Gardening can often be a trade-off between time and money and you can often get the same end results by with either one or the other. However, growing your own flowers from seed can bring added benefits that money just can’t buy, and there are ways that can tip results-v-effort balance in your favour.
Three Ways that Sowing Seeds makes sense even if you are busy
- No busy person wants to spend their precious garden time weeding. Creating a garden full of plants you love is one of the easiest ways of preventing too many weeds – essentially weeds have less access to light and nutrients to become established. Growing from seed is the cheapest way of getting a large quantity of plants.
- Sowing your own seeds gives you far greater control on the varieties and colourways available to you in your garden. Seeds are far easier to purchase online than plants so you can access unusual types and create an individual look easily. Without sowing your own seeds, you are at the mercy of the plants available in garden centres or other outlets.
- The garden can be pretty meh at the start of the year. Spring-flowering bulbs provide a splash of colour that can really cheer you up and extend the number of months you can enjoy your garden. Similarly, sowing seeds and watching them sprout and grow can really give you a lift and help bring a busy mind back down to earth.
Mistakes to avoid when you are short of time:
- Many gardeners plant some seeds in the autumn, however this does involve minding your seedlings over the winter which can be time consuming and sometimes futile. Unless you really enjoy nurturing the seedlings, I’d recommend holding off and finding other ways to enjoy your garden over the winter.
- Be careful not to plant too early. Just because the seed packet says it can be sown in February, does not mean that this is when best results are seen. The planting date depends on your own location and also what you have available to protect the seedlings before they can be planted out, usually after last frost. Plants from later sowings often ‘catch up’ and are no smaller than those sown earlier.
- While planting unusual varieties is one of the best things about growing from seeds, sometimes these can be a little disappointing. Perhaps the plant doesn’t live up to the image on the package or perhaps they are not so easy to germinate. Don’t be afraid to try them but just be sure to plant some of the ‘old reliables’ too.
So what seeds to grow?
I cover a selection of 10 easy flower seeds for beginners to grow that you can check out on this YouTube Video.
The seeds in this video have been chosen for their reliability, a good mix of heights to fill most spaces and ones you can enjoy growing with your children. I also have this handy PDF.
Some plants to try for the informal cottage garden or prairie garden look: