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Despite temperatures in my greenhouse dropping to zero at night but soaring by day, I've just got to get on with more seed sowing. Chillies and sweet peppers are top of my list. Last summer I had an outdoor electric socket installed for the garden

My first job when I moved into my flat last August was to remove the paving stones in the back yard. Now, after five months of having a building site for a garden, I have bought myself some Christmas topsoil, and I'm itching to get seed sowing

You can never have enough lettuce in summer, but sowing directly into the soil takes up valuable space in the garden. Keep a regular supply growing by sowing seeds in lengths of plastic guttering: short, 1m lengths are convenient and easy to handle

. Sweet peas dislike root disturbance so grow them in cardboard tubes or coir pots. This will enable you to plant them out in their containers without damaging the roots.Sweet pea seedsSeed compostCardboard tubesJanuary - May20 minutesSow seeds

the ground is warm and moist, will germinate in a couple of weeks and will have a headstart over seeds sown in the colder spring.Grass seedCanesPlastic cupRakeApril - May, September1 weekendJune - AugustSow grass seed at the rate of one-and-a half ounces per

Sarah Raven offers advice on which tomato varieties to grow, and demonstrates how to sow tomato seeds in coir pellets.springMore advice on growing tomatoesGrowing tomatoes in pots and grow bagsGrowing tomatoes from seedGrowing tomatoes outdoors

of seed and scatter thinly along the drill or you will waste seed and spend more time thinning out.Use a trowel or your fingers to cover seeds with 0.5cm of soil. Label the rows and water using a watering can with a rose attachment.Thin seedlings out once

view to nesting sometime soon. It would be great to have a little family to keep an eye on while I'm weeding.Although the soil is warming up nicely I'm determined not to sow seeds too early. It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security

, especially during the high-risk hardy annual season.I love sowing seeds and still get a thrill at what can be achieved from just a few packets. Any packet labelled 'hardy annual' (or the abbreviation, 'HA') will do the trick, and there's no need for seed

done, I forked a barrow load into the now-empty greenhouse bed and began seed sowing. First, I direct-sowed lamb's lettuce, then sowed 'Arctic King', 'Winter Gem' and the greenhouse lettuce 'Rosetta', which I've not tried before, into modules.Next, I