Can you have a colourful garden on a shoestring budget? The answer is yes. With a bit of planning, you can have colourful annuals all year round by sowing your own seed.
Packets of seeds are far cheaper than established seedlings. You only have to sow seeds twice a year to have colourful flowers from January to December.
Summer flowering annuals need to be sown in late August and September for a blaze of colour over Christmas. For winter blooms, the sowing of your seeds must be done now.
Winter-flowering annuals must be sown during February or by the latest, mid-March. Most come from cold climates and require cooler temperatures to flourish. Certain varieties, such as pansies and primula, are quite accustomed to sub-zero temperatures.
Seeds that have been sown in February can be transplanted into the garden in autumn or as soon as they have established themselves into sturdy seedlings. Autumn varies from year to year, but is generally regarded as the time when the soil cools down and night temperatures drop. In Gauteng, this happens in late March or early April.
Do remember that winters on the Reef are dry. If you plan to grow winter annuals, you must make a commitment to water them at least once a week, from the time they are planted until next spring.
What to sow
There are two methods for sowing seed – directly into prepared garden beds or into a seedling tray.
Plants with larger seed can be sown directly into a sunny prepared bed. Try gaillardias (blanket flowers), helichrysum (everlastings), linaria, clarkia, carnations, larkspur and lupins. Sweetpeas can be sown into a sunny bed at the end of February, but wait until the end of March to sow Namaqualand daisies.
Varieties with small seed are more successfully planted into seedling trays filled with seedling soil, peat or a good potting soil, and later transplanted into the garden. For a sunny flower bed consider sowing calendulas, nemesia, Iceland poppies, schizanthus, violas, pansies, snapdragons and Virginian stocks.
Fairy primula (Primula malacoides) is a colourful winter annual suited to shady areas. Not everyone has success with propagating primula. Garden centres, however, propagate magnificent primula seedlings and if your germination rate is not good in February, you can always obtain professionally grown primula seedlings in March.
If you’re a keen gardener then February is also the month to sow the seed of certain summer flowering annuals, bi-annuals and perennials. If sown now, this group of colourful plants will establish themselves over the winter and be ready to flower early next summer. Try asters, Canterbury bells, cornflower, dianthus, foxglove, candytuft, feverfew, shirley poppies, phlox and gloriosa daisies.
How to sow
Optimistic gardeners always believe that what goes down must come up. Needless to say, this doesn’t always happen when it comes to seedling propagation, and many gardeners are frustrated.
The most important cornerstone to propagation in seedling trays is not to plant the seeds too deep. Here is a basic guide:
l Fill a seedling tray with seedling soil or peat to 6 to 12mm below the top of the container. Flatten the soil.
l Moisten the soil with a handspray-mister.
l Empty the packet of seedlings into your hand, and sprinkle the seeds evenly across the soil. If the seed is very fine, mix it with a little river sand or soil to help get an even spread.
l Cover the seeds with a fine layer of compost equal to twice the diameter of the seeds. If the seeds are fine (such as petunia), avoid covering with any compost or soil.
l Moisten the tray gently using a hand spray-mister.
l Place your seedling tray in the shade, on a warm window sill or in a spot that receives sun before 10am and after 5pm. Seedlings need good light, but no burning rays of the sun.
l Keep the trays moist at all times.
l Moisten the tray before transplanting sturdy seedlings into a prepared bed. - Saturday Star