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how to sow your seeds

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sowing seeds - the different methods

Direct sowing Sow straight into the ground. This works best on freely drained soil. It suits plants that don’t like root disturbance and that germinate quickly and easily once the soil is warm. This includes vegetables like radishes and lettuce, and flowers like poppies, grasses and dill. All our meadow seeds are also sown direct (see page 24). For it to work well, you want the soil to be warm and moist, as it is in April and September, and have a fine tilth. Sow as thinly as you can and then usually thin the seedlings to the spacing recommended on the back of the packet. We don’t thin our meadows – just leave them to get on with it cheek by jowl.

Sowing under cover I sow lots of things under cover, particularly if planting in beds on heavy soil. Germination is quicker and more reliable in a protected environment. You can plant out at the correct distance, wasting almost no seed or time with thinning, and you can carry on sowing all year, whatever the weather. It’s also better than bending over, or scrabbling along on your knees.

Seed trays We do very little traditional sowing into small rectangular seed trays for the garden at Perch Hill, only using this method for tiny seed that is difficult to individually sow. Pricking out and potting on is too much of a palaver. If you prefer this method, see our sowing tables (pages 14-23) for varieties you can sow this way.

Guttering I sow loads of things, particularly herbs and salads, into lengths of guttering (see page 12). They germinate quickly and consistently, all cosy somewhere light and warm, and transplant outside happily without a hiccough. I sow most of my salad, peas and cut-and-come-again herbs (like chervil, coriander, parsley and basil) into the gutters. Most of these herbs and many of the salads crop well for two to three months, but they need replacing as soon as they start getting tired. Serial sowing every eight weeks, with a new generation coming along somewhere else in the garden, is the ideal, but I often have a chock-a-block vegetable plot without a chink of room. Sowing my salads and herbs into pipes in the wings is a perfect, time efficient way of growing salad to pick all year. The plants from these can be slotted in, ready to pick, as the garden lot come to an end. You can buy guttering from larger hardware stores.

Modules We also use Jiffy trays (available from our website) for lots of our vegetables and flowers. These are ideally suited to tomatoes, aubergines, chillies, Florence fennel, lettuce, sweetcorn and celeriac – plants that hate having their roots disturbed – as well as any of the larger-seeded flowers like cosmos and zinnias. Sow two seeds to each cell. If both germinate, remove one and avoid the task of pricking out. The large (45mm size) coir Jiffy pellets are the ones to use. With this large size you don’t need to pot the seedlings on before putting them out in the garden. The plants are big enough to survive as they are. For this reason, I also use Jiffy trays for pricking out the few seeds we do sow into conventional seed trays. These take up a fraction of the space of tons of mini pots. Once the roots have filled the net, which usually takes 2-4 weeks, remove it to allow the roots to run free. This is important, as leaving the net on really holds them back. Then plant them out.

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sowing seeds –the different methods

This booklet will make your sowing easy and successful, with detailed advice on how to sow all the main groups of seeds we sell.

Check out the plant grouping on the packet: Hardy annual, half-hardy annual, perennial or biennial then go to the correct section of the booklet. See contents for page numbers.

For more help and advice, and to watch my videos, see our website.

Happy gardening,

3 Sowing seeds – the different methods

5 Hardy annuals

7 Autumn sowing

7 Sweet peas

9 Half-hardy annuals

11 Tomatoes

11 Salad leaves and annual herbs13 Biennials

13 Perennials

14 Monthly Sowing Guides When and how to sow your seeds Flowers for the cutting garden

Edible flowers, Companion plants and Wild flowers

Vegetables

Salad leaves and herbs

24 Cut flower meadows

Coir Jiffy Tray 271120 £7.95

For our exclusive plants and seedlings see our website

contents

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hardy annualssowing seeds - the different methods

Individual pots I do some sowing into small, individual pots for the plants with larger seeds. Amongst the veg, courgettes, squash, pumpkin, gourds and cucumbers, and amongst the flowers, cobaea and sunflowers, are all difficult to get into a Jiffy and their large seeds with a big surface area rot easily in the compact pellet. Fill the pots with non-peat based potting compost, water and push the seed in to the depth of your knuckle, vertically rather than flat. Biodegradable pots are ideal for this. When the seedling is at the right stage to be planted out, just pop the whole thing into the ground. This method is ideal for plants that don’t like root disturbance.

