As the weather starts to warm up, we are beginning to plan our spring/summer veggies and flowers. We grow a lot of our veggies and flowers from seed and often purchase our seed from The Seed Collection and Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds. Seed offers endless possibilities and beautiful unique varieties. With careful planning, good quality seed and a healthy seed raising mix, growing from seed can be quite easy and very rewarding.
Towards the end of winter, we begin to sow seed for plants that enjoy warm weather but not the intense heat during summer. During this time, we sow tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, beans, beetroot, cosmos, chamomile, zinnia, celosia, sunflowers, dahlia tubers and queen annes lace.
As soon as spring arrives and the nights warm, we will begin to sow seeds for pumpkins, basil, cucumber, corn, more zinnias and dahlia tubers.
Seed has an expiry date and will not germinate well if too old. Using fresh seed will aid in successful germination and a healthy plant. As a general rule, sow seed twice the depth of its size. Check on your sown seeds every day and ensure they are kept moist. We ensure our seeds get the morning sun until midday and stay out of the hot afternoon sun.
We previously used generic potting mix to raise our seedlings, however the seedlings were stunted and took forever to grow. After experimenting with homemade seed raising mix, we will never go back! Our seedlings are thriving, glossy and green and grow so quickly. This mix is so nutritious for the plants and does not require large punnets to raise seedlings.
Homemade seed raising mix recipe
Add the following parts to a large tub and combine well.
- 1 part coconut coir
- 1 part vermiculite
- 2 parts compost (we like to do 1 part worm castings and 1 part compost, however 2 parts of any compost will work). The compost may need sifting through a large sift to ensure it is fine enough for raising tiny seeds.
