Sowing Seeds for Novice Gardeners

If you’ve always wanted to get into gardening and enjoy plants and flowers, then sowing seeds from scratch can be the perfect learning curve to getting started. This can be very rewarding and satisfying as you watch something that started from a tiny seed grow into a beautiful plant or, if you’re feeling very adventurous, fruit and vegetables!

Location

You may not have always had chance or the time to grow things in the past, but you can be a gardener even if you have a balcony space, or even if you have no space you can rent an allotment in which to grow all your favourite plants! If you have a heated greenhouse or you’re lucky enough to have enough space and light in your house than you can grow things indoor from as early as January.

One of the benefits from growing inside is that you can start earlier in the year and make the most of the growing season without having to wait until it gets a lot warmer outside. You also want to ensure that your seedlings have lots of light in order for them to grow to their full potential. Sunlight is the best and cheapest option, but if this isn’t possible, you can always invest in some grow lights to grow your plants indoors too.

Start Small

You probably have an idea of what you want to grow if this is something you’ve been waiting to do for a few years of your life. You can practise growing your favourite thing to grow, but if this is something you’ve never attempted before, you might stand a better chance of being able to take it to a bigger scale in a quicker time if you start smaller. Begin by growing something easy or something with a high success rate and you’ll be able to learn more along the way as you can focus on one small plant and concentrate on getting it fully grown.

Each seed will have tricks for growing it properly, so ensure you read the packet or a guide dedicated to that specific plant before beginning. Plants such as tomatoes are easy to grow and can be started indoors, so consider trying a plant such as this first. Sweet peas, chicory and radish are also good choices for indoor growing and can be good for beginners.

Equipment

Small seeds are usually grown in shallow plant trays, sometimes known as seed trays. Once these have grown into larger seedlings, you can them transfer them into larger pots whilst they’re still growing. This will allow them to flourish as they’re growing and reach their full potential. You will need to invest in some trays for your garden, as well as tools such as trowels, spades, soil or compost, cane, and good drainage.

Good draining will be essential to your new seedlings as this will ensure they do not become saturated with water and take up only what they need. Ensure there are drainage holes in the bottoms of your planters and use materials such as stone chippings, pea gravel or polystyrene pieces to ‘crock’ your planters. This will also help to reduce the amount of compost needed to fill your planter. Tools will be needed to effectively repot your seedlings and will be necessary to dig over old soil and compost, not to mention removing those pesky weeds!

*Written by Luke