How to Organise Sowing Seed in the Kitchen Garden Outdoorsgain control of the garden with good planning Good planning is particularly important when sowing seed. Start with what you’d like to grow, how much you need over the season, and the space available. Work out a succession and the numbers of plants needed. Then note the approximate sowing times.
Fill Every Space by Continuous Seed Sowing
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Try mixed sowing within rows e.g. carrots and spring onions (distracts carrot fly pests), or try runner beans around courgettes or marrow.
Sowing in succession: Keep sowing little and often to ensure a steady supply of fresh young plants to eat e.g. salad greens – spring onions, lettuce, beetroot, leeks - Check the seed catalogs here.
Harvest thinnings: you can sometimes take small tender plants out whole leaving space for the remainder to reach full size e.g. beetroot, carrot.
Cut and cum: many greens, e.g. kale, lettuce varieties; can be grown at closer spacing when their leaves are regularly harvested and allowed to re-grow. You get a continuous supply of fresh leaves. Sprouting broccoli and broccoli raab are further examples using normal spacing but fewer plants as new sprouts continue to grow.
Avid gardeners are sowing all year around with the help of cold frames, cloches, fleece and polythene covers outdoors, and modules and propagators indoors.
Continuously sowing seed indoors and outside will give you high productivity and a well-controlled garden.
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Tap Roots: Carrots and parsnip are sown in deeply cultivated fine stone-free soil where they are to grow. Stump rooted carrots grown in modules can be transplanted into containers or soil outside.
Peas and Beans: are sown were they are to grow, in beds fitting into the rotation with other crops – usually after brassicas.
No room left ? )-:
Containers: can be used to grow potatoes, carrots, and fruit e.g. strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries… and more. There not ideal but using them may free-up some space to grow other plants from seed.
Still short of space ?
You can also sow veg seed for transplanting in the perennial flower bed. Indeed some add their own attraction when among flowers - ferny carrot leaves, spiky shapes of artichoke, rainbow coloured chard, and the cheerful flowers on runner beans (Scarlet Runners)...
Growing Seeds and Saving Space… Simple changes in the way you organise your seed sowing can do much. For example, making a dedicated nursery seed-bed solves problems that otherwise need duplicate effort and resources.
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Advantageous of Making a Nursery Seed-Bed
These points apply particularly well when transplanting is normal practice e.g.: brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, (brassica’s), onion, leek, lettuce, - and individual flowers like delphinium, digitalis (foxglove), verbascum etc.- Concentrate your time and effort on properly preparing the soil for seed in one site,
- Save seeds and space by sowing in shorter more closely spaced rows and transplanting, rather than longer rows and thinning,
- Leave a previous crop to grow until you need to transplant in from your seed-bed,
- A dedicated seed-bed can be ideally sited for sowing seed (see below),
- Easier to intensively weed one site, while elsewhere mulch may be used to control any weeds when you can plant through it,
- Easier to warm a single site in spring using polythene, fleece or cloches. You only need one supporting frame, one set of stays etc… for each seed-bed. check link for details,
- Easier to protect a single site from pests such as snails, slugs, and birds - one set of slug traps, one net cover etc... organic pest control
- Follow spring seeds with striking cuttings into the same bed,
- After sowing is complete for the season, the bed can still be used to grow on the last plants to maturity.
The Site for a Nursery Seed Bed
Choose a good site. Your garden may vary in slope, aspect, soil texture, shade and shelter. Try to find:- An open site, with full sky light and not under drips,
- A sheltered site not exposed to cold or drying winds,
- A midday sun-facing aspect that warms cold winter soils,
- Avoid frost hollows,
- Well-drained site free of compaction or water logging,
- Light sandy soils are best, they warm early and are well-aerated,
- Avoid highly fertilized or manured areas,
- Nursery seed-beds next to hedges may become too dry. My garden loam / sandy clay just copes near the hedge. Spring drought is exceptional,
- Silt soils become capped after light rain or watering, preventing air and water movement and effectively sealing the seeds in,
- Whatever your soil, organic matter is always a great soil improver and will help sandy soils retain moisture, and lighten clay soils,
- Make your seed-bed easily accessible so you can work from all sides,
The nursery seed-bed might be moved year on year. Roots from a previous crop usually improve soil texture. A seed bed on clay soil continuously left uncovered and not growing an extensive root system, may begin to slump and stagnate. But always avoid highly fertilized or manured areas.
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Take Control with a Nursery Seed Bed
It’s hard to control nature’s vagaries when sowing seed outside. But it’s easier where you concentrate on a nursery seed-bed (as above).
Be Earlier & More Consistent By Sowing Seed InsideSowing seed undercover in pots modules, trays and propagators is a productive alternative to sowing outdoors.
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You might not expect 100% germination rate from your seeds – but vast improvements can be obtained by sowing seed in the correct conditions: depth, soil texture etc
Check these links.
Next > How to prepare garden soil for seed - …
Next > How to start seeds in propagators - match your method to your plant & garden needs for an earlier start & better results…
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