A garden full of plants is the bedrock of giving nature a home, and April is prime time to start many on their journey. Yes, it's time to sow seeds.
I still can't believe how cheap it is to grow plants this way. Many potted plants at garden centres cost a tenner each, when you could grow 50 of the same from seed for about two quid plus the cost of a bag of compost.
Many people do say to me, "Oooh, no, I can't grow things from seed. I kill everything!" Well, I'm here to convince you that you can! Don't worry about whether or not you have 'green fingers' and just put your trust in the fact that seeds want to grow. It is by far the cheapest and most satisfying way to grow plants.
Here are a few secrets that will boost your success rate:
1. Use clean pots. Dirty ones can harbour diseases that can quickly kill seedlings.
2. Use freshly-bought compost rather than old. Last year's compost is best saved for potting on established plants
3. This is the one time in the garden to use tap water. Again, it is all to do with good hygiene.
4. Keep your seeds in the bottom of the fridge until ready to use them. Seeds left in warm places will quickly lose their viability.
But here's the real secret: everyone has failures. Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh – I bet they all have seeds that don't germinate or seedlings that die on them. I certainly do. So celebrate your successes and don't stress about those that don't survive.
So what seeds can you plant right now that will give you amazing wildlife-friendly plants? Here are some ideas to try:
Herbaceous perennials. Why not grow some of our most beautiful native plants that will look great around the garden and attract pollinators. Perfect plants for the flower border include Betony, Greater Knapweed, Musk Mallow and Welsh Poppy. You can start them off in seed trays or in individual small pots. There are a whole host of wonderful non-native garden plants for wildlife, too, such as Echinacea, and various types of Agastache, Eryngium and Salvia.
Something for the kids. Sunflowers are a great way to get children involved in growing wildlife-friendly flowers. They are incredibly easy to grow, and it will be a race to see whose grows the tallest. They are prone to slug and snail damage if planted out too young, so keep them in pots until they are pretty well established. Sunflowers attract bees to the flowers, and then birds to the giant seedheads once they have ripened. Here are some where I grew some biggies and some much shorter ones at their feet, as there is a sunflower for every situation.
Perennial meadows. Now is a good time for sowing seeds in an area of prepared, weed-free soil that will become a 'mini meadow'. This is where you sow a hay meadow native seed mix full of wild grasses, and then let it grow all summer before mowing in August or even September. This is the perfect home for many of our meadow butterflies. We've got step-by-step instructions here.
Annual flower mixes. If it is a colour blast you're after, then dig over an area of soil, rake it finely, and scatter annual flower seeds, often sold as cornfield mixes with Common Poppy, Corn Marigold, Cornflower and Corn Cockle. However, there are even more colourful mixes with Cosmos, Coreopsis and Californian Poppies. Just scatter on the surface, tread lightly in, water, and nature should do the rest. Annual mixes are good for bees and hoverflies, and you can find full instructions here. Here's a bed I grew in 2016 full of Echium 'Blue Bedder', one of the very best flowers I know for bees.
Growing plants from seed is good for the soul, good for the wallet and good for the planet. What could be a better combination than that?