Rootrainers I also use Rootrainers (long, thin pots, available from our website) or cardboard loo rolls for shrubby herb cuttings like rosemary, thyme and sage. They are also brilliant for sweet peas (see page 7) and beans (broad, French, borlotti and runner). All legumes, these included, will thrive with a long root run. When the seed first germinates, it puts down one long root. This breaks off when it emerges into the air at the bottom of the pot and, like with pinching out the tip, the root then throws out lots of side shoots. When these reach the edge of the Rootrainer, they slot into a channel in the side of each cell and are directed straight to the bottom. They then break off and you get a vicious circle of root development, so the new root system forms very quickly. If you sow into a short, stumpy pot, there is less initial root to branch. Longer root; more branches; quicker, bigger plant!

Wooden or polystyrene crates In the winter, I grow dill, coriander, parsley, chervil and basil in empty wooden wine cases, or polystyrene fish boxes with holes in the bottom. Fill the crate with compost, then once a fortnight through the winter, sow a whole packet of seed. Cover them with cling film to enclose the moisture and put the boxes in the greenhouse or cold frame on a heated base. Your airing cupboard is fine but, grown in the dark, you’ll need to check every 24 hours for signs of germination. Move the seedlings into the light as soon as there are any signs of green and take the cling film off. Allow the plants to reach about three inches and then start cutting. You should get two or three cuts from the same root stock.

Experiment with one or all of these sowing techniques and work out which one is best for you.

hardy annualsAn annual is a plant which lives for one year, forming roots and leaves, flowering, and setting seed all within twelve months. If it’s hardy, it can withstand winter cold and wet and will survive with foliage above ground through the frosts. As a seedling, germinated in late August or September, it goes into a semi-dormant period through the winter, coming into growth again in the spring.You can sow hardy annuals straight into the garden anytime between April and September (and under cover from October to February) and they are some of the easiest plants to grow – thriving in almost any soil, as long as you can find them a spot in the sun.

Sow them straight into the ground, or into gutter pipes (see page 12), seed trays or pots inside.

SIX KEYS TO SUCCESS1. TIMING Don’t sow outside into the garden too early. You know when this sowing moment has

arrived without looking at the calendar. All over the garden, seedlings are appearing. Many of them will be weeds, from seed deposited in the ground last year, but there will be seedlings from annual plants you want in the garden too. Poppies, atriplex, dill, marigolds, cerinthe and bupleurum will be popping up like mustard and cress. This is the best sign that sowing conditions for growing things straight outside are right. If nature’s doing it, you do it too. In the south of England, I sow mid April to mid May and/or late August to late September, but anytime during this period will do. In Cornwall and the Southwest, you could sow two weeks earlier. In Scotland, the North and at high altitude, delay sowing until two weeks later. The growing season will be correspondingly longer and shorter at the end of the season too.

2. TILTH Sow into soil with a fine consistency, with no lumps bigger than a large marble. To achieve this you’ll need several barrow-loads of well-rotted manure, homemade or mushroom compost, perhaps some grit if you’re on heavy soil, and a rotavator by your side – the easy recipe for an almost instant perfect tilth. For smaller areas, rake the soil to a fine tilth.

3. FINE SOWING Sow as thinly as you can. Take individual seeds (if large like calendulas) and sow them 5cm (2in) apart into shallow drills. This is impossible with tiny seeds (like poppies); for these, take a pinch from your palm and sow it as finely as you can. Sow quickly, a small pinch at a time, to give a thinner distribution of seed than if you’re meticulous and slow. Don’t pour straight from the packet or the crease in the palm of your hand. You need to mark in the soil where you get to with one pinch so you don’t miss a bit or go back over the same soil again – I make a line with my finger across the drill.

4. THIN SEEDLINGS Thin seedlings out when they are about an inch tall. Seeds start to germinate after about a week and tiny seedlings will appear. When the seedlings are about 2.5cm (1in) tall and have a pair of leaves that look like tiny versions of what you would expect to see on the parent plant, get brutal. Thin them out, leaving one good plant every 10cm (4in). It’s crucial you do this, or seedlings won’t do well with so much competition from close neighbours. At this stage, they’re usually too small to transplant. Just pull them up by the roots and chuck them. Beginners find this difficult. It’s exciting when things appear, and it seems such a waste to chuck three quarters of them away, but it’s essential for the seedlings’ success. Firm the soil back around the roots of the plants still in the ground and water to settle them back into the soil.

