I’m Direct Sowing Most of My Veg This Year… Will It Actually Work?

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome back to my channel. My name is Stella and I'm currently putting my coettes into the ground because yesterday I was down here doing a lot of direct sewing but I forgot to do my coettes. So whilst I do that and that video will be coming out in another day, why don't you go back to see what I did yesterday. Now I'm working in partnership with Joe. We're having a collaboration where we're direct sewing our seedlings or should I say we're direct sewing all our seeds rather than starting them in pots. Something I've actually realized is I don't make a very good plant mommy when the plants are in pots. I'm a much better mommy to plants when they're in the ground. So, as a custodian, I actually work well with mother earth, but I don't work well with uh mother plastic and pots. So anyway, that aside, we are direct sewing and the aim is not only will we direct sew this year, it will help us to learn what we can then direct sew next year and still get a successful harvest. So whilst I actually carry on and do the coettes, which I'll show you next time, you can go backwards and check out what I direct sewed yesterday and there were quite a few bits and pieces. Enjoy yourself.

[00:01:16]Please comment below and let me know whether you you normally direct sew or whether you are a person who starts everything in pots and puts it out. All right, enjoy.

[00:01:27]Today is a lovely day. The weather is beautiful. It is extremely hot. In fact, in the Polyano, it hit 46° before I opened the door and opened the vents as well. Today, I'm here to work with you at direct sewing. We're going to be direct sewing into our straw bells.

[00:01:44]We're going to be direct sewing into some beds. I have a lot to work through and prepare for the growing season.

[00:01:51]Everything around me is looking fantastic. My a lotment as it looks now already looks almost full to the brim.

[00:02:00]So when I look at it, sometimes I do wonder whether or not I will have the room or the space to actually grow any more things than I already have. But I know that I have the space. So let's get on and see how we do. So, one of the things I want to do because I've actually enjoyed having a lot of it is to source some more spinach. I subscribed to a magazine. I've forgotten which channel I heard about it from, but I've subscribed to this mag magazine called Grow Your Own. And they send you a lot of seeds together with it. So, I've got Medana spinach. Actually, Charles Dowing recommended Medana spinach, and this is one of the packages they sent with the magazine. I've got some lamb's lettuce, some normal lettuce. I'm not much of a fan of lettuce, but I might put it somewhere.

[00:02:44]I've got a lot of leaks, but they also sent some porttoello leaks. I've got Italian sprouting broccoli, which I'm actually going to try and sew today. And what else do I have? I've got white silver chard, cucumber, crystal apple, not a fan, and it's only eight seeds, but we'll put them in anyway. And then we've got carrots as well. So, these are some of the bits and pieces I'm actually going to be sewing today. In addition to that, I started my tomatoes really late and as a result, they're not doing as well as they should do. So, I'm wanting to see if I can actually direct sew some tomatoes today and see whether or not that will actually help as well. Let me find everything else that I'm going to sew and then we'll talk about it as we start the sewing process. Now, there are two ways in which you can actually direct sew and I'm going to show you both of them today. The first method we're going to look at is uh one that involves making holes and then putting the seedling in after we put a bit of compost in. But there's another way as well. So, let's move this watering system out of the way for now. And what we're going to do is we are going to pour some compost onto here and that is going to form our med for our direct sewing today.

[00:04:08]I don't know how well this will work, but I'm actually showing you all the options available in order that when you actually come to try it out yourself, you know exactly what you can and cannot do. So, what we're going to do is we're going to put this in as our base and then we'll sew into it and then we'll cover the seedlings with more compost.

[00:04:28]Something I need to do is I need to actually fill this section here with some compost as well because I want to I don't want any space left where I'm not actually growing anything at all. So, let me just get something to help me fill this. Okay, since my Swiss chard is going to seed, I'm actually going to use it to fill up a space that I actually want to put a bit of compost into.

[00:04:56]This will be excellent food for any worms that may decide to actually move in.

[00:05:03]So, what we do is we're going to push it in between the straw bells before we actually put compost on top and make the space that we need to put compost into a little bit shallower. But these will actually feed the soil as well. I'm going to get this one here, the ruby chard, which has gone to seed as well.

[00:05:47]Okay, I think I've put in enough to make the space a bit shallower than it would be. But let's add a bit more.

[00:05:59]As you see, my a lotment is so full now that I want extra space to grow so that I have space to grow everything. Ow, that hurt.

[00:06:13]I'm using whatever compost I have. I'm not using anything special.

