Seeds! Glorious Seeds!

Seeds! Glorious Seeds!

There are lots of cool season crops that can be started now, from the beautiful Valentine lettuce mix to chard, spinach, beets and many more. Peas, onions and fava beans can be planted even later. Our mild frost-free winters make growing possible all year. If there are a few frosty days just cover the little guys with Harvest Guard Row Cover at night.

Prepare your seed bed by getting rid of the weeds first. Pre-sprouting is a good method, begin by amending the soil with Loam Builder, Planting Mix or Forest Mulch. Add SureStart when mixing amendments into the soil for successful planting. Rake smooth. Water the soil and keep it moist. In a week or so little annual weed seedlings will appear, aha! These can be easily pulled or hoed out with a hula hoe.

Plant the seeds according to the depth and spacing on the seed packet. Cover the seeds with Forest Mulch. This keeps the seeds in place and helps with moisture retention. Keep the area moist for 10 to 14 days during which time germination will occur. (Planting seeds in the fall is really the optimum time, the winter rain does all your watering for you).

Wildflowers can be planted this fall too. Perennial flower seeds stay in the ground dormant until conditions in early spring permit the seeds to germinate. Pick a sunny spot, they love the sun, the more sun, the more blooms. They also like loose, rocky, gravely-type soils, they don’t like heavy, water-retaining soil. Wildflowers can even be grown in containers. Create your own mix of CA natives. There are also mixes with enchanting names like Fairy Meadow, Songbird Mix, Hummingbird Haven or Bring Home the Butterflies. The mixes are fascinating to watch because not everything blooms at once. There’s always another new ‘friend’ or two appearing as the days progress.

The California Poppy is a great choice for naturalized wildflower areas, dry meadows, vacant lots, parking strips, country gardens, along driveways or sunny hillsides. You can get a second bloom if you cut the plants back by half after the first bloom.

To plant the seeds, first drag a heavy rake across the weed-free soil surface. Cultivating only the top inch of soil will avoid disturbing any dormant weed seeds.

The ‘Split and Sand” method of seed broadcasting is done by first splitting the contents of the seed package in half. Then place half the seeds in a clean bucket or container and add sand at a ratio of 4 parts sand to 1 part seeds. Starting from one side sprinkle the seeds across the whole area, then starting from top-to-bottom of the area repeat the process with the last half of the seeds. This is a great way to avoid bare spots. Press the seeds in by walking on them (great fun for kids) or tamping in. Rake the soil again to cover the seeds, or mulch lightly to keep the seeds in place during heavy rain. For a longer bloom season plant only half of the package at one time, then plant the second half two weeks later.

If the rain stops for a week and we get a very warm day additional misting or sprinkling might be necessary if tender seedlings have appeared. And since the seeds were evenly sprinkled, if a clump of fast-growing plants appears they’re most likely weeds and can be pulled without worry. Wildflowers generally don’t need fertilizing but an organic 0-10-10 or flower booster-type of fertilizer can be used after the plants begin to bloom. A high nitrogen fertilizer will only encourage the grasses to crowd everything else out.