Forget the flats. For easy color, head to the seed-pack racks for annuals that, when planted directly in the garden, willingly shoot up into rounded masses, vertical blankets or undulating waves of vibrant red, yellow, pink, orange and blue that punctuate the landscape with uncommon textures and distinctive forms from spring to frost. Sowing and growing your own annuals stretches your gardening buck, expands your planting options and creates colorful compositions that prolong the show as short-blooming perennials fade.
All annuals are especially easy to grow.
And it's not true that only perennials return year after year. Planting the seeds outside and letting nature take its course is lazy gardening at its best. Growing annuals from seed may be easy, but it's not labor-free. Keep seeds evenly moist for the first three weeks. Co. You can scatter seeds, but then you have to rake them into the furrows or the soil.