By Victoria Torley

Isn’t it great when your plants self-seed?

Think of all the work they are saving us! No poking in among the blossoms for the wrinkled seed producer, no catching the seeds as they fall, no wrapping them in a baggie, no real work at all, just look out for new baby plants.

Seeds are a miracle. An entire plant wrapped up in something the size of a pea (a pea is a seed) or a fingernail, or a pin. 

Flat or round, fat or skinny or stringy, seeds are a marvel of tiny plants encased in plant food – except for orchid seeds. 

Orchid seeds are a different thing altogether. Regular seeds, though, are amazing enough. My single cosmos plant self-seeded its way into a huge patch of plants that invaded paths and had to be pulled out and given away. Now they are spreading color in other yards, a happy thought.

But what about those packets of seeds you bought for planting? Look at the instructions. “Plant after all danger of frost” – right, we need to know that why? How about something we need to know?

“Cover with an inch of fine soil.” Here is one you need to pay attention to because some seeds only germinate in the dark! Okay, that seems strange because plants need the sun to grow but the seeds are just shy about getting started and don’t want to be watched. They like their privacy.

How about the “firm lightly” type? Evidently, these seeds like to be tucked into bed and snuggle up. These are often the seeds that like to be kept “evenly moist” so don’t let them dry out.

Some of our seeds suggest planting in flats and transplanting when they have some leaves but not green beans. Green beans are some of my favorites – “Sow seed directly outdoors."

I can do that. Well, drained soil of course because we have so much rain. Then we have the “soak seeds overnight.” Peas are like that too. They suck up moisture and get nice and plump before you tuck them into the ground. They germinate very quickly after that.

We also have the instructions, “scatter thinly.” For those seeds, I like to start with planters because “scatter thinly” is usually followed by, “thin to…X”, and X could be a few inches apart to a few feet apart. 

I don’t like to thin my plants. The seeds did all that hard work and now I am going to throw away (or transplant) a whole bunch of baby plants. It just doesn’t seem fair.

So, read those packets! And if your neighbor gives you a handful of seeds, be sure to watch where they came from and how they were planted. Success is sweet. It is also very tasty!

Plant of the week. The Cleome, a genus of many colors, is one of the self-seeders, which makes it an instant hit in my garden. A sun lover, the Cleome needs no staking and is attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. Cleome grows to about a meter and, for those in drier areas, is drought tolerant.

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Find more amazing stories about gardening in Costa Rica on the Costa Rica Garden website. Regarding questions on this article, Ms. Victoria Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached by emailing victoriatorley1@gmail.com.