5. THIN AGAIN For cut flowers and some vegetables, thin again to the final planting distance as instructed on the back of the packet. Give them plenty of room to grow. By this stage, most seedlings are large enough, with a complex enough root structure to survive being dug up and planted somewhere else. Leave plants one and four where they are in the row and transplant

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Cut flowers conditioning in buckets at Perch Hill

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hardy annualshardy annuals continued

two and three somewhere else. Water well before you do this and water the transplants into their new home.

6. TIE UP With cut flowers, stake your plants. It is important to stake and support your cut flower plants. This is crucial to maximise stem length and productivity. If you don’t, all but the smallest plants blow over in the wind or rain. Within 24 hours, their growth-tip turns up to the light and develops a right angle bend in the stem. This makes them almost impossible to use in the vase and you end up cutting only the short stem tip, wasting several inches, or even a foot, below the bend.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDEPreparing the ground • In an ideal world, the ground would have been dug over some time in the autumn or winter to

integrate organic material (e.g. well-rotted manure). If you garden on poorly-drained clay soil, add 5-6mm grit, or washed, inland sharp sand as well. Get rid of all annual and perennial weeds as you dig.

• Once dug, try not to tread on the soil directly. Stand on a plank to distribute your weight evenly over a large area.

• Choose a dry day following a dry spell of a day or two, and prepare the ground for sowing. Thump any large lumps of soil with the back of a metal rake. They’ll shatter when dry, but remain cloddy when wet.

• Work out where your lines are going to be and fine tune the soil in these places only. Rake in one direction, removing lumps bigger than a plum to the side. Repeat at right angles.

• To help germination, as my soil is heavy clay, I add two barrowfuls of grit to the sowing area. You don’t need this on freely-drained chalk or sand.

Sowing• Sow (following advice on page 5) in straight lines marked out with a garden line or 2 bamboo canes

and string.

Aftercare• If there is no rain, water again twice a week. Don’t just give a quick sprinkle – really wet the ground

to a depth of several inches, but do so gently so as not to displace the seed. Sufficient watering encourages the roots to follow the water and the plants will form deep, strong roots. After a couple of weeks, I stop watering unless there’s a prolonged period of drought. Strong, deep roots should have accessed the water table on most soils by now.

• When the seedlings are about 2.5cm (1in) tall, thin them out (see page 5).• The seedling bed must be kept weed-free. Weeds, like other seedlings, will compete for light, food

and water and do your plants no good. Get rid of weeds with a hoe.• After hoeing, I use a two inch layer of mulch laid out on the soil to help protect from frost.• When seedlings have filled out, transplant some to create the right final spacing.• Stake.See pages 9 & 10 for how to sow seeds under cover

AUTUMN SOWING YOUR HARDY ANNUALSMany hardy annuals can be sown in autumn and will overwinter successfully outside in the garden. Starting sowing annuals while you still have a garden full of colour may seem strange, but the benefit is that you will be rewarded by earlier flowers next spring.

Most hardy annuals can be sown directly in the ground and will withstand all but the hardest of frosts. Others are not quite so robust – they can be direct sown, but cover with cloches or horticultural fleece when frost is forecast. Alternatively, they can be sown in pots and kept frost-free over winter in a cold frame or greenhouse.

This technique is not suitable for half-hardy and tender annuals. Unless you have access to a heated greenhouse, these are best sown in spring.

Sow your seeds either direct (see page 5), or under cover – grow them on into small plants for overwintering in a cold frame or unheated glasshouse, then plant them out the following spring. Keep an eye out for slugs and snails.

sweet peasSweet peas are hardy annuals. They are the best climbers for the cutting or vegetable patch, giving you arches, teepees and tunnels to bring a third dimension into the garden, and they produce the most extraordinary and beautiful scents.

