Phacelia is a Hardy Annual.

It grows incredibly fast, often flowering within 6-8 weeks of sowing.

Green Manure Use: If you have an empty veg bed in autumn, sow Phacelia. It will cover the ground, stop weeds, and hold onto nutrients over winter. In spring, simply dig the whole plant into the soil before it flowers to release nitrogen back into the earth.

Top Tip: It is not frost-hardy in harsh winters. If you sow it in late autumn, the frost will kill it, turning it into a natural mulch that you can just rake into the soil in spring. Easy!

This is a "scatter and grow" seed. It needs dark to germinate.

Germination:
Sow directly outdoors from March to September. Scatter seeds onto rake soil and cover them well (they need darkness). Rake the soil over them so they are buried about 1cm deep. Germination is rapid (7-14 days).

Where to Sow:
It loves sun but tolerates shade. It will grow in almost any soil, including poor, sandy, or heavy clay soils (which it helps to improve!).

Care While Growing:
It needs zero maintenance. It grows so fast that it outcompetes weeds. If growing for flowers, you may need to stake it in windy spots as the stems are quite succulent and brittle.

Phacelia is often grown alone as a cover crop, but in a border it looks beautiful with:

• 🌼 Calendula (Pot Marigold): The Pollinator Patch. Mixing the orange of Calendula with the lilac of Phacelia creates the ultimate "beneficial insect" strip for your vegetable garden.
• 🐍 Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare): The Blue Haze. Both plants produce curled, hairy flower spikes in shades of blue and purple. Grown together, they create a stunning, wild-looking display that bees cannot resist.

Sow in succession from spring to late summer. Flowers 6-8 weeks after sowing.