Sowing outdoors and undercover
The cheap and easy way to brighten every garden
Late winter and early spring were the wettest I can recall, making most of the garden a sodden no-go zone. I kept myself cheerful by sowing hardy seeds in trays and germinating them on the windowsills. But now, at last, the weather has turned in our favour and we can start sowing directly into the soil and also make a start on half-hardy annuals indoors/undercover.
These are varieties such as cosmos, zinnia, nicotiana and tagetes (French marigold) that don’t appreciate the cold. Sow now undercover in trays and pots and plant them out, after hardening them off, towards the end of May or early June when the frosts have passed.
You can also sow a second batch directly into the soil when the frosts have finished and night time temperatures are reliably above zero for a later flush of flowers.
Hardy annuals can be sown directly into the soil and are the easiest plants to grow. All you need to do is clear weeds and debris from a patch of soil in a sunny spot, break up the soil into a light crumble, dampen it if needed and scatter your seeds as thinly as possible.
Cover them with a little more soil and gently firm it down, then use some pepper spray to deter cats and birds. Label the spot and watch your seedlings grow - you can thin them out later on if they are too crowded.
I like to mix complementary varieties together. Scattering cornflowers, red poppies, love-in-a-mist and bunny tail grass (Lagurus ovatus) creates a colourful, informal patchwork of summer colour.
Remember to sow seeds every few weeks to prolong the flowering period.