I love growing them up over a hazel stick tunnel. This is home-made, using hazel poles pushed into the ground, down both sides of the path, with thinner sticks bent in a hoop between the two and tied with a bit of wire and twine. A teepee made from bamboo canes or hazel is equally easy to create. Push a circle of eight poles into the ground, sinking them several inches deep. The circle should be about a metre across. Gather the eight uprights together with a piece of wire or twine at the top. If you use canes, or your branches aren’t twiggy enough to make a real witches broom, add smaller sticks or circles of string at the base. You need to give the plants plenty of handholds to attach themselves to climb.

HOW TO SOW AND GROW SWEET PEASI sow my sweet peas in early autumn so they can get themselves established for larger plants in the spring. You can also sow them in the spring.

1. I rarely bother to soak the seeds. Lots of people do this overnight, to soften the hard coat, but I tend to forget them and they ferment and rot. They’ll germinate without soaking within 1-2 weeks. However, if you have a problem with mice, soaking them in liquid paraffin overnight will make them unpalatable to your mice population.

2. Sow in late October to before Christmas, or January to April. Put two seeds to a 9cm pot. I also use rootrainers – long, thin pots – for my sweet peas (see our website). Dampen the surface and then push each seed in with your finger, to about an inch below the surface of the multi-purpose compost.

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Flexi-tie Set 271149 £15.95

Rootrainers 279031 £9.95

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half-hardy annualssweet peas continued

3. Cover the pots with newspaper or a polystyrene tile, to keep moisture and warmth in and light out. Some heat will speed up germination, but is not essential.

4. It’s important to set a mousetrap near your sweet peas, as mice love the seed.

5. After 4 or 5 days check for germination every day. Once the seedlings appear, keep them cool at about 5oC – this promotes root and not stem growth which is exactly what you want. A cold greenhouse or cold frame is ideal, but your plants will be fine stored on a window ledge in a light potting shed.

6. Pinch out the leader – the growing tip – when there are three or four pairs already grown. Just squeeze it off between your finger and thumb, reducing the plant to one or two inches in height. This promotes vigorous side shoot formation and the energy of the plant will then go into growing out, not up.

7. If autumn-sown, check your plants every three to four weeks, water them and pinch them out.

8. You can plant them out in March or April in a mild spell. Spring sown will be later.

9. Plant your seedlings around the base of your teepee, about 5-7cm away from the support. I plant two plants at the base of every upright.

10. Surround them with slug protection (see our website).

11. As the seedlings grow, tie them into the frame; don’t leave them to flop around. They’ll grow more quickly and make stronger plants tied in – regularly once a fortnight for the first month and then more often when they start to romp away.

12. Professional and serious amateur growers who compete in horticultural shows will tell you to pinch out all the curly stems. They take energy from the flowers, and attach themselves to flower stems and bend them into curves. It’s a lot of work, so I try to remove what I can without getting bogged down.

13. Once they start flowering, keep picking and picking and snip off any seed pods that grow too. You don’t want your plants to form seed as this will stop them flowering.

14. When they come to an end you can collect some pods and seeds for sowing next year. If you have grown several kinds, they may have cross-pollinated and you’ll end up with a mixed bag, but they should all have good scent.

LAYERING SWEET PEASIf you want sweet peas with long stems, which are perfectly straight with lots of large flowers on one stem, it’s a good idea to layer them. This involves lots of work, but you will get a neat line of plants rather than a jumble of stems.

1. When you plant them out in early spring, remove all but one or two stems growing from the base. Go for two if you’ve got a couple of strong, thick stems. Otherwise just select and keep one.

2. As they grow, you must continue to pinch out all side branches as they form. The energy then goes into one momentous stem, which will develop into something the width of a finger, rather than bushing out into several.

3. Regularly tie this stem onto a cane.

4. When they start to flower, pick, pick, pick.

5. Once the single (or double) stems have reached the tops of their canes, untie them and run them along the ground, to two or three canes further along. Then train them onto that cane.

6. Pinch out the tips if they reach the top of this second cane.

half-hardy annualsHalf-hardy annuals cannot withstand winter wet and cold and will be killed by the frosts. Sow the seeds and grow the seedlings in a light, frost-free place, protecting them under cover until the frosts are over. You’ll then have decent-sized plants, nearly in flower, ready to put out in the garden at the end of spring. The plants will be zapped by the frosts in the autumn.

SIX KEYS TO SUCCESS1. TIMING Don’t sow too early. Wait until late February/

early March for a few early plants, and the beginning of April for everything else. An early April sowing gives six weeks from sowing until the frosts are likely to be over in the middle of May (which varies according to where you live). This is the perfect length of time for quick-growing annuals to form decent-sized plants ready to go out into the garden.

