Indholdsfortegnelse for Your Garden From Seed 2024 i BBC Gardeners' World

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The key to successful sowing is giving each seed what it needs in terms of warmth (indoors or out), light (whether to cover seeds) and sowing depth, to ensure successful germination. If you get these needs right, then the rest is easy. Sowing indoors is essential for anything that needs warmth, such as tender perennials, or a long growing season and therefore needs to get off to an early start when it’s too cold to sow outside, such as frost-tender veg and annual bedding plants. Sown ‘under glass’, means in a greenhouse, porch or on a windowsill – in fact, anywhere the temperature can be raised. They just need to be protected from frost and positioned in bright light to stop them from growing tall and ‘leggy’. Most require just…

When the weather warms up so that the soil is warm to touch, you can sow hardy annuals and veg direct. It can be easier if you don’t have the room or the facilities to start these plants off under glass or indoors, as most can be sown direct outdoors in the place where you want them to flower or crop. Hardy annuals include invaluable plants like the airy Ammi majus, the beautiful silver and purple Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’, English marigolds such as Calendula officinalis ‘Indian Prince’, and, of course, sweet peas. Annuals such as sweet peas can also be sown indoors for earlier blooming – sowing in Feb can give you flowers by May. You can also sow veg such as beetroot, salad leaves, lettuce and carrots. Some hardy…

JUNE Gypsophila This annual ‘filler flower’ produces lots of small white stars on bushy plants about 45cm tall. Sow in large containers or direct in the ground – it takes 8-10 weeks from sowing to cutting. Prefers sun and fertile soil. ALSO FLOWERING IN JUNE JULY Sweet pea There can’t be many people who can resist the colours and scent of sweet peas. Sow them indoors in early spring and you’ll be enjoying flowers throughout the summer, from July onwards. Keep picking to get a continuous supply of flowers. ALSO FLOWERING IN JULY AUGUST Cosmos Huge white or pink single flowers topping upright, bushy 90cm plants with ferny foliage. Sow indoors in march, at 21-24°C, or outdoors in May, for September flowers. Prefers fertile, fairly well-drained soil and sun. ALSO…

Check young plants every few weeks while you wait for the weather to warm up enough to plant outside. Once you see roots coming through newspaper pots (or at the drainage holes for clay and plastic pots), move them into a new container one or two sizes bigger. If you have used newspaper pots, there’s no need to remove the plants from these because they will biodegrade. Plant the pot at the same depth, firm fresh compost around the rootball and water well. If you're moving seedlings on their own, lower the seedling into the new pot. Potting on not only gives young seedlings room to grow, but also gives them fresh compost which is full of nutrients to encourage good growth. Tomato seedlings, for example, are hungry feeders and…

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Q Why do some seeds need modules and Rootrainers? A Use seed trays for larger quantities of seed to be pricked out, and pots for growing larger individual plants before potting on. Cell packs and Rootrainers avoid the need for pricking out. Sowing seed too thickly can impair germination and increase the risk of damping off. Q Is it important to use seed compost? A Yes – when you’re sowing seed in containers, you should always use either seed compost or multi-purpose compost (which is very similar). Potting compost contains too many nutrients which can inhibit germination, while garden soil is just too hit-and-miss. It might contain harmful micro-organisms, weedkiller residues or traces of other products and chemicals that can affect emerging seedlings. Since it is generally the more expensive…

Little beats the magic of sowing a seed and seeing it flourish into a delicious crop or beautiful flower. Watching life spring from the earth is witnessing Mother Nature at her finest and, without doubt, one of the most exciting things about gardening. And the very best bit? Sowing seed is easy and everyone can do it. There are a few different techniques to master, but they’re all covered in this one-stop guide, complete with step-by-step instructions, clear advice and troubleshooting tips – meaning you’ll succeed every time. Unsure what to sow when? No problem, our sowing calendars tell you everything you need to know to get it right. There are so many reasons to create a garden from seed, not least because you’ll save £££s along with having the…

HARDY ANNUALS Including: • calendula• cornflowers• love-in-a-mist• nasturtiums• night-scented stock• poppies• sunflowers• sweet peas FROST-TENDER VEG Including: • aubergines• courgettes• cucumbers• French/runner beans• peppers• pumpkins• sweetcorn• tomatoes HARDY SALADS/VEG Including: • beetroot• broad beans• chard• lettuces• peas• spring onions• radishes• rocket HARDY PERENNIALS Including: • aquilegias• delphiniums• echinacea• hellebores• lupins• primulas• rudbeckias• verbascums HALF-HARDY FLOWERS Including: • cosmos• lobelia• marigolds• morning glory• nemesia• nicotiana• petunias• snapdragons BIENNIAL FLOWERS Including: • Canterbury bells• evening primrose• forget-me-not• foxgloves• polyanthus• sweet rocket• sweet williams• wallflowers TENDER PERENNIALS Including: • begonias• coleus• dahlias• felicia• fuchsias• heliotrope• pelargoniums• salvias TREES AND SHRUBS Including: • abutilons• acers• bonsai trees• cotoneasters• cytisus (broom)• hawthorns• oaks• sorbus…

