A good rule of thumb for sowing outdoors is to add a month to the information on the seed packet, unless you have a greenhouse to sow indoors. if you do sow early in the greenhouse, use a heated propagator in accordance with the seed packet instructions.
You may, however, have a problem in hardening off the seedlings before the local soil temperature and ambient temperatures are high enough to plant them out in the growing bed. This applies particularly to courgettes which can grow quite large in the greenhouse by the time it is warm enough to plant them out.
Generally any seedlings grown in the greenhouse, or on a windowsill need to be hardened off in a cold frame for two weeks prior to transplanting into their final grow bed.
Ideally most vegetable seeds require a minimum ground temperature of 10 C to germinate, but since ground frost can still affect Slopefield well into May, a roll of fleece is a necessary accessory to protect young seedlings.
Please click here to visit the Gardening Focus ‘growing guides and calendar’ main page.
You can then adjust the calendar planting dates for Slopefield by clicking on the ‘adjust dates in this website’ tab situated on the left hand side toolbar.
Click Scotland. Click A and select Aberdeen. All the planting times will automatically change.