We plant very few things directly into the ground, finding than planting pot or module sown plants suffer little disturbance caused by thining or transplanting, dont get damaged when very small by pests or the weather and romp away when planted out at their optimum spacings. The broad beans above (Witkiem Vroma) will be planted out at the begining of April and will be followed by a further sowing made in late March.
The above Rainbow Chard were sown 2-3 seeds to a pot and wont be thinned out at all, just planted about 12" apart in raised beds and harvested regularly.
This spinach is grown in exactly the same way with these well established plantlets having been hardened off, getting planted out, again about 12" apart.
As a couple of these Hative de Niort shallot sets had started to sprout in January, rather than lose the whole lot, they were potted up and kept in a frost free greenhouse then coldframe to harden off before being planted out last weekend. The pots were full of root and the sets had lots of top growth and were ready to be planted out.
Using pots and modules can be a bit more time consuming and take a little fore-thought initialy than direct sowing but does yield excellent results and when you take into account losses, thinning out and the like when direct sowing, can be a much better option.
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