Seed sowing advice sought

[RouxRussell]

Hello,

After moving into our new place just before the summer I decided to put off the garden until now. I am planning to sow alot of seeds over the coming months to fill the garden with flowers (January dreaming :)and easy veg but with the lack of a greenhouse or any suitable windowsills I am looking at alternatives and wondered if anyone had any useful advice?

We have a ground floor flat so not excessive space and a 2 year old running around so not very practical to be leaving seeds trays lying around indoors. I have found pop up greenhouses / pollytunnels online and wondered if these would be sufficient to germinate or would they act more as cold frame to harden off?

I do have a console table on which I could place the seed trays. When out at work I could then position this in front of the patio doors. Potentially I could then move these to the outdoor popup and then sow more seeds to germinate indoors and continue with this rotation.

Any thoughts on seed sowing with limited indoor space would be welcome.

Thanks!

[Sue]

What seeds are you wanting to sow?

Some can just be sown directly in the ground (later on).

[Jules-and-Boo]

it is a nice idea, but if you are short of space, you would find yourself with lots of seedlings/ small plants which are too young to go outside but need to have been planted on already. Seedlings are only ok in a seed tray for a while but need to be potted on before they can go outside - I suppose you could, at this stage put them in a small greenhouse?)

you could save yourself the hassle and buy the small plants directly - there is a local nursery (can't remember name but they sold lots last year to EDF) and then they would be ready to go outside.

[diable rouge]

When I first had my garden I invested in this RHS book, it's a great month by month guide of what tasks need doing, when to buy certain plants/veg etc... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardening-Through-Year-Month-month/dp/1405347392

I decided that growing from seed would be too troublesome not having a greenhouse, and prefer to buy young plants from one of the local garden centres (Nunhead, North Dulwich and West Dulwich). I buy the odd packet of seeds that you can sow directly into the ground e.g. Cornflowers and Californian Poppies for summer flowering.

If you like the idea of growing something in pots from scratch, Sweet Peas are easy, but again you will be able to buy a pot of young plants ready to plant out from a garden centre in a couple of months, just for a few quid.

This time of year you can also plant summer flowering bulbs directly into the ground or tubs, e.g. Lillies and Gladioli. Spring flowering bulbs like Daffs and Crocuses are usually planted in the Autumn, although there are some late flowering varieties like Tulips that may be planted later.

It pays to make regular visits to the garden centres as they are continually adding new stock as the seasons change, e.g. you will soon see Spring flowering plants, and in the Spring they start stocking up summer flowering plants, and so on.

It's such a vast subject you just have to learn as you go along. Have fun whatever you decide to do...

[Sue]

Depending on what you are intending to grow, some seeds need heat to germinate, some don't.

I agree that you would save yourself a lot of hassle if you buy plants which need to be started off under protection as plug plants rather than try to grow them all from seed from scratch.

King's Seeds are very good for high quality vegetable plug plants, and they will deliver them at various dates depending on when you need them.

They don't just sell seeds, despite their name :)

https://www.kingsseeds.com/Products/Plug-Plants/Vegetables