Confused by seeds!
I subscribed to Gardener's World magazine in an attempt to learn how to look after my garden (very movie gardener so feel free to laugh at my questions!). There's a Flower Year Planner in Feb's issue detailing when to sow etc. I am confused by sowing undercover - is the assumption that I have a heated propagater, or will just being in an unheated greenhouse do the job?!
0
Posts
It's hard to write an article that covers all aspects of seed growing. Name your seeds and someone here will tell you when to do what
I have always presumed that 'undercover' means in a greenhouse, poly tunnel or on a windowsill.
I'd say "undercover" just means not open to the elements, as Mel says, a windowsill is usually fine.
I've got the following seeds:
- Marigold - I want to grow these in the greenhouse in an effort to keep bugs away from my tomatoes!
- Delphinium
- Cleomes
- Petunia
- Zinnia
- some common Mallow I got free with my other seeds, and the free Cosmos and Sweet Peas from Gardener's World
- some mixed Sweetcorn my husband wanted to try!
- plus some seeds I collected from my garden last year - poppies (last year I just sprinkled these on the soil and they did fine), left over Aquelegia, Nigella, and tomato (I had a couple of varieties of cherry tomato last year so no idea what these seeds will be like)
Most of the packets say to sow at 20-30oC so I wonder if indoors would be better as my greenhouse is unheated and I don't have a heated propagator. I don't have any radiators near my windowsills though! I got seed trays and cells, but only a couple of these have covers, I'm never sure whether to put a lid/plastic bag over the seeds. I live in South West so fairly mild weather, getting the freezing the odd night at the moment, but very wet.
Aquilegias seem to germinate whatever you do but I give them a cold spell, also delphiniums, same family.