[00:06:23]Okay.

[00:06:29]This is John in his stage two that I'm using.

[00:06:38]This is lovely. So, what we putting in here now is the question, right? In terms of the seedlings that we're going to do, I've got some beetroot. I'm going to try onions. I know it's late. They say so February to May. These are Isabel Rose. So, Isabel Rose is a onion that I've tried to sew so many times and it has not succeeded.

[00:07:04]So, I'm going to try direct sewing it to see if it will work. I've got some onion sturon which is old. So, I'm going to put it in. We've got some peppermint chard. I'm going to put it in here. I've got some sugar pumpkin. So, I'm going to put one in here at the back. So, that I'll I'll give it a tis. And we're going to do the if we're doing a trellis, we may as well do the crystal apple cucumber here. We'll do uh another type of Swiss chard in there. May as well put in some of Jenny's marolds in there as well. In this middle bit here, actually along here, I'll put some carrots as well. I've got burpless cucumber, so that can go in here as well. And a picolino cucumber. I think this one will stay at home cuz there's certain things that are better off kept close to home because if you actually try and and sew them elsewhere, you don't always come to harvest them as frequently as you should and then you end up losing out. So, let's start with the carrots. So, what we'll do is the carrots are going to go in the middle, I think. Yeah. So, we go like this.

[00:08:11]Make a tunnel where we're actually planting. Make sure that you've got compost all the way down. And now I need to get some water so we can water it before we plant. That's one key thing about carrots is if you want success with your germination, wet the space before you put anything in it.

[00:08:31]Let me just add a little bit more to make sure that their first contact is going to be with compost. Okay, let's water this.

[00:08:45]Make sure it's nice and damp.

[00:08:48]An important thing with all straw bells is they get dry. I was here yesterday watering the straw bell, so underneath it is wet. Top weight improved.

[00:08:59]So, we sew them now and apparently you can harvest them from June to October.

[00:09:04]So, it's it's interesting. It's it's got tips on these seeds that I got with grow your own. It says, "Don't be in too much of a rush to get seeds in. Sewing too early can lead to poor germination. The earliest sewing dates shown on our packets are usually the mildest in the for the mildest parts of the country.

[00:09:24]Seeds require moisture, so we've put that in there. They require correct temperature to germinate, which we've now got. And do not sew them too deeply, particularly outdoors, as they can sometimes run out of energy before they surface. We're actually making sure that it's a shallow pit that we're putting them into. And then they say if you need to sew early, cover soil with fleece.

[00:09:47]Now, I've said that for Christmas, I'm asking Father Christmas for some fleece because that's the one thing I do not have and that is the one thing I think I will need. They're talking about fleces or clloches before and after sewing to warm the soil, check the seedlings.

[00:10:03]That's something I've actually with this other bed that we're going to be sewing into because I was thinking of putting tomatoes in there, which is why I am happy that I've kept that on there. Now, they also say very small seeds are easier to sew if mixed with a little fine dry sand. So, if you find that your manual dexterity is poor, you can mix the seeds with sand to help. And they say when sewing outdoors, ensure conditions are warm enough and soil is not water logs and uh seeds will make up for a few days delay even if you sew them later. If your area is still cold, make sure that you actually give them time to warm up before we start to put them in. Now, apparently I've got 350 seeds of carrots in here. So, we're not going to sew all 350.

[00:10:49]We're just going to sew a handful.

[00:10:58]Okay, now I'm going to cover this row.

[00:11:01]But before I cover it, let me put in the other bits and pieces cuz I do not wish to forget where I've put what I've already put in. Here you can actually see what I'm doing. And I'm denting the straw bell in order to allow the soil to create a a nice little planting funnel for me to put what I need to put into.

[00:11:25]And then and most seeds are small, so we don't need that much space in order to actually put them in to germinate. Now, this having compost on top is all about giving your seeds something to start off in before they hit the straw. And then once again, we're going to water it.

[00:11:48]I love this watering can. It's so lovely. There we go. Watering it in.

[00:11:55]And then what I'm going to put in here is I'm going to put some Isabel rose, which if I sew it now outdoors in um May, it should actually be ready for harvest in September. Isn't that fantastic? Having my season for onion harvest extended to September, that would actually help me achieve my goal of trying to make sure that I uh have onions available to for us to use in the house until the next harvest, which won't be until June, July, thereabouts.

[00:12:31]But this year, we've run out. Next year, I want to see if I can achieve my goal.

