It is suddenly trendy and super eco-friendly to purchase greeting cards and paper-based gifts with seeds. In promoting environmental issues, some stores have gone as far as packing purchases in paper carrier bags with little bags of seeds. It may be a great sales gimmick but, unfortunately, very little else. Without complete knowledge of seed varieties involved, well-intentioned customers have absolutely no idea how to sow or grow whatever it is they have been given.

Successful seed sowing and growing is all down to knowing exactly which species is involved: some seeds need one kind of soil and others require something completely different. Some seeds need direct exposure to sunlight in order to germinate, while others need light to be totally excluded by soil and so on.

It is wonderful that seed sowing is gaining widespread attention but, without detailed information about species and care, planting ripped up pieces of carrier bags/paper with mysterious seeds is liable to be a well-intentioned waste of time. Also disappointment could very well annihilate the dreams of would-be-gardeners before they have a chance to bloom, which is sad.

Sow the right seeds to reap a harvest of a winter kitchen garden and a riot of fall foliage

Growing plants from seed, be they low-growing herbs, gorgeous flowers or stately trees, is a wonderfully rewarding experience when undertaken with at least basic knowledge, tender, loving care and patience. It is not even necessary to buy seeds to experiment with as so many can be harvested from previously grown plants in the gardens of family or friends. They can also be harvested from wild plants and indigenous trees or be extracted from some of the fruits seasonally sold in the bazaars.

This being September, it is a great season in which to give seed-sowing and growing a try. Here are just a few recommendations to guide you along the fun-filled way.

SOWING SUGGESTIONS FOR SEPTEMBER

In the flower garden: Stately Queen Anne’s lace is the prefect, frothy mass of creamy white for a back-of-the-border setting to show off equally tall or slightly less tall flowers such as the ever-popular hollyhock in mauve, purple, crimson and pink; tall-growing forms of scabosia; giant antirrhinums in double, single and butterfly forms; fairy-garden foxgloves; spidery cleomes and delphiniums in the entire range of blues.

For middle of the border, medium-tall ageratum makes a very effective sea of powder-blue which can be accented with clumps of exotic-looking godetia, golden-bright bidens and clumps of bright and dazzling dahlias. Then there are medium-tall scabosia, medium-height antirrhinums, headily fragrant stocks — peach-coloured ones are delicious — old-fashioned, perfumed Sweet Williams and Sweet Sultan, clarkia, brilliant-blue larkspur (a shade like no other). You can also have delicate linum that floats in the breeze, good for cutting cornflowers and gypsophila, phlox, geraniums, pelargoniums, nemophila, cineraria, numerous varieties of salvia in numerous colours and as wide a range of seasonal poppies as you can lay your hands on. For the writer, Shirley poppies, both double and single, represent absolute poppy heaven.

For the very front of the border, along with pots/containers and hanging baskets, there are glorious nasturtiums, dwarf nemophila, bellis, clumping and trailing petunias, violas and pansies, dwarf or trailing lobelia in pinks, white and blues, alyssum, candytuft and a whole lot more.

The vegetable garden: Peas, sugar snap peas, asparagus peas, petite pois (tiny, extra sweet peas that are a joy to eat), bush beans, climbing beans, calabrese, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, a variety of kales, Swiss chard in all the colours of the rainbow or simply in green. You can also go for a range of different lettuce types, mustard mizuna, mustard greens, giant red mustard, crisp and curly endive, spinach, green onions, onions, Chinese and Japanese greens for salads and stir-fry, chop-suey greens. Tomatoes in all their glory, celery, winter radish and root crops including turnips, carrots, beetroot and potatoes can also be sown.

In the herb garden: Borage, calendulas, thyme, oregano, rosemary, nasturtiums, agastache, lavender, lemon balm, sage, aniseed, dill, parsley, garlic chives and ordinary chives, lovage, a wide range of mints and, for Karachi gardeners only, lots and lots of different flavours of basil including lime, lemon and, wait for it … liquorice!

Herb of the month: Tarragon — there are two different types of this useful culinary herb: Russian tarragon which grows easily from seed, and French tarragon which does not set viable seed so can only be grown from cuttings or increased by root division of existing plants. Russian tarragon is not as strongly flavoured as French tarragon but is more climatically suitable here. The seed of Russian tarragon does sometimes turn up in garden stores here and there.

It is a relatively hardy, short-lived perennial that can be treated as an autumn sown annual in Karachi or as an early spring sown perennial from Lahore northwards. It prefers slightly alkaline, well-drained, soil/compost and is best grown in partial shade in our fickle climate. Seed should be sown about half an inch deep and resultant plants spaced at least 12 inches apart to provide plenty of growing space and air circulation. It is particularly suited for pot cultivation. Roots are delicate and dislike being disturbed. Harvest young leaves and tips for cooking with chicken, fish and vegetable dishes.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 1st, 2019