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Sowing Seeds
 Now all the excitement of the snow is over one needs to think about more colour for the garden. One of the main ways to achieve this is sow some seeds. Seed sowing can be very satisfying, and producing your own plants from seeds also helps to keep costs down. There are so many types and varieties of seeds available on the market that, for beginner gardeners, the task of choosing them can seem quite daunting. However, fear not! Firstly one needs to decide how many seeds to buy; this is determined by how much room you have in your garden or allotment, and how much you’d like to give away to your neighbours and friends. When choosing seeds it is always worth buying good quality from a well know stockist, and don’t forget to check the sell by date.
Sowing the seeds is the easy bit, germination is the harder. I’m going to concentrate on seeds that cannot be sown directly outside but need warmth to germinate. Decide what container you wish to sow your seeds into, I like to use small plastic fruit punnets as they are easy to manage, and fit four to a shallow seed tray. Make sure that the punnet is clean. I use a little diluted Jeyes fluid to disinfect. The punnet also needs to have drainage holes in the bottom. Fill your punnet with compost, rubbing it between your hands so as to aerate and to make sure there are no lumps in it, Levington F2 is a very good seed compost. Smooth the top of the compost, and firm with a piece of board, then use a watering can with the nozzle turned upwards to slowly soak the compost evenly. Use a little chestnut compound to prevent the damping off of seeds. With the compost thoroughly wet, sprinkle the seeds, gently onto the compost, the coverage depending on the variety of plant, add a fine covering of perlite, then put somewhere dark and warm (approx 65 degrees) for them to propagate. A plastic bag can be used if you don’t have a propagator. This can take anything from 5 days to 3 weeks. Make sure you label them clearly.
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The ideal place to propagate seeds is on heated sand on a mist bench in a heated greenhouse. Obviously this is not always possible, so on a window ledge often works well. I remember as a child my mother cleaning out our airing cupboard for trays of seeds to go in to germinate. A small propagator can be a good investment. The seeds need to be misted regularly so a mist gun full of tap water a few times a day does the trick, depending on the moisture conditions. Once the seeds have popped up, make sure they are somewhere with plenty of light. Let them grow to a couple of centimetres and then you can prick them out into a larger container, and when they are large enough, into a hanging basket, tub, or window box, garden bed etc. depending on the weather conditions. For those that have over produced, don’t throw them out, be generous and give them away!
Some seeds are a lot easier to germinate than others, for example bidens, brachyscome, dahlias, diascias, marigolds, tagetes, nemesia, nicotiana are good to begin with. Impatients, lobelia, begonias and geraniums need a little more attention, and if the conditions just are not perfect, don’t take it personally, a lot of people have the same problem.
If all this seems too much for you, buying your seeds in small ready germinated punnets, I call them ‘time savers’, is always a great idea. For more information and tips visit www.pothousehamlet.co.uk
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Hints & Tips
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A handy hint if you want to keep one corner of the garden tidier and easy to manage is to incorporate raised beds. Utilise for a vegetable patch or herb garden.
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