A seedling is a young plant grown from seed.

seedlings

A small stick used to make holes in potting compost for sowing seeds or transplanting small seedlings. Various items can be repurposed as dibbers, including pencils, plant labels and chop sticks.

dibber

• A border fork – if compacted soil needs loosening 
• A hand or border fork for weeding 
• A landscape rake  
• A draw hoe or cane/stick to make drills  
• A string line or bamboo
  A cane is a slender, straight, length of woody plant material, usually bamboo. Canes are primarily used as plant supports. The fruiting stems of blackberries, raspberries and hybrid berries (such as loganberries and tayberries) are also known as canes, so these crops are often referred to as cane fruit.

  cane to mark out long, straight drills 
• A dibber or cane to make holes for large seeds
• Sand to mix with fine seed when broadcast sowing

1. Prepare your soil  ​

   Remove weeds and large stones and fork over the soil if it is compacted. If the soil has recently been forked or dug over, or if it is newly added soil, lightly tread over the area once. Rake the soil until it has a fine, crumbly texture, with a flat (ideally level) surface.

2. ​Broadcast seed  

   Add sand to your seeds and scatter the mixture evenly across the prepared ground, moving your hand across the area in different directions. A 50/50 mix of sand and seeds is particularly useful when sowing small seeds. Lightly rake the soil in the area you have sown to bury the seeds and then move on to step 7.

3. ​Make drills 

   Use a hoe, cane or stick to make a drill. If you want straight rows, use a string line or bamboo cane on the soil to guide you. Check the seed packet for the recommended sowing depth, or follow the general rule of sowing at a depth of about two or three times the size of the seed, to determine how deep the drill needs to be. If sowing more than one row, check the seed packet for the recommended spacing between rows.

4. ​Water along the drills   

   Dampen the base of the drills to encourage germination and ensure moisture is readily available for emerging roots.

5. Sow the seeds          

   If the seeds are large enough to pick up individually, simply place them along the base of your drill at the recommended spacing on the seed packet. If they are tiny, take a pinch of seeds and drop them as thinly as you can along the drill.

6. ​Cover the drill    

   Rake soil back over the drill to cover the seeds and firm it down with the back of your rake.

7. Keep a record    

   Place a plant label at the end of the drill, or in the corner of the area you broadcast, recording the plant and date of sowing. Birds sometimes like to remove plant labels, so keep a record in a notebook too and insert canes/sticks at either end of your drills as markers.

8. Water the soil where seeds have been sown  

   Water to settle the soil and seeds. Use a watering can with the rose upside down or a hose with a fine spray to avoid disturbing the soil.

Seedlings usually appear within a couple of weeks but consult the seed packet for exact timings. They can be vulnerable in the first couple of months, until sturdy and well-rooted. Check them every few days to ensure they have sufficient water, are not being outcompeted by weeds, and are not being attacked by insects, slugs or snails. Covering seedlings with fine mesh protects them from many insects.

Overcrowding can hinder growth and make seedlings more susceptible to disease, so thin them out if necessary. This is best done when they are still small, to limit any disturbance to the remaining seedlings. Use your thumb and forefinger to gently tug approximately every second or third seedling out of the soil, to leave the remaining at the recommended spacing.

Hardy seedlings should cope with light frosts, but keep biodegradable horticultural fleece or cloches handy and cover them if a hard frost is forecast.

A border a few weeks after direct sowing. Changing the direction of the rows between drifts helps create a natural look.