Choosing the seeds to grow for your garden with its promises of a big garden bounty is exciting!  Now it’s time to take that leap of faith and plant the seeds you’ve bought, collected, or received from friends🌺

Whether you’re new to starting plants from seed, or have been growing herbs and vegetables from seed for a while, I hope you find these seed starting tips helpful.☺️

Here’s some tips to help you succeed in starting your herb garden plants from seed.🌿 And these tips are just as applicable if you are growing vegetables, fruits and flowers from seed too 🌺☺️

1,  Find the last frost date for your area ❄️  You will need this date to determine when to plant your herb seeds.

For example, If your seed packet says to start your seeds indoors 4 weeks before your last frost date,  And your last frost date is May 15.  Then you would count back 4 weeks and start your seeds indoors on April 17.

You can search ‘last frost date’ online, use the Old Farmer’s Almanac frost date calculator, ask your local garden center or your gardening neighbours to get your last frost date.

2.  Read the back of the seed packet.  Seed companies provide valuable growing information at the back of the seed packet.  Often that’s all you’ll need to get growing 🙂

If you don’t have your seeds yet, check out my Tips For Buying Seeds To Get The Most Out of Your Garden.

3. There’s a really good free seeding demonstration  on Richter’s Herbs website.  Great for beginners and also as a refresher for more experienced gardeners.☺️

As well as walking through the process of seeding, this demonstration also addresses common reasons why seedlings fail.

I like to go through this seed starting demonstration each year before I start my herb and veggie seeds indoors.

Check it out at Success With Seeding

4.  Get all your seed starting supplies together before planting your seeds.

I tend to keep it simple –

I use a seed starting mix, trays with holes for drainage, plant markers, and a boot tray.

I used plant growing trays without holes for years before switching to boot trays – I like the boot tray as there is space around the my growing tray to catch any little spills from watering or moving the trays.


Here’s my affiliate link if you want to check out the wide range of  seed starting supplies available at Amazon: seed starting supplies

You may also want a grow light – you can purchase fancy growing lamp, or simply swap in a grow light bulb into any light fixture,

5. Once you see your herb seeds starting to sprout, take off any plastic covering or dome you may be using.

Covering newly planted seeds with a see-through dome or plastic wrap helps retain moisture to help your seeds sprout.

Once the seeds start sprouting however, the covered humid environment puts your newly sprouted seedlings at higher risk for fungal diseases such as damp-off.

Whether you’re new to starting plants from seed, or have been growing herbs and vegetables from seed for a while, I hope you found these seed starting tips helpful.☺️

Drop me a note below and let me know how your seed starting goes 📝

Happy Gardening 🙂
Barb

P.S.  For more info on seed starting, check out The New Seed-Starters Handbook

P.P.S. Seed starting resources from this article:
Success With Seeding Demonstration (free resource ☺️)
Old Farmer’s Almanac frost date calculator  (free resource)
Seed Starting Supplies on Amazon
Boot Tray on Amazon