Planting seeds – part 1

Now that you are done with preparing your beds and ready to plant, you have to decide how you want to go about planting your seeds.

- Advertisement -

How, when and where you sow your seeds will depend on many things, such as the type of seeds, how many of them you have, how many plants you want to end up with and what your growing conditions are. Plants have different requirements, but generally, there are two ways to plant vegetables. One is to sow your seeds directly into the ground, where they will grow until harvesting. The other way is to sow them somewhere else, and then to transplant them into the ground. We’ll deal with transplanting next week.

  • From one end of the bed to the next, use a string to mark out rows. The space between rows, and the space between seeds within a row, is usually indicated on the seed packet.
  • A good tip to remember is to plant a seed as deep as the seed is big. For instance, bean seeds will be planted deeper than carrot seeds, which are normally only planted just below the surface of the soil.
  • When you are finished sowing, close the furrow, and tap the soil with the back of your rake to make it firm. This will ensure that all surfaces of the seed are in close contact with the earth.
  • Seeds are available from supermarkets, farmer supply stores and nurseries.

Source:The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency” by John Seymour.  

- Advertisement -

Last week we covered how to prepare a vegetable plot