It's safe to say there was a collective 'ooh' amongst the w&h team when our resident gardener Orpheus Alexander revealed that one of his favourite places to grow plants from seed was in gravel – rather than flower beds, window sills or a greenhouse.
"The great thing about gravel is that it makes a brilliant nursery for self-seeding plants," he explains. While it surprised me, I was delighted to hear that such a sustainable gardening idea is being favoured by a professional who's helping to encourage the use of natural materials and rewilding gardening techniques.
While discussing garden jobs for August, he divulged this top tip: explaining how to do it, which plants to use, and how to care for the young seedlings once they bloom.
A post shared by woman&home (@womanandhome)
A photo posted by on
The idea is that by scattering seeds straight into the stones, you're providing natural protection and little to no competition from other plants for the seeds to settle and germinate freely.
"This works particularly well with all of the great self-seeders," Orpheus explains. "Verbena bonariensis, lavender, gaura and of course foxgloves."
The planting process is as simple as shaking the stems over the gravel to disperse the seeds into the gravel below naturally. "Give it a good dusting to get all the seeds out," he says while demonstrating on a spent stem from a foxglove plant.
This is a natural, wonderful way of creating a wildflower planting scheme. I guess in hindsight it makes sense, because weeds thrive in gravel – but we tend to only leave the wildlife-friendly weeds to do their thing.
Our expert tips: growing plants from seed in gravel
While it's nice to be free and easy when scattering the seeds, it can prove handy to section off little areas of gravel for different plants and pop in a marker so you remember what you’ve sown where. This makes it easier to identify the seedlings once they start growing so you can care for each plant appropriately.
"The champion self-seeders are perfect for this," Orpheus adds. "Plants like Mexican fleabane, poppies, nigella, verbena, valerian and aquilegia.
Although he says not to be afraid of experimenting. "Try scattering seeds from other plants and see what takes. You might be surprised by what happily makes itself at home in the gravel."
"When you’re lifting seedlings to move elsewhere in the garden, don’t take them all. Leave a few behind to grow on, flower and drop their own seed. That way the same patch of gravel becomes an ongoing little plant nursery, giving you new plants year after year."
While gravel is ideal for drought-resistant plants, if the ground is very dry (which it most likely will be during hot summer months), you can pour a little water onto the area to give the seeds a drink to encourage germination. Depending on what you are growing, how much you need to water seedlings will differ.