[00:12:36]So once again, normally they say uh grow in rows 30 cm apart, thin the seedlings and leave them 10 cm apart. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to group them in uh threes with a bit of space in between them in order to see whether or not they will grow. Once again, I'm just going to sprinkle them. So if they bunch up as we harvest them, hopefully the remaining ones will will get bigger.

[00:13:05]So, that's what we're doing.

[00:13:08]This is exciting. I didn't bring my labels, though.

[00:13:12]As you do. Let me risk it and put a few more. You can never have enough onions.

[00:13:18]Honestly, homegrown onions smell so beautiful when you're cooking them. And they also taste so fantastic when you eat the food. They just add a flavor that you cannot get from shop B. There we go. So that's Isabelle Rose in this row here.

[00:13:38]So next along the edge, I'm going to put in some beetroot.

[00:13:45]Now if you notice, I've actually planted everything I've planted in here is considered a root veg of some sort or other. Yeah. So although onions bulb, they they kind of bow. Well, it is not a root root, but they require the same kind of feeding. And therefore, putting them together like this will mean when I'm feeding this straw bell, I don't have to think about where I'm putting my feed because they all will have the same the same feed and they'll thrive with the same feed. Okay, there we go. Let's put some beetroot in here.

[00:14:23]Now I want to try and use the edge of this straw bell as well. So I'm putting bits and pieces in there. Wherever there's compost, I'm putting a bit of beetroot. Once again, you can never have enough beetroot. Let me water the beetroot in because I did not water it before.

[00:14:43]Just making sure that wherever they've fallen, they're in contact with some damp soil is important.

[00:14:51]Now, the reason you actually water seedling, you water the compost before you actually put the seedlings in is because seeds such as carrots can move when you add the compost on top and then water it and then you end up messing up your space. Now, that these this is watered in, that's watered in, that's watered in. We now cover it with uh some more compost. And because I'm I'm not going to be able to come to keep these watered, what I will do is I'll do what other people do when they're direct sewing cuz ideally you're meant to come and maintain the dumpness. I might come tomorrow morning actually and keep watering it on Monday. I am working. So I'll come after work again to water it in. but to also ensure that I don't get any critters trying to actually come into here. I'm going to put a net on it once this whole space is is is actually sold. So I'm doing that so that the seedlings have full contact with compost. Okay. So this is done. Now the question becomes what are we sewing in this next section which is basically a section that is the gap between the two straw bells. Right? I'm thinking we could put some marolds in there because Jenny from the plot. Hey Jenny, your marolds are going here. They better behave and do well. Okay, they've come to Auntie Stella and they need to do well in here. We do not want any that do not do well. So, let's water this. This is my first time direct sewing marolds and we're going to go all in. No second chances. It's empty, Jenny. Thank you.

[00:16:43]These were Jenny's unsaved seed. So, let's see how they do.

[00:16:49]We're going crazy now. because these are more solitary plants than what I've been planting here in that they grow big and they they will actually you don't need as many seeds in order to achieve what you need and so we're going to plant them slightly different and it will help you to see do you know what I'm going to do I'm actually going to sprinkle in some onion stiron I know it's too late for it but we can always use it as spring onion if it doesn't succeed and guess where I'm going to put it Jenny I'm going to put it with your marolds in the hope that if they germinate they'll confuse the slugs.

[00:17:27]Although you don't tend to get as many slugs and snails on here because of I think them them trying to climb up is a bit challenging.

[00:17:38]I still got enough onions.

[00:17:42]Oh lord there. Okay. So let's cover that with compost as well. And remember we don't over cover them. They often say that when you're covering seeds, you cover them with uh only enough compost to the equivalent of twice their height.

[00:17:58]And these all these seedlings were small, so we don't need a lot. So, we got sturon onion and mar from Jenny.

[00:18:08]So, let's see how they do. There we go.

[00:18:13]That's another section done. God, you know what? I've been putting this off, but then the weather has been miserable as well. So, I haven't really been putting it off. It just hasn't been weather for coming out. Let's get on to this one. Let me clear it and then I'll bring you back. Right. What we're going to do now is we are planting into here.

[00:18:30]We are going to put some Swiss chard, white silver chard. So, peppermint, white silver. We're going to do a crystal apple. We're also going to do the small sugar pie, which I'm hoping will climb up. And let's see what else I've got in here. I'm going to do some pixie cabbage. Why not?

