Autumn Sowing - Getting a head start!

My love of all things gardening started last year, but my cut flower obsession only came about early this year. What this meant was whilst I was frantically sowing seeds from March onwards – I was very aware of people around me that seemed to have some kind of magical super power that meant whilst I was waiting expectantly for seeds to germinate… they were surrounded by healthy looking small plants, much further along than mine!

So off I went down in search of the answer to this mystery and I soon found the key to it all… Autumn Sowing!

There is a classification of flowers, Hardy Annuals, that change the game on when we can sow our seeds. There are different levels of hardiness which tell us just what temperatures these little wonders can survive at, so as long as you research a little about the weather in your area during your Winter, you can benefit from getting well ahead of the game on the seed sowing front.

Hours of research later (books, Instagram, google!!!) and I had my list ready of what I’d be sowing. The principle of actually sowing the seeds may not differ too much from their Tender cousins that I’d sowed this summer, but how you actually care for the plants during Winter does need a little looking into. Some will be fine planted out into the garden; others require a little more nurturing and would benefit from being under cover – such as a greenhouse (in my case 2 plastic ‘zippy’ greenhouses… the search for the perfect sized greenhouse continues!)

Some are happy to be done around Sept / October time, others will fare better if they’re done later on around February time. I’ll list what I’m sowing and when and will post updates so you can see how they’re coming along.

They may require a little more planning in the early stages, but to repay us with flowers much earlier in the season – I don’t feel like that’s an unfair exchange!

This September I’ve sown Snapdragons (4 different varieties… these were definitely a favourite of mine this year!), Nigella, Ammi Visnaga, Cornflower, Briza Maxima and Orlaya Grandiflora.

I’m going to be sowing some of these little beauties again early next Spring so that I extend the time I’ll have flowers for (known as Succession Sowing), I’ll make sure I do an update on that too when the time comes.

In the meantime, I’m going to will all these little seeds to germinate and pray that my Zippy greenhouses can sustain life for them over Winter… watch this space!