Some books tend to make sowing sound unnecessarily complicated, so many novice gardeners prefer to buy trays of seedlings from the nursery. There’s nothing wrong with doing this but it can never equal the sheer joy of a garden filled with flowers and vegetables that you have sown yourself.

There are three reasons for disaster:

• The seeds were sown too deeply.
• The soil became dried out while the seeds were germinating.
• The seeds were disturbed by pets, birds, soil organisms or rain.

Buy the right seeds, store them correctly.
The seeds of most annual and perennial garden flowers, herbs and vegetables are sold at nurseries, hardware stores and supermarkets. They offer excellent value for money because, thanks to one packet of tomato seeds, a family of four can give the supermarket’s tomato shelf a miss for at least one season. If you want a carpet of colour in your flowerbeds, it’s much cheaper to sow annuals such as alyssum, marigolds, summer vygies, cosmos and cornflowers yourself. Some flower types for example devil-in-the-bush (Nigella ‘Persian Jewels’, also known as love-in-the-mist and fennel flower) and Irish bells can only be sown.

Seed packets are swopped on store shelves according to the growing season to ensure the seeds are fresh. The packets carry handy information about the sowing time and depth, the plant position and correct distance between plants, and about whether the seeds can be sown in boxes or directly into a flowerbed.

• Harvest seeds yourself
  You can also harvest seeds from plants that are already growing in your garden, for example agapanthus and summer poppies. Allow a few flower stems to seed and tie a brown paper bag around the flower head with a piece of elastic. Wait until the stems are completely dry, then cut them off and shake the seeds loose in the bag.
• Store seeds
  Seeds can be kept in glass jars that seal tightly. Also put a few pieces of blotting paper among the seeds to keep them completely dry. Clearly mark each jar with the name of the plant before you store it in a cool, dark place – even in the vegetable drawer of your fridge.

Words and image: Home magazine