| I have mulched my garden. When planting annual seeds directly into the garden, do I plant them in the mulch or do I go down to the "regular" dirt and plant them in that? I did the latter last year and it took forever for the seeds to come up; however, the summer in Seattle last year was crummy, so maybe that had something to do with it also. Thank you. |
| Seeds are little packages of stored energy. They need to be planted at just the right depth or the seedling will run out of stored energy before the stem reaches the soil level. You can consider your mulch as planting medium and sow the seeds at the depth suggested on the seed package. This will get your seedlings up and growing without delay. If your seeds took a long time to sprout last year, it may have been the depth, or it may have been because the soil and air temperatures were just too chilly. You can plant beans, peas, lettuces and root crops now, but wait a few more weeks before planting tomato, corn and pepper seeds. By mid-May the soil should be warm enough for both cool and warm season veggie seeds to germinate. If you're planting flower seeds, you can plant them now. |
