The First Thing I Grew From Seed

The first thing I grew: sunflower seeds I bought online

Go Big

The first flowers I ever grew were mammoth sunflowers. I bought the seeds off the internet and had no clue what I was doing.

I planted about 5 seeds a metre apart —which is hilarious to me now because I know sunflowers grow straight up and only need about 10cm between them— and I came back a week later to the garden to check up on them.

When I looked at the ground and there was nothing there, I was genuinely perplexed. Where were they? I thought I would be picking flowers by now.

Thanks Barry

The gardening gods smiled on me because my old neighbour Barry, a total leprechaun who always appears at the right time with the right advice, happened to walk past.

When I told him my dilemma, he chuckled and said, just keep watering them! So I did and I learned as they grew and became amazingly huge sunflowers the size of dinner plates, that it actually takes around 2-3 months from planting a seed to getting a flower.

One of the important gardening lessons I learned!

Late Bloomer

I’m not embarrassed to say that I planted these first seeds when I was 29 years old — or that after that I spent 5 years of trial and error to gain the understanding of how to grow I have now!

The most surprising part of the new learning and why I am so evangelical about the fact that I think everyone should grow a garden, was that the simple act of growing vegetables and flowers had a much more profound trajectory for me beyond getting great produce of my own.

What I noticed as I spent more time in the garden was that I started to really observe the environment closely for the first time and, as I did that, my ethics became so much stronger.

The idea of chemicals, pesticides and genetically modifying produce seemed so out of step with the simple beauty of the lettuce leaves, rocket and tomatoes I was growing in my garden.

Take The Direct Route

Due to my own late start, when I built Salisbury Grange, one of my key aims was to get simple gardening info to the kids who will become the future artists, inventors, cooks and nature lovers, because the world needs it. That is still an aim, but I also think that I am a better example that you can learn this at any time in your life and really make a difference to yourself and the world.

Growing a garden and eating fresh vegetables and understanding the seasons is beautiful. Produce sprayed with pesticides and shipped across the world for cheapness and then stored in freezers for months is a nightmare and not something I am willing to accept anymore, especially when I have the knowledge, resources and responsibility to create an alternative.

Sunflower Economy

I could never have guessed that buying those sunflower seeds would lead to me having my own organic seed company. If I have one piece of advice it is: if you are in the earlier stages of growing a garden, please check out my garden guides or any of the info I share on my Instagram or blog so you don’t spend years guessing what to do. Growing anything is so simple!