip to the garden centre to buy some plants to brighten things up a little. All of that is well and good but the very best thing that you can do in your garden right now and over the coming months is to raise some plants from seed.
I know many people do not grow them this way. This is often because they feel they don’t have the facilities or the expertise, whereas in truth the need for both of those is very minimal indeed. You do not need a greenhouse or a dedicated potting shed, even though there’s no doubt that these two great luxuries transform plant production. As long as you have a windowsill or a porch with plenty of light, you can grow most things.
I’m doing everything I can to reduce the amount of plastic in my garden. The first stage in that process is to reuse as much existing plastic as possible, making sure I look after any seed trays or pots so I can continue to use them for as long as possible. The second phase is not to replace them. This will involve sowing into terracotta pots, pots made from loo roll tubes, pots and seed trays made from coir, miscanthus grasses, cardboard and good old wood. I’m also using soil blocks – seedling containers made purely out of compressed compost. Although you have the initial outlay for the metal device that makes the blocks, you then get round the need to use a conventional container at all.
While different seedlings do have different requirements, in general all will do best with a loose, open compost that is not too rich, so they grow strong and steady rather than shooting up. It’s a good idea either to sow the seeds in a basic general-purpose compost and then prick them out into individual plugs, or at wider spacing in seed trays with a more nutritious potting compost so the young plants are as strong as possible. An excellent home-made seed compost I’ve found is coir mixed with equal measures of vermiculite or perlite, to open it out, and then some leaf mould or sieved garden compost. But I know a brilliant gardener who has used the soil from molehills mixed with an equal measure of garden compost for all his seeds for years with huge success.
Sow the seeds thinly and evenly, and lightly cover them with sieved compost or fine grit – the latter is especially good with very fine seeds as it stops them being washed to one side when you water. I then stand them in a shallow tray of water for ten minutes so the compost becomes thoroughly wet before placing on a bench in the greenhouse or on a windowsill.
Once the seedlings have germinated, move them to a position of maximum light and gently brush your hand over them a few times a day – this is an excellent way of starting the hardening-off process as it encourages the seedlings to grow tougher in the harsh outside world.
When the first ‘true’ leaves appear (as opposed to the leaves that sprout directly from the seeds, see second question in Ask Monty column, right), the seedlings can be gently pricked out and grown on into young plants that will fill your garden with summer colour or delicious vegetables. Once you start growing from seed you’ll never look back!