When and where to sow depends very much on the temperature and the space. I prefer sowing most vegetables indoors rather than sowing directly in the ground, although the space to sow indoors is limited so I need to choose the right containers to sow for efficient use of the space. There are some reasons why I prefer sowing indoors.
To extend our gardening season
Because our gardening season is very short. We have the risk of frost until the end of May and the first frost could be sometime in September. To maximize our gardening efficiency, sowing indoors is necessary which allows us to extend the gardening period.
To lessen the risk of seed loss by birds
We have lots of birds in our garden, which is nice, but I don’t like them to play around in our vegetable garden after sowing vegetables. They could pick up seeds that we planted in the garden or catch the earth warms that we want to stay in the ground for the good of earth. If we plant seedlings in the ground instead of seeds, we don’t have to worry about the birds eating the vegetable seeds.
It’s not always easy to distinguish vegetable shoots and weeds
When we plant some vegetables which we have never planted, we have no idea what kind of shoots they will have. Because some seeds take a while to germinate, there is a risk that we might pick them up by mistake when we think it’s a weed.
The germination ratio
You can trust almost all of the seeds will germinate for specific species of vegetables, but it’s not always the case. There are some vegetables and flowers whose germination ratio is very low. In that case, it’s a shame if you put the seeds in the ground and wait, wait, and wait… ending up with nothing happening. It would be a waste of space as well when you could have planted something else while you were waiting in vain.
This is what I am doing with vegetable seeds
Therefore, I often sow the vegetables and flowers in sowing containers such as plastic containers or egg cartons. After the seeds germinate, I put them in 2-3 inches pots to grow seedlings. When they have grown big enough in the pots, we transplant them in our garden.
However, there are some vegetables and flowers which are better directly sown in the ground. Some plants don’t like to be transplanted. In that case, we just put their seeds directly in our garden. There are also some plants which are tolerant of frost and we can sow them in the ground in early spring.
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