This weekend is the perfect time to get sowing hardy annuals to fill any gaps in borders. Not only are they great at self-seeding, giving you flowers year after year for the mere minutes it takes to sprinkle them over the soil, but with many of us feeling the pinch this month, there is also a thrifty trick to getting these for far lower cost than you might think.
A surprisingly large range of popular garden plants are also sold as seeds in the herb and spice section of supermarkets at a fraction of the price of those in garden centres. For starters, the frothy, fragrant foliage of dill and fennel – much loved by Chelsea Flower Show designers in recent years – can easily be sown from the seeds in the spice section.
Go to an Asian supermarket and you can get these in really sizeable packets for less than £1, which according to my calculations may be more than 95% cheaper than from the conventional gardening seed packet. The same goes for the closely related caraway and – even though I absolutely can’t stand the stuff – coriander, too. While you are there, if you pick up some Kalonji (aka nigella) seeds, you will get a close relative of love-in-a-mist, with smaller flowers on more dainty plants. I have found fenugreek, whose plants look like one of the pretty, ornamental clovers, are dead easy, too. They even have edible leaves that can be cooked and eaten like spinach – and are hard to track down in their fresh form in even the most well-stocked Asian food shop.
The same thing goes for chamomile, the seeds of which can be found in regular teabags. Simply rip one open and scatter the contents over any open ground, ideally in full sun, and you will see germination in days and flowers within as little as a month, depending on the weather. I should stress, however, that this does have to be an unused bag, as the heat from brewing will otherwise render these unviable. Poppy seeds come, quite handily, usually in a shaker tin. The edible forms are often a paler, bluish pink with smaller flowers than the dazzling ornamental cultivars, but you’ll get easily 20 times the amount for the price.
Finally, of course, there are sunflower seeds. As long as you pick the unshelled, unroasted form, these are super easy and virtually identical to the cultivars you see in the florists.
Now, it is true that the germination rates in these bulk packets are likely to be far lower than the ones from the carefully controlled conditions of horticultural suppliers, and the cultivars aren’t always as showy as those specifically bred for aesthetic value. However, given the nominal cost – virtually free if you are grabbing these from that long-forgotten jar at the back of your spice rack or tea cupboard – they are absolutely worth the gamble.
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