Seeds sown later make healthier, bushier plants. Light levels get brighter through the spring and temperatures fluctuate less between night and day. Both these elements help to produce vigorous, healthy plants, which grow and so flower more quickly once they’re out in the garden. Early-sown seeds make leggy, collapsing things – Nicholas Lyndhurst when what you want is Mike Tyson. Plants sown later in the spring catch up with an early sowing.

(NB: Points 2-6 also apply to biennial and perennial seed)

2. THIN SOWING Sow as thinly as you can. If you cram small plants together, they compete for light, water and nutrients, so will not do well. To avoid this, sow seed as thinly as you can. You can sow into black plastic seed trays, trying to place seed individually when you can, but I sow almost everything in modular, divided trays or expanding coir pellets called Jiffy pellets (see our website). These work very well and save a lot of time. If you pot the seedlings on as soon as the roots have filled the individual module, this avoids competition between neighbouring plants and it skips the time-consuming and fiddly stage of pricking out.

3. ENVIRONMENT Keep your seeds and seedlings in as close to their ideal growing environment as you can. To germinate most seeds, you want a warm, moist, dark environment. I place my seed trays of half-hardy annuals on a propagator bench set at about 20oC. I cover them with empty plastic compost bags to enclose moisture and warmth and keep out the light, and check morning and evening for any sign of germination. Trays must be uncovered and put in a place of maximum light from that moment on. Once germinated, good light levels, cool air temperatures (just above freezing) and warm roots are ideal. All-round light is also important in forming strong, bulky plants. The ideal conditions are provided by a propagator stored in a frost-free greenhouse. If you don’t have a propagator, you can germinate your seeds and grow on your seedlings on a cool but very light windowsill. Water sparingly; the compost should not be saturated.

4. POT ON Do not let your seedlings get pot-bound. Pot on as soon as you see white roots appearing at the holes in the bottom of the pot. A pot-bound plant never quite recovers. Inevitably, I seem to have a few pot-bound plants hanging around at the end of the planting out season. Don’t put them in the ground as they are – pot-bound, they sulk and continue to think they’ve run out of space and food so will not start to re-grow. Be brutal – rip the bottom of the root ball off the plant. This shocks annual plants into growth again straight away.

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tomatoes, salad leaves and annual herbshalf-hardy annuals continued

5. PINCH OUT Pinch out and plant out into the garden as soon as the frosts are over. With any plants that are beginning to look leggy, rather than bushy – one, central, spindly, vertical stem shooting up to the skies – pinch out the tip. This means breaking off the central stem between your thumb and forefinger, leaving at least two buds on the stem below your cut, to bulk out and create a shorter, stronger plant. Do this before planting out.

6. TIE UP Stake your plants. It is important to stake and support your plants.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDESowing under cover• Soak your Jiffy pellets, or fill pots, trays, or tray insets with fine, non-lumpy potting compost and firm

down gently to get rid of any large air pockets. The compost level should reach about half an inch below the top. This allows room for watering without washing every seed away. Water before you sow, not after, to avoid washing seeds to the edge of the tray.

• Sow as thinly as you can, individually placing seed where possible. If you’re sowing into cells, sow two seeds to each compartment. If both germinate, uproot one. When sowing in a seed tray, don’t pour straight from the packet or your palm. This creates a clump of seed in one place, with lots of tiny plants competing for light, food and water, then a bare patch.

• Label with the variety and date.

• Cover the seed with a very thin layer of compost, or leave tiny seeds uncovered. No need to water again – just cover the tray with a plastic compost bag. This excludes light and keeps heat and water in to help rapid germination.

Aftercare• Check twice a day (first thing in the morning and as it gets dark) for signs of green. Remove the

cover as soon as the first shoots appear and find a cool, bright place. If you’re unlikely to check every day, leave the trays uncovered.

• With modular trays you won’t need to prick out, but if you’ve sown into conventional seed trays then you’ll need to separate seedlings into individual pots (prick out) when they have two pairs of leaves.This allows them to grow without competition. Hold the leaves, not the stems or roots, tease the roots apart and plant each one in its own pot. Plant deeply, covering the roots and stem to the level of the seed leaves (the simple pair of leaves that form first). Water.

