Seed Sowing in your Garden

Seed sowing in your garden should be easy way to grow flowers and vegetables- and so it can be. With a few simple tricks you can make sure the seeds you’re sowing will germinate (grow into seedlings) and prevent the birds eating your seeds when you’ve sown them.

But first – will your seeds germinate?

Whether you’re sowing indoors or out, the magic of germination won’t happen unless you have viable seeds. A viable seed is one which has the capacity to germinate. Those ancient seed packets you discovered at the back of the topmost dustiest shelf in the potting shed may not be the ones you want to spend time and energy on. Sometimes seeds surprise us by lying dormant for longer than we expect and still cheerfully germinating as soon as they’re exposed to light, air and water. However, these seeds are often the ones that have been brought to the surface when we dug and tilled the ground to prepare the seedbed!

If you’re not sure, it is fairly simple to test for viability before seed sowing.
This method below doesn’t work with all seeds. Some require a particular format of a period of cold, followed by a period of warm, followed by a period of cold again to break dormancy. Other seeds may require different proportions of light, air and water. Yet others require the seed case to be split. But for many seeds, it will give you an idea as to whether it’s worth sowing them.

Testing Seeds for Viability

Gather together your seeds, kitchen paper towel, plastic bags and a water spray bottle
Lightly dampen a piece of paper towel with the spray
Lay ten seeds on it, spaced out; lightly dampen
Cover with a second paper towel, roll up or fold and place in a plastic bag
Label the bag with which seed variety is being tested
Then place the bag or bags in a warm but not hot, dark place
Check every couple of days to ensure the towel is still damp
After 7-10 days there should be signs of germination
Once no more seeds have germinated over a 3-5 day period you can assume all the seeds have germinated that are going to.

Next count up how many seeds have germinated. This is where using 10 seeds (or multiples of then) makes for easy maths.

If six or seven of the seeds germinated then you have 60% -70% germination rate. So it’s definitely worth while sowing the remainder of the seeds.

If you only have three or four seeds which have germinated then that’s a 30%-40% viability rate. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s worthwhile sowing these seeds.

You’re seed sowing in your garden in order to produce strong healthy plants. The resulting seedlings and plants from these seeds may not be as vigorous or productive. If they’re a difficult to find heritage variety or a favourite plant, then personally I would sow them. If it’s easy to get fresher seeds I would get some fresher, younger seeds.

Seed Sowing in Your Garden – Seed beds

When talking about seed sowing in your garden, I’m referring to sowing seeds straight into the ground. So this is about hardy plant seeds if you’re sowing in the next month or so. Half-hardy and tender plant seeds should be sown when the ground has warmed up in spring. For starting seeds indoors check out another of our blogs and our video on indoor seed sowing.

Whether you have a vegetable plot or you’re growing ornamental plants you will ideally have a “seed bed”. What this means is an area where the soil has been cultivated to a fine tilth. Which in turn means that the soil has been prepared, initially by double digging where necessary. Not because the seedlings will be in situ long enough to develop deep roots, as they won’t be, but to ensure good drainage on heavier soils. Water retention may be an issue, either too much (clay type soils) or too little (sandy based soils). Grit can be added improve the water flow through the clay soil. Organic matter can added to increase the water retention around the roots in sandy soil.

Seed beds do not need particularly nutritious growing media (soil) as the seedlings won’t be left in there for long. They will be moved to their permanent position in a nutrient rich soil elsewhere in the vegetable garden or flower borders. Remember, seed beds do not need to be particularly large either. I have successfully used an area the size of a rabbit run. This had the added advantage of easily being covered with the old rabbit run and fleece as an impromptu cold frame when we had late frosts.

Seed Sowing in Your Garden – Preparing your Seed beds

The first couple of inches of soil should be raked over to give that perfect tilth. First use the pronged side of the rake and then finish off with the smooth side as it’s easier to level the surface with this edge. Stones and lumps of soil can be sieved out using a soil riddle; this is a good idea when you plan to be sowing smaller seeds.

It is good practice to leave this newly prepared seed bed exposed for a couple of weeks. This allows the disturbed seeds that were below ground level and have now been exposed to light, air and water to germinate. You can take your hoe and remove them, leaving to one side to die before adding them to the compost heap, assuming they’re not pernicious perennials. Exposing the seed bed also allows birds free access to the turned soil; this is a good thing as they will most likely find and eat the larvae and insects that might nibble at your seedlings.

Seed Sowing in Your Garden – Methods

Broadcast sowing of seeds is more suited to lawns but can also be effective used for hardy annuals in the flower border where you want to create drifts of colour.

Seed drills are used to sow a regular amount of seeds along a straight line; a blue and red Victorian example from the Lost Gardens of Heligan can be seen here. These are more efficient over larger areas.

In the seed bed, seeds are sown in rows or drills to maximise the space. To make a drill first set up a taut line across your seed bed. Then take the rake and use its edge to make a V-shaped drill along the line, or press the handle into the soil to make a U-shaped drill.

Small seeds such as carrots are best dribbled into fine sand first so that you can see the line of seeds in the drill. Larger seeds can be individually placed along the drill. The important thing is that the seed is in contact with the soil in order to aid germination. In a dry spring, watering the drill before sowing the seeds is a good idea.

After sowing rake the soil over the drill and lightly pat it down with the flat side of the rake. Put your plant label at the end of the drill or row, marked with the type of seed and the date sown. You may also like to record the seeds sown in your gardening notebook or computer.

Your newly sown seeds can be covered with horticultural fleece, which will keep the birds off, allow water through and also give frost protection to the emerging seedlings.

Seed Sowing in Your Garden – what happens next?

For further gardening advice and inspiration, on seeds and what happens when they become seedlings, start with the blogs and video below. More ideas and gardening advice can be found in other Plews Potting Shed blogs and our monthly Tipsheet . You could come and find us on Instagram – @plewsgd Pinterest and Facebook too.

And on that note, you can have a peek at my garden in the (new) Instagram account @spitfiresandslowworms

And if you’d like some personal help, we offer a mix of practical sessions and theory in our bespoke Gardening Lessons and Courses. There’s a blog link below plus a pdf download with more info.