The super warm spring had everyone I know asking, “Can I plant that now?” or, “is time for these seeds yet?” Well the weather in Colorado has become its usual schizophrenic self. After near 90ºF and near freezing temperatures, things are closer to normal (whatever that is) and the time has come to consider doing some serious seed sowing.

After moving to Colorado from the moist, fertile soils of Western New York, I tried, and mostly failed, to grow my garden from seed the way I always had in the past. Years of frustration taught me many lessons…mostly the one about when you kill a plant, remember what you did and don’t do it again. But I also collected and developed some tricks to get reasonable results in the face of Colorado’s gardening challenges.

When I go out into the garden this weekend to enjoy the cool rain and sow to my heart’s content, I keep a number of things in mind to ensure that my little grains of hope actually make it to planthood.

My first strategy is to soak seeds. Most folks are familiar with this idea for large or really hard seeds, but I found it is great for just about any seeds. Big seed or small, all seeds start germination by drinking up a bunch of water. Soaking the seeds shortens this part of the process and helps them emerge faster. You can see it work with large seeds like beans and peas as they swell right before your eyes, but it works with any seed. I usually soak them for 12-24 hours. This means I plan what I want to sow the night before. In the morning, I drain the seeds and pat them just dry on paper towels them take them straight to the garden. I really like this trick for slow-to-germinate seeds like carrots and parsley but it will shorten the germination time on just about anything.

I also try to plan ahead for sowing by doing whatever I can to warm up the soil. Seeds germinate faster in spring when the soil is warm. I’ve laid out black plastic, used old black nursery containers, cold frames, walls-o-water, cloches, plastic mini tunnels, and frost cloth to warm the soil ahead of sowing time. The earlier you set up your soil warmers, the warmer your soil will be when the time comes to sow seeds and the faster they’ll come up.

When I’m sowing my seeds, especially things like radishes, lettuce, beets, chard, and carrots that need to be thinned, I’m thinking ahead to the dense rows of seedlings. The thinning that needs to be done is not really my favorite but it is vital to the plant success. To reduce the time spent bent over my garden beds carefully cutting or plucking seedlings I try to curb my zeal and sow at the recommended distance for each seed. Not only does this save my sanity later, but it also makes my seeds go much further.

The hardest lesson for me to learn was what it really takes to keep seeds consistently moist long enough for them to germinate. My garden can experience 50º temperature swings in a day and sudden and unforecasted wind, both leading to dry soil and poor germination. I had to learn how to keep my soil moist for as long as it took to get good germination. The first trick I learned was to water the ground I planned to use first and thoroughly. This ensured a reservoir of moisture was available to replace the moisture that was being drawn from the soil surface by evaporation. The next goal was to stop the evaporation that was robbing my seeds of their moisture. I tried mulch, and it worked. I still use it today. I have to make sure that I pull it back every couple of days to see if the seedlings are emerging. If they are, I move it back enough to let them get the sun they need. My favorite solution has been floating row cover. I recently blogged about my love affair with this garden fabric, but the gist is this: This fabric allows air, light and water to reach plants, but blocks excessive sun and wind so that soil stays moist, seeds germinate better, and plants establish more quickly. When I use mulch under the floating row cover, I get even better results and hardly ever have to water, even here in the high desert.

Whatever seeds you sow this season, I wish you moist, fertile, well-drained soil and 100% germination.

Wondering what to sow when? Check out our handy sowing guides.

If you have any other tips or tricks for getting the best germination, please share them in the comments below.

Ryan, The Garden Coach