• Pot on as soon as you see white roots appearing at the holes in the bottom of the pot. Just turn them out and replant them in the next size up.

• As soon as the frosts have finished, plant them out in the garden at the distance recommended on the back of the packet.

• Water in well, with a drown not a sprinkle, for two weeks so they establish a deep root system that will hopefully access the water table.

Sowing direct into the gardenMost half-hardy annuals are best raised under cover. If you don’t have the space to do this, there are a few (cosmos, zinnias, amaranthus) that do well from sowing direct into the soil outside. You treat these as you would hardy annuals (see instructions on page 5), but sow them later when the frosts are nearly over at the beginning of May. Flowers will obviously be delayed. You can expect most to be in bloom by August, but with antirrhinums, leonotis and verbena, it may be September before you see a flower.

tomatoesTomatoes are easy to grow and come in an array of different sizes and colours, with home-grown tasting far superior to anything you will buy.Start your tomatoes off in late February/early March if you are intending to grow them indoors, or late March/early April for outdoors. Starting tomatoes off too early is counter-productive. The day length is too short and the light intensity too low to get strong seedlings, so they will become weak and leggy.

Soak your Jiffy pellets, or fill pots with fine, non lumpy potting compost. Firm down gently to get rid of any air pockets. The compost level should reach about half an inch below the top to allow room for watering.

Tomato seed tends to be quite expensive, so sow just one to each pot or cell. Lightly cover with compost and place in a heated propagator or on a warm windowsill. Once germinated, keep seedlings in a warm, light place.

When the roots are coming through the Jiffy or bottom of the pot, pot on into bigger pots. Always plant deeply, about halfway up the stem at each stage of the potting process. This encourages root formation and bigger, stronger plants.

Plant out in their final position in April/May. If planting outside, gradually harden off to acclimatise the plants. Again plant deeply, burying the tomato stems up to the plant’s second set of leaves, and eventually roots will form along the buried stem. Place supports alongside the plants and tie in as they grow. Keep well watered and start feeding once the first fruit appears.

salad leaves and annual herbsIf you choose the right varieties, you can sow salad and annual and biennial herbs (coriander, chervil, parsley etc) straight into the ground from April until September, or almost anytime under cover.

SOWING DIRECT INTO THE GARDEN• Use a 7.5-10cm (3-4in) hoe to make wide, shallow drills, as close together as possible so the

developing seedlings in adjacent drills eventually touch and create a carpet effect. Check the back of the seed packet for spacing of each one. This looks good and obliterates weeds.

• Sow seeds evenly, 5-10mm (¼-½in) apart taken individually, or take small pinches from your palm and sow it as finely as you can into drills. Most of these plants have large enough seed to make individual sowing possible. Press the seed gently into the soil.

• Thin them out, leaving one good plant every 10cm (4in). If you dig up the roots with a trowel, rather than pull them out of the soil, you can transplant them into another row.

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Tomatoes ‘Sungold’, ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and ‘Noire de Crimée’

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biennialsBiennials are plants that form roots and leaves in the first year, but only flower, set seed and die in the second. You can sow them under cover, or some (wallflowers, sweet rocket and foxgloves) do fine from sowing straight into the ground.

SOWING UNDER COVER • Sow between May and July. • See the instructions on pages 9 & 10 and follow points 2 to 6 – these also apply to biennials.

DIRECT SOWING• Sow in May or June.• Make sure the ground is weed free and work the soil to a fine tilth. Then sow the seed as thinly as

you can in rows that are 15-30cm (6-12in) apart, depending on the size of your plant.• Thin to 10cm (4in) spacing within the rows when the seedlings are about 2.5cm (1in) tall. • After about a month, transplant the middle two of every four plants into a separate row, to leave the

seedlings at 30cm (12in) spacing. This gives them enough room to grow on without competition.• In August or early September, transplant the young plants to their final flowering site. They will

flower the following year.

perennialsSow perennials any time from March to September. Sow the seeds and grow the seedlings in a light, frost-free place, protecting them under cover until the frosts are over in the spring. Then plant them out in their final flowering position, where some will flower in the first year, but most will flower in their second, then will continue to flower and grow for many years after that. Some perennials (which are called herbaceous) die down totally and disappear in the winter, to reappear fresh in the spring. Others are evergreen, with leaves above ground all year.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONSPlease see instructions on pages 9 & 10 and follow points 2 to 6 – these also apply to perennials.

