Seeds to sow in autumn

There’s been a lull in seed sowing activity over the last couple of months. After the busyness of spring, summer is relatively calm. But now’s the time to start thinking about a final sowing of herbs to provide fresh leaves through the winter and hardy annual flowers for earlier blooms in spring.

Why sow in autumn?

Make a late summer/early autumn sowing of herbs for winter flavour. The plants won’t grow as fast or lush as in early spring, but there will be some leaves to pick – especially if you can give them some protection from the worst of the winter weather.

In the flower garden, hardy annuals sown towards the end of the growing season will produce sturdier plants and earlier flowers the following spring.

What to sow

Herbs – parsley, coriander and chervil can be sown in late August or early September. Coriander and chervil prefer cooler conditions – in the summer heat they tend to produce flowers rather than leaves. They’ll do best through the winter in an unheated greenhouse, or you can keep them in pots on a windowsill. Parsley also benefits from a little protection, producing a flush of fresh leaves earlier in spring if the plant is in a greenhouse rather than the ground.

Flowers – sow cornflowers, calendula, Ammi majus, love-in-a-mist and poppies directly where the plants are to flower to minimise root disturbance. Sweet peas can be sown into root trainers or deep pots and kept in an unheated greenhouse over winter to plant out as the soil warms next year.