How to Sow Annuals in Your Garden, by Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh on YouTube. 1 min 11 s.
- Video length
- 1 min 11 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Choose a spot that gets sun for most of the day and where water does not sit after rain. Most annuals sulk in shade and rot in boggy ground.
Clear the patch of weeds, stones and old roots. Pull weeds out with their roots, then rake the surface roughly level.
Fork over the top 15 to 20 cm of soil to loosen it. Break up big clods with the back of the fork until you have a fine, crumbly surface.
If the soil is thin or sandy, fork in a 5 cm layer of garden compost before you firm it down.
Water the bed the day before sowing so the soil is moist but not soaked. Dry soil slows germination badly.
Sow thinly. Take a small pinch of seed and scatter it over roughly a 30 cm square, then repeat across the bed. Crowded seedlings grow weak.
Cover the seed with a thin layer of soil, about two to three times the seed's own depth. Check the packet, because some annuals need light and should be left uncovered.
Water gently with a fine rose so you do not wash the seed away. Write the name and the date on a label and push it in at the edge of the patch.
Keep the ground damp until seedlings appear, then thin them to 15 to 20 cm apart once they have two pairs of proper leaves.
Tips and common mistakes
Sow hardy annuals in early spring and tender ones like cosmos and marigolds only after the last frost has passed.
Water with a fine rose or a gentle spray, never a hard jet, or you will move the seed into clumps.
Thin seedlings even though it feels wasteful. The plants left behind will be busier and flower far longer.
Label each row as you sow it, since annual seedlings all look alike for the first few weeks.
Questions
How deep should I sow annual seeds?
A good rule is two to three times the seed's own depth. Very fine seed can be pressed into the surface and left uncovered, so read the packet first.
Do I need to start annuals indoors?
Not for most hardy annuals. Sowing straight into the ground in spring is simpler and usually works well, though tender kinds benefit from an early start indoors.
Why have my seedlings not appeared?
The usual causes are dry soil, seed buried too deep or seed eaten by birds and slugs. Keep the ground damp and check the sowing depth on the packet.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
