Heres a silly question

Im really new to gardening no experience what so ever. When the back of seed packets say sow seed thinly? could someone explain what this means and also some say when established enough trowel out gentley ? isnt this hard to do without ruinin the seedling ( im assuming the seedling is the plant starting to be established? ) lots of questions hope some more experienced people could share their wisdom! thank you

 

Hey thanks. Makes more sense now lol. So the ones in my pictures in my other question there carrots but they look close i assume im going to have to seperate them a bit? and do they look ready to do that? its the questions below this one i think if you could offer any more advice. Hope u are ok thanks again.

 

Ashlee - I've got a couple of old spoons (bought in a charity shop) that I use for 'trowelling' out.

With regards to 'thinning out'. If your seedlings are too overcrowded, just pull out those you don't want - start by discarding the smallest, leaving the bigger ones to grow on. You might have to do this more than once.

When it comes to pricking ('trowelling') out - use your spoon, flat wooden stick or whatever, slide it into the soil vertically a small distance away from the seedling, push it right to the bottom of whatever container you've used (or as far as possible if seedlings are in open ground), then angle it and slide it gently beneath the seedling and ease it upward, loosening the soil and, thus the seedling, from below. Always hold/handle any seedling by its leaves not the stem - to avoid damaging them.

 

Thank you the wooden lolly stick was great advice!