Outdoor seed sowing advice

BirdHerdLiss · March 2023

Hi everyone, hope this isn’t too much of a stupid question.

I’m fairly new to gardening and last year was my first time growing flowers from seed, I had some success with indoor sowing and some failure mainly with all the outdoor seeds, so I was hoping to get some advice please?

The months on the back of the seed packets tell you when to sow indoors and outdoors, and they normally give a time range, March-May for example, does this mean that if those dates are for outdoor sowing that I will be able to sow outside in March no matter the temperature or my location in the UK? Or would I need to sow based on temperature and average last frost dates of my location?

I hope that makes sense!

Thanks in advance.

AnniD · March 2023

No such thing as a stupid question

The dates are just a general guide. As you've realised, a lot depends on your local conditions.
The days are lengthening and warming up (in theory), but in my opinion my area is about 2 weeks behind where it "should" be.

StephenSouthwest · March 2023

No questions are stupid...

You need to time the sowing to match the conditions those seeds need to germinate and grow with the actual conditions in the environment they're actually growing in.

Some things that are helpful to figure this out:

-Our own successes and failures from previous years

-Other people's successes and failures in your local area or similar climate

-Information from different websites, forums etc

-Gardening books

You might want to post here which seeds you're thinking of doing outdoors to get the benefit of other's experience.

Something else to consider is that with indoor sowing we can keep a closer eye, and they're unlikely to be taken by slugs etc...

Dovefromabove · March 2023

The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask 😉
we were all beginners once 😊 and we’re all still learning
and the other thing to remember is that no two years are the same, and last year truly was exceptional 😜

Fairygirl · March 2023

As the others have said @BirdHerdLiss, no such thing as a stupid question.

It's ironic that we've been discussing the whole seed sowing thing on another thread, as this is a very common query in late winter/early spring.
Your location is one of the main factors. What you can sow outside in March will be totally different depending on where you are. I couldn't do it here, especially if it was on open ground. In containers, it's slightly easier, but it also depends on the plant you're trying to grow.
I rarely direct sow anything, and if I do, it would be May at the earliest. It also depends on the soil you have, as it needs to be at a decent enough temperature for the seed to germinate well.
If you can give us an idea of what you're wanting to grow, and a rough idea of where you are, that will help.

scroggin · March 2023

@BirdHerdLiss, it's not a stupid question it's in fact a very good one. As others have already said and you have worked out that the sowing times on the packet are only a very rough guide. Seasonal weather and local conditions are the most important factors.
One thing to consider when sowing outside is that sowing ' early' doesn't always mean you'll get earlier flowers, vegetables. If early sowings get checked by a late cold spell they may take a while to recover whereas later sowings have the benefit of more ideal growing conditions from the start.
It's also worth considering your soil type, I garden on heavy clay and most of my outdoor sowing is done later than if I were on light soil

JennyJ · March 2023

It varies from year to year as well as by location and soil type. When the fresh crop of weed seedlings have popped up in your garden and are thriving with more appearing every day, it's a pretty good indication that conditions are good for germination. For me (not especially cold or wet, not down south but not very far north either, light soil that warms up quickly, less rain than places further west at the same latitude) they're just starting to appear so early-mid April would be a good time for seed sowing.

BirdHerdLiss · March 2023

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks for all the info, it’s really appreciated.

I’ll definitely wait for a little while longer before I outdoor sow, I think that must be where I went wrong last year, I had assumed the earlier I sowed the earlier I would get flowers!

I don’t have much space for indoor sowing, I have a few windowsill propagators that I’ve got seeds growing in currently. I also have a mini pvc greenhouse outside that I will be starting to use soon. The main reason I’m hoping to direct sow outdoors is because I just don’t have the space to start them indoors or in the greenhouse.

I have quite a few seeds I’m wanting to sow, I got loads at the end of summer last year in the sales.

I’m in the north east around Newcastle, and I garden in raised beds that’s filled with top soil and compost, light and airy and well draining.

These are some of the seeds that I’m going to be sowing. (I hope this photo is clear enough)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much everyone!

bédé · March 2023

You asked about date of sowing; how you sow is important as well. How well you prepare the seed bed, how deep you sow (to cover or not), how you mark where you've done it and what, how you protect, whether you sow in situ or in a seed-bed ...

Only learnt by watching and doing.

Don't try to sow all those seeds in one day. And for a beginner, later is easier than earlier.

Buttercupdays · March 2023

How much space do you actually have outside? There's a lot of seeds there, with a range of heights and even if you only sow a pinch or two of each, you will end up with a lot of plants, each wanting a bit of elbow room!

Check the 'sow by' dates on the packets for any still in date and save them to plant next year, then work out whereabouts in your raised beds they need to go according to heights.

If all dates expired last year, don't worry, pick the ones you most want to grow and most should still come good, or you could try a more scientific approach and try a small pinch of each seed type in separate small pots to see which germinate best.

Put the tray of pots in a suitable place outside, out of reach of slugs or snails and check regularly to make sure they are not too dry/ wet or hot/ cold. If you do that at the start of April you should be seeing germination by mid month and then you could sow more for succession

BirdHerdLiss · March 2023

Thank you for the tips!

My raised beds are quite big so I have quite a lot of space, I’ll also be sowing seeds in my brothers garden in his raised beds too this year so I’m hoping I will have plenty of space to work with. I might end up not using as many of the different seeds as I was going to originally, so I can focus on seeing what works this year, then next year do other seeds and see what works then.

My seeds are still in date until end of 2024, 2025 and some to the end of 2026, so I should have plenty to use over the coming years, I think my gardening excitement may have got the best of me when I saw seeds for 10p, I ended up buying so many oooops 🤭

Last year we did a pot where my little cousin picked out the seeds to sow and he sprinkled them into a large pot and they were the only ones of our outdoor seeds that actually thrived and looked beautiful, so we’re definitely going to do that again this year!

Outdoor seed sowing advice

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