Sustainable Seedlings

Its that time of year when seed sowing is in full swing. Pricking out, potting on and planting out are the start of what will hopefully be a fabulously floriferous summer.

As with all things here at Cherry Tree Willow I try to make my choices in seed sowing as sustainable as possible so I thought I'd share my choices and reasons for my decision making.

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  • Planning first - making plans for what I actually want to grow helps me to buy only the seeds, bulbs and tubers that I will actually use. Unused seed is wasted money and wasted time in ordering.

  • Choose suitable varieties - I select flowers that are suited to my growing conditions and require minimum mollycoddling. My time, and space in the [unheated] greenhouse, is valuable so I avoid flowers that need too much pampering or those with known low germination rates.

  • Compost choice. This year I've exclusively used Moorland Gold seed compost for all my seed sowing and I'm very happy with it. I love its texture and the fact that it is produced locally which keeps transport miles to a minimum. Allgrow supplies, which makes Moorland Gold is a small family business rather than a faceless corporation. Although I do also make my own compost, it comes with a big dose of weed seeds, so its nice to see only the seeds that I planted popping up in my seed trays and not a load of weeds.

  • Pots and trays - I use and reuse plastic pots and trays until they are no longer fit for purpose, which can be many many years. Although plastic has its drawbacks, it can be used over and over and over again. There are a number of plant pot materials currently being promoted as more 'eco friendly' because they are compostable or biodegradable - such as paper pulp pots and wool pots - but both are single use items! Both still use energy to manufacture but the fact that they are single use means that they are very energy inefficient AND very expensive!

  • Soil blocking is something I've never tried but it has it converts. The idea is that a blocking tool creates little blocks of compost to sow into to minimise the use of plastic seed trays.

  • Saved seed - by saving seed from your previous years flowers, you not only get free seed, but you also get seeds that year on year become adapted to your particular microclimate.