Growing from seed offers great value and the joy of watching your garden grow from the very beginning.
You get to choose exactly what to plant, nurture your seedlings through every stage, and enjoy a deeper connection with your garden.
You can start both vegetables and flowers indoors this month.
Popular flower choices include petunias, impatiens (busy lizzies), bedding begonias, and lobelia.
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Vegetables to start indoors now include tomatoes, capsicums, eggplants, zucchinis, cucumbers, lettuces, pumpkins, watermelons, and tender herbs like basil.
Always start by reading the seed packet for specific instructions.
For cold-sensitive plants like tomatoes and capsicums, sow seeds indoors using seed trays or small pots filled with a quality seed-raising mix such as Tui Seed Raising Mix or Yates Black Magic.
These mixes provide the ideal balance of nutrients, drainage, and moisture retention.
Avoid using garden soil in pots. It holds too much water, which can suffocate delicate roots and cause seedlings to rot.
Instead, sow seeds evenly on the surface, cover lightly with more mix (about twice the diameter of the seed), firm gently, and water carefully.
Cover trays with newspaper and keep them in a warm spot.
Check daily to ensure moisture levels are right, and once the seeds sprout, remove the cover and place them in a bright area.
Rotate trays daily to prevent seedlings from becoming leggy or drawn as they stretch toward the light.
Once seedlings develop a second set of leaves, it’s time to prick them out into individual containers.
You can use clean yoghurt pots with holes, peat pots, or even cut-down toilet rolls.
Biodegradable options like peat pots are ideal, as they can be planted straight into the ground with minimal root disturbance.
Grow seedlings until they are 8–15cm tall and all frost danger has passed, usually by October.
Begin hardening them off by placing them outdoors for a few hours each day before planting them into the garden.
Not all seeds need to be started indoors. Some prefer to be sown directly into prepared garden beds.
These include beans, carrots, radishes, and corn. Carrots and radishes can be sown now, while corn and beans are best sown from October onward.
Prepare the soil well: dig it over, break up clumps, and water it before sowing.
Make shallow grooves, sprinkle seeds, cover lightly with soil, and water again.
Use garden markers or small stakes to track planting locations. Protect your garden from curious cats and hungry birds by using bird netting or temporary covers if needed.
Premium seeds for the home gardener
If you’re looking for top quality varieties, consider the Chefs Best seed range by Ican – available through independent New Zealand garden centres.
These varieties have been carefully selected for New Zealand conditions and deliver superior performance and flavour.
Direct sow now:
Broad bean – Mr Green Seed: Stays green after cooking, great taste.
Beetroot – Red Lightning: Early maturing, deep red, tender and uniform.
Carrot – Europa: Top-rated for flavour and disease resistance.
Lettuce – Trendsetter: Compact, crisp cos-type, resistant to mildew and aphids.
Leek – Baby: Harvest finger-sized leeks in just eight weeks.
Parsnip – Trafalgar: Long, straight, canker-resistant – great for home gardens.
Peas – Magic: High-yielding and disease-resistant for an extended harvest.
Radish – Olympus: Fast, tasty, reliable performer.
Spinach – Nutriplus: Nutrient-rich, fast-growing, mildew-resistant.
Sow indoors now for October planting:
Tomato – Flavoursome: Early, tasty, and highly disease-resistant.
Pumpkin – Dry Delight: Nutty flavour, large fruit, excellent keeper.
Cucumber – Prolific Mini: Compact, early producing, perfect for containers.
Dwarf bean – Supreme: Tender, high-yielding, best sown in stages.
Courgette – Leader: Compact, heavy producer, disease-resistant.
Corn – Tender Sweet: Tender, flavourful, vigorous, nutritious, early, disease-resistant.
If you’ve never tried growing from seed before, spring is the perfect season to start.
It’s affordable, fun, and the sense of accomplishment is second to none.
A packet of seeds, a few pots, and some good quality mix is all it takes to begin a new gardening adventure.
Gareth Carter is the general manager of Springvale Garden Centre in Whanganui.
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