Tower and Town, April 2025 (view the full edition)It's SOW EasyThe weather is warmer, the days are getting longer and it's time to think about summer flowers and vegetables and you don't need a garden or expensive equipment to grow them. Your local garden centre is a treasure trove of seeds ready to sow now and there are masses of varieties that will give you flowers and vegetables all season without buying expensive plants. If you prefer to sow seeds and plant out the seedlings, instead of buying seed trays supermarket containers that fruit comes in are brilliant for sowing seeds. So, you have chosen your seeds and bought a bag of multi-purpose compost and are ready to get started. You can grow plants in absolutely anything provided you make sure that you have drainage holes at the bottom of the container and you keep it watered. So be as creative as you like with your choice. I must admit that a lot of mine are great car boot finds!
 I absolutely love dark, nearly black flowers and there is a new variety of Scabious called Black Night. It's around 2' tall and will flower all summer with gorgeous pom-pom flowers and I am going to grow it in a pot with a pale pink Dahlia. Cosmos are a must-have flower for your outdoor space with tall upright plants that flower all summer in lots of colours. My favourite for hanging baskets is Nasturtium Purple Emperor; the flowers start off burgundy and gradually change to dusky pink and they can trail up to 6ft - just six seeds in a basket will flower all summer. And a favourite for pots is Sweet Pea Cupid, a compact variety only 12'' tall. If you would prefer vegetables why not try carrots, beetroot, dwarf beans, salad crops, tomatoes, cucumbers, baby sweetcorn or perhaps baby salad potatoes. The list is endless with brilliant new varieties all cultivated specially for containers and growing in small spaces. If you don't want a pot but have a neglected patch of bare soil, a packet of Wild Flower seeds dispersed over it now will give you an interesting wildlife haven in a few weeks. There are seeds for everything! Carolyn Stimpson |