Starting an Annual Flower Garden from Seed

Come spring and we start thinking about planting flowers in our garden. You can expand your choices from local varieties to pretty much any flower by using seeds to plant your garden. Use this guide as a reference to keep you on the right track when planting your annual garden:

1. Choose your growing space making sure that it receives at least six hours of sun during the entire growing season.

2. Prepare the soil for sowing. Loosen it and break up the clods to ensure good drainage. Mix in 2-4 inches compost and rake the surface smooth.

3. Cool-season annuals like sweet peas, calendulas, poppies, larkspur etc. should be sown in early spring when the air and soil temperature is cool.

4. Frost-tender annuals such as sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos etc. should be sown when days are warmer and all the danger of frost is over.

5. Mark off the bed (or row) and moisten the soil. Evenly scatter the seeds over the bed or sprinkle them in a shallow furrow. Keep in mind that you need to sow more seeds than the number of plants you actually want. Cover the seeds with finely crumbled soil about 1/2 inch or as mentioned on the seed packet. It is a good idea to label now.

6. Water your bed thoroughly and check everyday to ensure that the soil remains moist till the seeds germinate.

7. When the seeds germinate and produce several sets of leaves, it is time to space them apart. Thin them to create the space recommended on the packet.

8. Weeding is very important at this stage. Remove weeds as soon as they appear so your plants get all the nutrition they need from the soil.