Best Way to Sow Annual Seeds in Your Garden Border

Here’s what I do when I sow annuals directly into the border:

• Clear the area of stones and cultivate until the soil has a fine, crumbly texture.
• Outline the shape to be planted, using a thin sprinkling of lime or fertilizer.
• Water the prepared soil thoroughly.
• Put a thin layer of vermiculite or other seed-starting medium on top of the moist soil.

• Sprinkle seeds thinly on the surface. Some flower seeds need light to germi­nate and should be pressed down lightly but not covered. Some require a light covering, and a few germinate better in the dark and will take a cover of planting mix about a quarter of an inch deep. Follow the instructions on the package to determine the depth at which each variety should be planted. Remember, though, that the most common cause of failure with seeds is planting too deeply.
• Firm the whole surface gently.

Resist the urge to water at this stage; you might wash all the seeds into one clump. Furthermore, it is not needed; the moisture from the watered garden soil will have spread to the seed layer when you pressed it down.

Conditions in early spring, when the garden is still holding winter moisture, are generally favorable to seeding but watering will be important from now until germination to prevent the surface of the seedbed from drying out.

To the gardener, this is a seedbed. Cats perceive it otherwise. You might as well hang out a sign: “Kitty Comfort Station.” To deal with this problem, I lay crumpled chicken wire—light enough not to suppress the emerging seedlings— over the seedbed, and it evidently reduces the comfort sufficiently to keep cats off.

If, despite your careful sowing, the seedlings are unevenly distributed and too crowded in places, thin them out a little. I find it does less damage if I use scissors and cut off the unwanted seedlings at the soil line, rather than pulling them out in clumps.

At the same time that I’m seeding in the borders, I seed a few annuals in rows in the production garden. These are for moving into the border later in the summer, when their color and form are needed, so they have to be easy to transplant. Cosmos, nicotiana, and snapdragons are excellent for this purpose.

The recommended procedure for sowing in rows calls for using a hoe, but I find this makes too deep a furrow. I lay a long broomstick on the ground and press it down just enough to make a shallow trough. I’m a bit more fussy when I sow seeds in rows than when I scatter them in the border. I’m extra careful to sow thinly, and am more disciplined at thinning them out so that when the time comes to transplant they can be lifted singly without disturbing a whole clump of plants.

The care and feeding of annual seedlings is the same wherever they’re grown. Soluble fertilizer at half the strength recommended on the package is helpful every time you water while the plants are making rapid growth, and after that they will do well on their own. Annuals are not heavy feeders and, in any case, heavy fertilizing will give you too much leaf and scant bloom.