[00:18:53]Oh, no. Let me do kabi in here cuz I don't mind so much. I've never even tried it. So, and a bless cucumber all at the back because I'm going to put a tis here which will help with uh the climbing plant. And then in the middle we're going to put some kabi. We're going to put four plants. So the difference in the way you would plant when you're actually planting the way I'm going to plant in here is step one is you make a hole just as we did in uh the beds where we actually put the potatoes and the onions. So the straw is now really soft and we're going to put some compost into there and then we'll plant into it.

[00:19:40]So, let's do this. Okay.

[00:19:52]Once again, we are providing the plants with something to sit in and they'll be going in here.

[00:20:00]And then for the korabi, we're going to do the same.

[00:20:10]I'm sure I'm not spacing it the way it should, but I've never really spaced my plants as per instructions, and I still get a good harvest most of the time.

[00:20:22]Let's put some in here.

[00:20:31]There we go.

[00:20:45]See how different this is to the other type of uh growing in this one is slightly different, isn't it? So, let's start with this. So, you can direct sew them outdoors from May. So, that's good to know. Let's open the seed packet up.

[00:21:00]It It's an expired packet of seeds. So, let's see how well they do. My understanding is that plants in the brassica family tend to survive better.

[00:21:12]But what we'll do is we'll put a few three three just sprinkle them. You go all in. All for one and one for all. Like the musketeers.

[00:21:27]There we go.

[00:21:34]So, korabi has gone in.

[00:21:37]And once again, guys, we need to water thing in. And that's something I should have done before I actually did this.

[00:21:45]So, I'm going to put a sugar pie here.

[00:21:48]I'm wondering, should I do more than one sugar pie? So, I'll put one here.

[00:21:56]Once again, I didn't water it in.

[00:22:00]There we go. And I think even if there's other stuff in here, I'm going to put another sugar pier just to in case one doesn't germinate. I don't want two seedlings in one thing.

[00:22:13]So, we'll put that there.

[00:22:16]So, a little bit of compost on top of this sugar pie.

[00:22:20]And then in here, let's water it in first of all.

[00:22:26]Add a little bit more compost cuz you want it close to the surface nearly.

[00:22:32]There we go. And then I'm going to put in early burpless cucumber. But because these seeds have expired and were due to be used by 2024, I'm going to put in three.

[00:22:43]If they all germinate well and good.

[00:22:46]In fact, I'll put in a lot. Yeah.

[00:22:49]I'll spread them out a bit, but if they all grow, then we can always try and separate them.

[00:22:57]Okay. And then we'll do this crystal apple cucumber, which I've never been impressed by, but you never know. Maybe this time around I'll be impressed.

[00:23:06]This grow your own magazine that I've got. I've got it for I'll put in three.

[00:23:14]I've got it for 6 months trial to see whether or not it will be worth it.

[00:23:18]The print is a little bit on the small side with my eyes that are getting old, but I'm sure I just need to get my glasses sorted and then I'll be okay with it. Let's put some compost on top of these guys.

[00:23:36]Okay, there we are.

[00:23:40]This is done. Now, we want to do the Swiss chard.

[00:23:55]So, as you can see, I've spaced these guys a lot because they all need quite a bit of space to grow.

[00:24:02]So, you don't want to be putting them so close to each other that they they're going to be fighting for space cuz I believe korabi has wide leaves.

[00:24:14]I love my peppermint chard. So, I'm going to do two peppermint chard and one white silver ch. And once again, what we do is we add compost like this.

[00:24:43]There we go.

[00:24:45]Right, let's put them in.

[00:24:57]I'm going to do three plants in there.

[00:25:02]And if they all germinate, this is white silver chard that is going in here. If they all germinate, I'll separate them.

[00:25:21]And then this is a peppermint chard which I'm taking out but I love the color of it so much. I want more of them to grow. So, I'll put three seedlings in each and then I'll separate out some of them if they all germinate.

[00:25:43]I keep forgetting to do this, Stella.

[00:25:45]Huh?

[00:25:47]Do as I say, not as I do.

[00:25:52]So, I'm being luckily this watering can is so gentle. It doesn't migrate the seeds.

[00:25:59]Uh there we are.

[00:26:06]Let's cover them.

[00:26:20]Okay.

