Planting Various Herbs

[harveymt]

I have bought various seeds for herbs off eBay. 3 or 4 types of basil, some mint, lemongrass, sorrel and others. Some of the seeds are tiny. The packets contain loads of seeds.

I take it that germination rates are low? I planted Rosemary last year and only had a few plants out of a whole packet come up.

I was going to sow all the seeds into some plastic pots I have. They are the containers from a family size packet of mushrooms. I would fill them with compost and sprinkle the seeds liberally over the top. When the seeds had germinated and grown up a bit I could transfer the whole thing to a bigger pot and let the herbs grow up in them.

The pots would all be in a greenhouse. Anything hardy can stay there overwinter and less hardy things like lemongrass could be moved indoors.

Does this all sound about right?

[Two_Sheds]

I take it that germination rates are low?

I haven't found that, no

I planted Rosemary last year and only had a few plants out of a whole packet come up

Rosemary and mint are more successful from cuttings than from seed (so is lemongrass, imo)

I would ... sprinkle the seeds liberally over the top

I wouldn't. You're only going to have to thin them out, which is a faff

The pots would all be in a greenhouse.

Only the basil & lemongrass would need the gh until July/Aug, then outside in the summer sun.

Everything else would do better outside, and remember that rosemary grows into a whopping big hedge.

Sorrel has deep tap roots and is perennial, it won't do well in pots.