Practical Gardening
WITH the gentle spring we have had the soil should have warmed up suffciently to provide the perfect environment for seed germination. If you have a greenhouse or poytunnel you may well have started module or liner pot sowings a few weeks ago and already have young plants that you are preparing to plant out. If you are not that lucky or a gardening beginner now is the time to take on the project and marvel at the achievement of watching your plants grow from seed.
Half hardy varieties need to be sown indoors and transplanted out in mid May as this gives them a head start to allow them to flower well in summer. Pot marigolds, annual Chrysanthemums, night scented stock, godetia, poached egg plant and Nasturtium are hardy annuals.
Some half hardy annuals like Cosmos can be sown directly into the soil in a warm sheltered spot and still successfully flower for you although a little later than if started indoors. Bizzie lizzie, lobelia, petunia, begoina, French and African marigolds and Ageratums are some of the many half hardy annuals.
When planting out any seedlings grown under cover you are best advised to harden them off over the course of a week to ten days. To do this place them outside in a sheltered sunny spot so they can acclimatise before their final planting out. This might involve, over a week, leaving the seedlings outside for a few hours the first day then bring them back in, repeat this for progressively longer until you leave them outside overnight preferably on a still mild one.
Whether you are sowing vegetable or flower seeds the soil preparation is the same although the sowing technique is different. Ideally the area to be sown should be dug over well in advance to allow winters weather to break it up, especially with heavy soil. The reason for this is as you might