[00:26:22]So, yeah. So, these two straw bells are planted up. Let's move on to the next one. Ha. Exciting, exciting, exciting, isn't it? We are putting tomatoes in here. The reason I want to put my tomatoes in here is because they were up there. If I put them here, I'll be able to support them. And I'm direct sewing some tomatoes here because although I've got tomatoes in the car and I but I also want to put in some more because of the fact that I started my tomatoes late and as a result, I don't know that I'm going to have as good a success with my tomatoes as I had last year. So to be on the safe side, I'm direct sewing some tomatoes in addition to having the ones that are going to be in uh the what's it called at home and the ones that I have in the car which are coming in here as well. And we're direct sewing these tomatoes. Now I wanted a black moon which is a resistant tomato and a nagginina. I've got nagginas which I'm going to plant out. So, I have to decide where I'm planting those. But for today, let's direct sew these guys. I've actually got some fungus in here. A sign of good growth.

[00:27:40]So, I'm not disturbing it. I'm just leaving it to do its thing. So, you make holes as I've done here. And then we're going to add some soil into them.

[00:27:57]I think I might do another black moon here in the center at the front so they're not as close to each other.

[00:28:17]And once again, I'll put a tis at the back which I'll use to support the plants.

[00:28:25]Last year my my support of these tomatoes was a struggle because they they kind of grew beyond my expectations. But hopefully this year I'll do better with the trellis. So my solution for this year will be the solution that will work. So nagginina, have I got any seed lefts in here? They give you such few seeds. It's it's ridiculous, isn't it? I don't even know if there's any nagginina in here anymore.

[00:28:51]It might be that it's going to have to be black moon cuz I've already got two naggina. Oh no, there is one. Oh lord.

[00:28:59]In fact, there's a few seeds.

[00:29:06]My precious.

[00:29:09]So, this was a very fantastic tomato last year. So, I'm going to put two plants in here.

[00:29:17]And that leaves me with two seeds left in here.

[00:29:26]When these plants grow, you don't need more than the one plant really. Well, two is good. And then we're going to do black moon because all my black moon died cuz I put them outside in the greenhouse and even the greenhouse was not hot enough for them. So, they all died. Let's see how many seeds I have.

[00:29:46]It's so difficult when you've got just a few seeds.

[00:29:50]Do I even have any? Yes, I have one, guys. One seed. Wow.

[00:29:59]Do I really? No, I have two seeds.

[00:30:04]I can't even get to it properly.

[00:30:09]There's one. It's so tiny.

[00:30:18]And there's the other one.

[00:30:22]Huh?

[00:30:24]Where has it fallen?

[00:30:30]This is not on.

[00:30:32]How can I have just the one seed left when all the others died? There it is.

[00:30:38]Come on, sweetie.

[00:30:49]The seed is so tiny, guys. I can't even get it out. There. It's in. Right. Let's cover them. So, we got black moon here and black moon there.

[00:31:02]So, those are all the seeds I'm going to have in here. But in between them, like here, I think what I'll do is I'm going to give it a go and put some It's a bit late in the day, but I'm going to put a couple of parnips here, a couple of parnips here as well, and a couple of parnips here.

[00:31:28]You can't lose by trying.

[00:31:37]Hopefully the seed I've got is not too old cuz I'm sure I've had it quite a while. Okay, let's put these guys in.

[00:31:48]Here's to hoping that they germinate.

[00:31:50]Right, guys? Grow, grow, grow.

[00:31:54]This is like a marathon of direct sewing. Right, so we've planted these space up. We got a black moon tomato.

[00:32:05]I've just put black I've just put par.

[00:32:07]No, no, black moon here. Black moon there. We got a nagginina here. And then we got parnips. Passnips. Parnips. I'm doing this to remind myself of what I've put where. So, let's close this friend of ours off again in order to keep the heat in and help germination and also to stop the critters from trying to get in here and do anything crazy to my space.

[00:32:35]Before I move you from here, I need to make sure that I've protected this space from any marauders. We got foxes that are coming in here now. So, what we'll do is we'll do this and then we can net this space to protect the plants from anyone trying to dig them up before they've even germinated.

[00:33:05]So, let's put these here like that and then I'll now go get a net which will cover them.

[00:33:12]Hello, guys. Fantastic though it would be to carry on today. I feel like this is more than long enough for a first video on my direct sewing. What I will do is I'll bring you part two when I direct sew again for today. I hope this has been helpful in showing you how to direct sew into straw bells. And if you were planning to try out straw bells, I would definitely recommend them cuz you use so much less in way of compost than you would if you're direct sewing into beds. for today. Have a good one, guys.

[00:33:47]And I'll see you again soon.