Seven special editions to collect for great gardening results On sale now… Your Garden From Seed: retail and online Small Space Harvests: online only Coming up… Garden to Plate – a collaboration with BBC Good Food: on sale 2 May Gardening for Shade: on sale 27 June The Thrifty Gardener: on sale 22 August Your Happy House Plants: on sale 17 October Year Planner 2025: on sale 5 December Available to buy in selected supermarkets, WHSmith, local stores and online at GardenersWorld.com/gw-special-editions (while stocks last)…

Small Space Harvests available to buy online now ✔ Simple techniques ✔ Crops for small spots ✔ Step-by-step advice ✔ Growing indoors Seven guides to collect in 2024 Online only: Small Space Harvests: on sale now At retail and online: Your Garden From Seed: on sale now Grow and Cook – a collaboration with BBC Good Food: on sale 2 May Gardening for Shade: on sale 27 June The Thrifty Gardener: on sale 22 August Your Happy House Plants: on sale 17 October Year Planner 2025: on sale 5 December Buy Small Space Harvests online at Mags Direct. Go to bit.ly/SmallSpaceHarvests…

You don’t need any special equipment to sow seed. Depending on the size of seed you can either sow into trays, modules or pots. If you don’t want to buy anything, make use of old yogurt pots, make newspaper pots or use cardboard loo tubes for bigger seeds. For trays, you could use tomato or mushroom punnets. Tiny seeds that germinate slowly are best sown in seed trays so that you can prick out the strongest. Do this when seedlings have the first two leaves. (see p100-101 for technique). Medium-sized seeds, such as beetroot, are best sown in modules, and large seeds, such as sunflowers, in 8-10cm pots. Some seed requires special techniques before sowing, such as scarification (scratching the seed), soaking or a period of cold. Check your seed…

If you have some spare ground that you want to fill with colour quickly, cheaply and easily, then hardy annuals are the perfect option. They grow rapidly from seed, flower enthusiastically all summer and then die at the end of the season. They are also low maintenance, especially once they’ve grown big enough to outcompete any weeds. The bed can be any shape or size, but find a sunny spot to encourage flowering. Weed thoroughly, then fork over the soil, treading to consolidate it, and rake to create a level surface and fine tilth. Sow from late March to May as the soil warms up (a good indicator of timing is when weeds start appearing). Don’t rush it. The seeds will germinate more reliably and easily catch up with those…

JUNE Carrots Sow carrots early under cover to get a crop by June. Use fleece or a cloche to protect early sowings. Sow at two week intervals to get a crop through summer and into autumn. You can also sow different varieties to extend the season. ALSO CROPPING IN JUNE AUGUST Chillies These need to be started early in order to have time to ripen fully. They need a long growing season and a warm spot, either indoors or outdoors in a container. Chillies that run out of time to ripen can be picked green for a milder flavour. ALSO CROPPING IN AUGUST JULY Peas Sow Feb-March under cover for crops from July. It’s easiest to sow in a length of guttering and slide the peas into a trench or…

Once frosts are over, it’s a good time to plant up a veg container, using a mix of seedlings you've grown indoors, as well as sowing hardy veg direct. This pot includes easy climbing beans, spinach and lettuce. Climbing beans are hungry plants, so ensure they have a big pot and plenty of water and sunshine. Climbing French beans will cover a tall support with jungly foliage, dotted with pink and purple flowers, followed by handsome purple and green pods. Lettuces and spinach will enjoy the slight shade at the base of the support. Feed with a general purpose liquid plant food every two weeks in spring, then switch to a weekly high potash liquid food when beans start to form pods. We used Climbing French bean ‘Cosse Violette’ x2…

Flower and vegetable seedlings need to be pricked out once they have their first true leaves. This will give them enough space to grow healthily, and will also allow them to benefit from the extra feed in the new compost. It is possible to avoid pricking out by sowing seeds singly into modular trays, but these take up more space on windowsills. If your seedlings are close together and have become leggy, pricking them out allows you to lower them further into the compost, which will help them to grow into sturdier plants. Put 12 seedlings in a half-sized seed tray. Use a dibber to mark out the spacing, with three plants across the width and four down the length of the tray. Large seedlings are best pricked out and…

It’s important to gradually acclimatise tender bedding and vegetable plants grown under glass to outdoor conditions. This process should take about two weeks, depending on how much warmth they’ve been used to, how tender they are, and your local climate. The difference between the last frost in the north and south of the UK can be as much as a month. The third week of May is normally quite safe in the south, while in the north it’s well into June. So keep a close eye on your local weather forecast. It’s the leafiest tender plants that are most vulnerable to damage from frost, wind or bright sun, so take the greatest care with these. Plants in hanging baskets and mixed planters need to be hardened off too, unless the…