Fill your garden with colour

One of the best ways to fill a garden with colour and interest is to grow your plants from seed. You can fill a whole border with wonderful plants grown from just a handful of seed packets, sown now.

If you are planning on growing from seed this season then buy some dedicated seed compost. Choose John Innes Seed Sowing Compost . Any old compost will not give you the best results, and when you are investing your time, effort and money into growing from seed, it’s important to give your seedlings the very best possible start. John Innes Seed Sowing Compost, is different to normal growing media because it has a much finer texture, increasing the contact with the seed and a perfect level of essential plant nutrients that are specially balanced to provide exactly the right amount of food without damaging the delicate young plant tissue, especially the roots.

Experienced growers start many seeds off early in the season. If you are new to sowing seeds then limit your activities to just a few types of seed and don’t sow the whole packet. Instead sow a small amount of the seed and then use the rest of the packet up gradually over the next few months. Your seed packet will indicate the best time to sow your seeds. Many seeds that are sown early indoors or in a greenhouse do need additional heat to get them started: a heated propagator can provide this.

If you are new to gardening and haven’t yet plucked up the courage to sow plants from seed, then look out for pots of seedlings in the garden centres this month. They are too delicate to plant out into the garden this month, but you can buy a pot full and prick them out into individual pots or modules to grow on, on a sunny windowsill.

• Sow annual flower seeds such as Ageratum, Bedding Salvias, Tagetes, Diascia, annual Stocks, Nemesia, Nicotiana, Annual Phlox and bedding Rudbeckia in pots in gentle heat.
• Sow Nasturtiums, Alyssum, Clarkia and Lupins now in pots in a frost-free greenhouse or on the windowsill.

For sowing seed direct into the borders wait until May, choose hardy annuals such as Nasturtiums, Calendula, Californian Poppies, Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Virginian Stocks, Poppies and wildflower mixtures. Rake the soil to a fine, crumbly surface and draw patterns of shallow drills in the surface, line the base with Multi-Purpose Compost with added John Innes, water gently and then sprinkle the seed thinly on top. Cover over with more compost.

You can also try taking softwood cuttings of Fuchsias, Geraniums and other over-wintered plants. Alternatively purchase one or two well-grown plants now and take plenty of cuttings to grow on into flowering plants this season. Use SureStart Seed & Cutting Compost

Half-hardy annuals and half-hardy perennials are not tough enough to withstand the cold and cannot be sown straight into the borders yet. They may be sown in pots on the windowsill, in propagators or in a frost-free greenhouse. Good ones to try are Antirrhinum, Begonia, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Pelargonium, Impatiens, Ipomoea, Marigold, Nicotiana, Petunia and Penstemon.