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biennials & perennialssalad leaves and annual herbs continued

SOWING INTO GUTTERSI sow most of my salad crops and cut-and-come-again herbs like chervil, coriander, parsley and basil into gutters. It works marvellously. Most of these herbs and many of the salads crop well for two to three months, but they need replacing as soon as they start getting tired. Sowing my salads and herbs into pipes is a perfect, time efficient way of growing salad to pick all year. The plants from these can be slotted in, ready to pick, as the garden-grown ones come to an end.

Autumn-sown seedlings need to get into the garden within three to four weeks before the soil becomes too chilly to allow the roots to settle in properly.

• Fill the gutter with potting compost. Don’t bother to drill holes in the bottom of gutters or block the ends.

• Sow the seed sparingly in a central strip – ideally one seed every 6cm (2in) or so.

• Allow it to grow on till the seedlings are 2cm (1in).

• Plant out. To prevent the whole lot ending up on the floor, planting out the guttering needs two people, one at either end. Out in the garden, make a trench to mirror the depth and length of the pipe, scooping out the soil with a trowel or draw hoe. Water well to bind the compost and then slide the seedlings from the guttering into the U-trench, pushing lengths of about eighteen inches along at a time. Slide one section in, then push the next forward to the mouth. Then slide that one in and so on. Don’t try and push the whole 2 metres in one go.

SOWING IN CONTAINERS for picking straight from there• Fill your pot with compost. In the summer, use a loam-based compost like John Innes no 2, or mix

water-retaining granules in with potting compost. If you use potting compost on its own, you will have to water at least twice a day in the heat of the summer. With the autumn sowing, any good compost will do.

• Sow the seeds individually spaced 5cm (2in) apart over the compost surface and sieve fine soil or compost over the sown seed.

• Thin the seedlings to their final 10cm (4in) spacing.

HARVESTING There are two ways of picking the leaves:

1. Cut-and-come-again This means cutting the whole plant, harvesting every leaf and then leaving it for a couple of weeks to form more, which you then cut again. You must cut at least 1cm (½in) above soil level and above the basal seed leaves or you’ll kill the plant.

2. Picking round This means picking some, but not all of the leaves at one time. If there are six leaves, pick three. The advantage of this system is that you leave the heart of the plant intact. The plants also then tend to form mini trunks at the base. This makes them hardier and more able to withstand winter wet and cold than the fleshier cut-and-come-again equivalents. This is the technique I use.

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Black Plant Labels and Pen 420118 £16.95

Angelica gigas 070062 £3.29

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cut flower meadowsOnce the soil has warmed up, choose an area in a sunny spot, with well-drained soil for a colourful, flowery meadow from July to October.

• Sow direct early April-June.• Clear area. Don’t dig over, this can encourage weeds as

dormant seeds get lifted to the surface. Rake soil to form a fine seed bed into which seeds will readily germinate.

• Don’t add compost or manure. Annuals like to grow in poor soil.

• Shake the bag of seeds to mix well. We recommend that you mix the seed with some dry sand (or buckwheat husk – as with several of our mixes) to help disperse the seed evenly.

• Mark out several rows in a 30cm grid. Make shallow trenches by laying a cane on the surface. This sounds like it might look a bit military with a series of straight lines, but they rapidly merge into blocks and the lines become invisible.

• Cover the seed, not with garden soil, but with a layer of coarse sand (approx 1 cm thick). Press the sand lightly, so the seeds will not blow away. During the first weeks the rows are visible because of the sand and this helps to distinguish the weeds from the flowers. If you think your soil might have weed seeds in it, mulch deeply, with e.g. green waste compost between the rows you have sown.

• Do not water, but wait until a good drop of spring rain.• The seed should start to germinate in 2-3 weeks. Keep an eye out for weeds, and remove anything

appearing between your marked lines, but otherwise just leave the meadow flowers to get on with it – no thinning, no staking.

Flowers will appear 6-8 weeks after planting.

cut flower meadows

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Delft Blue and White Meadow 120156 £4.50

Ultimate Flower Meadow Mix 120162 £3.95