Sowing Seeds: A Guide on Best to Buy, Tips on Planting

A stop at any nursery, hardware store and even supermarket this time of year will give any shopper the difficult task of not bumping into a metal rack overflowing with hundreds of brightly colored small paper envelopes depicting robust annual and perennial seeds and bushel baskets of healthy vegetables.

Ah, the air is a little warmer, the showers bring fragrance detectable after a long winter and the garden bed is shouting that it needs attention.

But don’t rush out to stock up on the four packs of beans, zucchini and marigolds. Many of the flowers and vegetables gardeners purchase in plant form can be started at home either by direct sowing into the ground or by some seed germinating, a great option for gardeners putting in large plots.

With the help of a sister or two, we’ve compiled just the most basic list of annuals and veg that can bring successful results with no more than a few packets of seeds.

Radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots, broccoli, green beans, zucchini, cauliflower and kohlrabi, cites sister Donna Martino in rapid succession.

“But for some vegetables, it’s better to just buy the plants, especially tomatoes and peppers,” Martino said.

Brother-in-law Jeff Mellott of Loysburg grew up as an unpaid apprentice to his father Albert “Abby” Mellott of Waterside.

The backyard was annually tilled up and turned into a massive vegetable garden, which went a long way toward feeding the family during the upcoming winter.

Jeff inherited his dad’s love for working in the soil and, to this day, plants an extensive area above his home with root and other vegetables crops that he and his wife Deb preserve.

When it comes to flowers, the list is massive, but we’ll suggest a few.

To start with a few pointers:

• Follow sowing directions on the seed packets.

• Pick a sunny location, work in a little compost and don’t spare the water once the seeds are planted.

Annuals most successful include:

• Columbine – Hearty, bushy with attractive foliage and dainty bell-shaped flowers. Columbine has a reputation for being a love ‘em and leave ‘em, then come back again, at least for me. Seeds sown 20 years ago will disappear after a few years, then show up again, eager to please just a few feet away.

• Pansy or common viola – Hundreds of species. Plant in cooler spring as soon as soil can be worked.

• Lupine – A real attention seeker. Likes acidic soil. Soak seeds in water 24 hours before planting.

• Sweet peas – Great fragrance, good for a trellis.

• Poppy – Annual or perennial, great soil starter and reseeds easily, especially the old-fashioned double orange.

• Cosmos – Tall and striking, prolific bloomer.

• Calendula or pot marigold – Once read it was the favorite flower of William Shakespeare

• Nasturtium – Vining, great in a pot, striking foliage, edible flowers.

• Nigella or love in a mist – Beautiful flowers and terrific seed pods for wreaths or dried flower arrangements.

As the ground warms ever so slightly, now would be the time Albert and Jeff would start their hot beds.

They would dig the earth 12 to 18 inches deep, facing south and fill the ditch with good quality soil and add six inches of horse manure. This was topped with well prepared top soil and the vegetable seeds were lovingly and painstakingly sown.

This was all surrounded by a wooden frame.

“As the manure roots up it will give off heat,” Jeff said.

The contraption was designed on a bit of a slant and windows were placed over the top on nights where it was forecast to dip to freezing or close to it.

Just a little suggestion from Donna: if you plan to reuse seedling pots or even larger pots left over from past years, clean them up good in a bath of one part Clorox to ten parts warm water.

“Disease can live for many years in old containers,” she said.