Quick And Easy Seed Sowing Guide for Beginner's and children gardener's, and children.

Quick And Easy Seed Sowing Guide for Beginner’s, children and anyone who want’s to sow their own seeds and make a difference to the world around them.

Growing plants from seeds is such a rewarding task, It’s a lot cheaper than buying fully grown plants and you get the satisfaction of knowing that you have brought these tiny seeds all the way from baby seedlings to fully growing and producing plants.

Shops sell easy to grow, popular produce from all over the world. Add thousands of food miles and a good dose of chemicals before tying it all up in a non-recyclable plastic bow and you have an un-sustainable problem? Who thought that was a good idea.

One carrot looks very much like the next. They are polluted with all sorts of chemicals to encourage them to grow long and straight and pest free. Do we really need straight blemish free carrots that taste of nothing? Do we really like crunching into a wax covered apple full of pesticides? REALLY?

Convenience is taking over our lives and our brains. How can it possibly make more sense to buy a strawberry from Mexico when you could have them in your garden. Fresh, juicy and sun ripened and IN SEASON!? The taste is exquisite.

How can it possibly make sense for ‘organic’ fruit and vegetables to cost more when there is so many chemicals involved in making the long straight carrots and beans we eat now?

WE are feeding out kids these cancer causing pesticides and chemicals each day.. How does THAT make sense?

But we do have an alternative.. Grow your own!!

Now i’m not going all ‘The Good Life’ on you! but seriously it’s not that hard. Whether you have a tiny pot of strawberries or tomatoes on your window sill or a full allotment plot, there are so many ways to make small changes to your diet and teach your kids there is another way to do this.

Grow leaves on the windowsill, some carrots and beans in pots on your patio and as your child learns and you begin to see the difference in quality and nutrient values you will be so happy you gave it a go!

Maybe if you suppliment your diet with home grown, you will be able to buy the organic produce you don’t grow as you’ve saved so much money??

Nothing will change until we decide for ourselves what is right not just convenient.

When you grow your own you see a whole world of options you never knew you had. Carrots can be sweet, crunchy, round, long and thin, purple, yellow, white, red. And that’s just CARROTS!!! Imagine what else your missing out on.

So, let’s get to it…

SOWING SEEDS.

One tip for sowing seeds is to ALWAYS follow the instructions on the back of the packet. Sounds simple but seeds are very fussy, some need light and lots of water to grow while others need a dark room and dry soil. Different seed sizes have different depths to be planted at, and some need to be planted right into the ground.

I use multipurpose compost to sow all my seeds. For pots and trays, I try to reuse as much of our food packaging containers as possible. I find the see-through containers grapes come in and such like are wonderful for most seeds to start off. Yogurt pots, noodle containers and loo rolls are fantastic, just remember to put a hole in the bottom.

Always sow seeds thinly, especially small seeds. This way you won’t give yourself more work having to thin out your plant’s. This also helps your plants produce a good root system and grow big and tall.

Once you have filled your container with soil, firm it down with something flat . Another container is helpful. A flat surface gives your seeds the best chance of all growing well. Now spray the soil with some tepid water. Cold water can shock the seeds and they won’t grow. (like I said fussy!)

Place or sprinkle your seeds on the damp soil and cover with the appropriate depth of drier compost. This encourages the tiny root that will grow from the seed to grow down looking for water. The drier soil stops the water evaporating away from the bottom soil quickly. Giving the seed time to grow. Now remember to LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!!

LOOKING AFTER YOUR SEEDLINGS

To encourage your seeds to grow, try covering the pot or tray with a plastic bag or cling-film. This keeps the heat and humidity high and gives your seed a good environment to grow. Just check the soil doesn’t dry out.

Unless your seed packet says otherwise, pop your tray or pot somewhere light and warm.

As soon as your seedlings sprout , take off the plastic covering your using as this can cause mould on the soil and the seedling could die.

When your seedlings grow and form 4 leaves (The first 2 are seed leaves and the next 2 are the plants actual leaves) You can begin to think about moving your seedlings into bigger pots on their own.

After watering the seedlings gently and preparing a new (yogurt)pot for each seedling, I use a pencil to help encourage the roots out of the pot and carefully pop them into one of their very own. Aren’t they getting big!!

Keep doing this every time you seed roots appearing at the bottom of the pots until your seeds are ready to be put outside. This happens AFTER the last risk of frost and has to be done gradually.

On a warm day, put your pots outdoors for an hour in a sheltered place before bringing them back in, each day increase this time outside until they are out all day, then outdoors overnight on mild nights.

Once your plants seem happy with this and they’re bright green you can go ahead and plant them outdoors. Remember though some plants are more sensitive to temperature changes that others so stand by with a fleece covering or cloche if it turns windy and cold.

TRANSPLANTING

When your ready to plant out your seedlings once and for all, always dig over the soil and take out any rocks or weeds. Flatten the soil gently with a rake until the soil in even.

Now you need to dig a hole a little bigger that the pot your plant was in. Make sure the depth of this hole is the same depth as your pot so the growing point (the neck) of the plant isn’t under the soil. Put some water in the hole and let it drain away. This dampens the soil and encourages the roots of your plant to go downwards and find more water.

Handle your plant gently as you turn the pot over and tap the bottom as you slowly ease the plant out of its pot and into its new cosy bed.

Push some soil gently back around the plants and press it down firmly, to make sure there is no air pockets. Once your happy, water the plant again taking care to avoid the leaves. Remember to LABEL, LABEL, LABEL! Your plant might need a bit of protection for a couple of days if it is unpredictable weather so keep a piece of fleece on hand to drape over the plant of it gets cold.