How to Direct Sow Seeds in Your Garden

For the best direct sowing experience, start with a garden site with the right light. For most vegetables and flowers, this means a full sun site that gets 6 to 8 hours or more sunlight daily.

Your best garden site will be level, without low-lying areas where water can puddle. Speaking of water, your garden needs to be close to a spigot for easy watering.

For a new garden space, clear vegetation and rocks from the area. Experts recommend tilling soil about 6 to 10 inches deep. This is especially important if you're growing root vegetables that need friable soil to push through while growing. You can rent a tiller from The Home Depot Tool and Equipment Rental Center or use a garden fork (sometimes called a digging fork) to turn the soil.

If you're growing in raised bed gardens, start with packaged raised bed soil or make your own with equal portions peat moss (or coir), vermiculite and organic compost.

Next, provide the best soil you can for the vegetables and flowers you want to grow. Most plants thrive in well-draining soil that's rich in organic matter and a pH that's slightly acidic to neutral (6.5 to 7.0). Remember that the right soil pH helps plants take in nutrition and grow healthy and strong.

Steps to improve your soil:

• Start with a soil test kit from your local Extension Service. (You can purchase a soil test kit from the Garden Center, too.)
• Follow recommendations for amending soil.
• With or without a soil test, applying organic compost enhances your soil's ability to provide nutrients to growing plants.

Small space gardeners take note: you can direct sow seeds in containers just as easily as in-ground beds. When you're preparing planters, you want soil that's both well-draining and moisture retentive. Look for products labeled "potting soil" or "raised bed soil." Read bags and online product information to determine the best soil for your garden.

Grow both vegetables and flowers from seeds directly sown in the ground. Generally speaking, you'll have the best results with large seeds, like cucumber or zinnia seeds.

In addition to loose seeds sold in packets, look for innovative products like seed tapes with tiny seeds embedded in paper that help to sow smaller seeds.

Before you plant, you need a few pieces of information for success when direct sowing seeds.

• For spring and summer crops, know your last date of frost in spring. For fall and winter crops, know your first date of frost in fall. These dates vary depending on your climate. Look to this guide for the frost dates for your area of the country.
• When you're choosing seeds, look to the planting instructions on the packet to learn the ideal time frame for planting. Most seeds need soil temperatures in the range of 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit to germinate.
• Some seeds need cycles of cold and hot to germinate. With this type seed, you sow before the final frost in spring in colder climates. In mild climates, you sow seeds in fall for spring bloom. Read seed packet for more instructions on cool-weather sowing.
• Two key facts to know about your seeds: the days to germination and the days to maturity. These numbers are on seed packets and also in online descriptions. Combine these to estimate when you can expect your crops to be ready.
• With this data, you can make a seed sowing calendar. Not every garden needs this level of organization, but it's useful for vegetable and flower gardeners who focus on production. Mapping out your garden on a calendar can help you plan for successive crops and maximize production over the growing season.

Top vegetable seeds for direct sowing:

• Beet
• Bok choy
• Bean
• Carrot
• Corn
• Cucumber
• Lettuce
• Melon like watermelon
• Okra
• Pea
• Pumpkin and winter squash
• Radish
• Spinach
• Summer squash and zucchini
• Winter squash

Top flower seeds for direct sowing:

• Bachelor button
• Borage
• Calendula
• Celosia (cock's comb)
• Coreopsis
• Cornflower
• Cosmos
• Cypress vine
• Echinacea (coneflower)
• Four O'Clocks
• Gaillardia (blanketflower)
• Gomphrena
• Helenium
• Marigold
• Moonflower
• Morning glory
• Nasturtium
• Shasta daisy
• Sunflower
• Sweet pea
• Tithonia (Mexican sunflower)
• Zinnia

Tip: Your local Cooperative Extension is a good resource for planting charts based on data for your climate.

When your site (or planter or raised bed) and soil are ready and the timing is right, you can direct sow seeds.

Read seed packet directions before planting and be aware of special considerations for different seeds. For instance, some seeds like peas and beans, need an overnight soak in order to speed up germination.

Follow these steps when you're ready to sow seeds in the garden:

• Start by lightly spreading an all-purpose organic fertilizer (or organic compost) across the soil and raking it into the soil.
• Use the edge of a hoe or a garden knife to carve a straight, shallow furrow.
• Create subsequent rows based on the package directions for the seeds you're sowing (for example, rows 12 inches apart).
• A general rule of thumb for sowing seeds is to plant them at a depth two to four times the width of the seed. This puts tiny-seeded crops like lettuce and carrots at a depth of 1/4 inch. Larger seeds like corn, squash and beans should be planted about 1 to 2 inches deep. Use a chopstick or eraser end of a pencil to push teeny seeds into soil.
• Plant large seeds like squash, melon and cucumber in hills. This type of hill isn’t a peaked mound, but a raised, flat circle. Use your garden hoe to create a 12-inch circle and plant 4 to 6 seeds in each hill.
• Press soil gently around seeds.
• Use a watering can or garden hose with a nozzle set to a gentle flow to water the seeds.

Tip: Some gardeners lay boards or row covers over newly sown seeds to hasten germination by trapping heat. You'll need to check daily for germination and remove the cover before it suffocates the seedlings.

It's always a good idea to mark what you've planted and where you planted it. Plant markers can be as plain or as creative as you want them to be. Frugal gardeners typically use materials like craft sticks or cut-up repurposed blinds.

In the Garden Center and online, look for packs of sturdy plastic or metal plant labels that will help you keep your garden organized. Write the plant name and the date sown and place the marker in the ground.

Many gardeners keep track of their gardens through handwritten journals and online apps. You can record the types of seeds and when they're sown, make note of weather patterns and the stages of growth (germination, first leaves, true leaves, etc.). Keeping notes and reviewing each year helps you become a better gardener.

Tip: Look for weatherproof plant labels and markers. The kinds of permanent markers used at job sites work well for your plant labels.

The first few weeks your seeds are in the ground are very important. You'll want to water consistently. Simply touch the soil, and if it feels dry, then water.

If it's early in the season and the weather dips to freezing temperatures, protect your crops with floating row covers. Just be sure to remove the covers when the weather warms up again.

Sometimes, the opposite happens and vulnerable seedlings are exposed to extreme heat. While most crops appreciate full sun, if temperatures get too hot too soon for your crops, you can use shade cloth to protect them.

Some crops will need to be thinned to ensure that the strongest seedlings grow to maturity. You do this when the second set of leaves, called true leaves, emerges. To thin seedlings, remove the smallest seedlings in order for the strongest to emerge.

When your seedlings are on their way to maturing, you can apply a layer of mulch around the plants that will help reduce evaporation and keep the roots cool.

Tip: Consider drip irrigation for efficient watering in your garden.