Are you a keen would-be gardener? Do you suffer from the opposite of 'green thumb'? 'Black thumb', we call it in my house! My other half and I often josh with each other about our almost magical shared capacity to cause healthy, growing, promising young plants to wither and die under our care.
It's almost spooky! We've jointly and singly killed off seedlings, cuttings, pot plants, window boxes - you name it.
They all fail to thrive with us.
But lately - perhaps it's luck, perhaps it's experience, perhaps it's wisdom born of many, many mistakes - my 'success' rate at killing off plant life is diminishing somewhat.
Let me tell you my tips for successfully raising plant seedlings on your windowsill.
First of all, read, listen and take advice.
Perhaps this one is just too obvious to need stating.
Perhaps not, though - not if any of you out there are as stubborn and bull-headed as I was.
To sum this one up - get hold of all the information and advice you can, and then, APPLY IT.
If you are of my previous mindset, believing that 'plants want to grow', and therefore hopefully throw a few seeds onto poor garden soil in a margarine tub, failing to water for a couple of weeks and then wondering why they're not growing - then this tip is VERY important for you.
As an example - if you read that a particular seed needs a lot of warmth during germination, then don't shrug your shoulders, cry 'Qué sera, sera,' and drop it on a draughty shelf.
Find a warm spot in an airing cupboard or kitchen, or (my current method) insulate it with a crumpled up carrier bag.
(This has the advantage also of making you feel virtuous about recycling).
Give yourself the advantage of learning from the mistakes of others - take notice, and take advice.
The tip about keeping your seed pots warm is very important in my experience by the way.
I credit it with about 70% of my recent success in raising seedlings that are actually seedlings, and not dead seeds in a dried out pot.
I also now realise that, in the past, I have become too flushed with success at the least sign of successful sprouting of new seedlings.
As a result I've been in much too much of a hurry to pop them out into the garden or larger pots, exposing them to the rigours of the weather and uncertain temperatures.
Now I am allowing them to grow bigger and stronger prior to planting out, with a more mature plant's greater chances of survival.
I am of the opinion that plantable seedling pots like peat pots improve chances of successful transplanting due to the lack of root disturbance involved.
If you can put a seedling, bio-degradable pot and all, straight into a new pot or garden soil, it's just common sense that this improves chances of success.
However, peat pots are both environmentally unfriendly and expensive.
Is there a better alternative? Well, I haven't put it into action yet, but personally I'm panning to try making my own newsprint paper maché pots.
Bio-degradable, recycled and practically free - what's not to love? I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work - I'll report back and let you know! One thing - for the paste to make the paper maché, I'll be using flour and water boiled up into a nice sticky paste, not the wallpaper paste that is sometimes used.
Not that wallpaper paste doesn't make good paper maché, but it also has anti-bacterial properties, and I'm a little dubious about the effects such ingredients might have on my delicate little seedlings.
Not risking it! Of course, with experience one realises that some plants are just easier to grow than others.
Factor this into your assessment of how your gardening skill is coming along.
Maybe you're just starting off with a plant that is relatively difficult to grow.
(Parsley? Tomatoes?) To give yourself some encouragement, and the boost that comes from quick success, why not try one of the plants that just can't stop growing? (I suggest radishes or cress - both sprout up like weeds and are very hard to discourage).
Another thing to bear in mind if you're experiencing seed-growing woes, is the source of the seeds.
If you found a half-opened packet in the cupboard under the sink and figured they're probably a few years old but what the heck, you'll give it a go - well, it may pay off.
Some pretty old seeds have been sprouted before now - wheat berries from the times of the Pharaohs etc.
, allegedly! But it probably does reduce your chances of success.
The same may apply if you've taken seeds from a fruit or vegetable you bought to eat.
Perhaps your seeds are from an irradiated pepper, or a fruit or vegetable like tomatoes, which produces seeds requiring treatment such as fermentation prior to producing good plants.
Check your seed source! So, there are a number of things to bear in mind if you're having little success growing plants from seed.
The advice you've been given, the environment you're growing in, what seeds you're using and where you got them from, all these factors and more are important.
But most important is to give your plants some TLC and to have fun growing them.
So go do that!