Starting seeds outside without a greenhouse

[JoHunter]

We moved to our current house at beginning of April and I started sowing seeds as soon as the dust settled. Our house is a barn conversion with only a slit window on the south side so I started my seeds outside in modules, pots and trays without a greenhouse. They are situated in a sheltered south facing spot against a wall but I am having very patchy success. Particularly with nasturtiums, herbs and wild flowers. Some of the things that have come up seem to be growing extremely poorly or slowly (sweet peas, French beans, chard). We haven't had frost and my cucumbers and runner beans have come up fine so I don't think warmth is the problem. Is there a piece I'm missing to the puzzle that would improve my success?

P.S. The reason I'm not sowing directly is because I have heavily mulched our beds with straw and it's difficult to make a nice seed bed without smothering them or giving weeds the optimal chance of survival! I'm only sowing things outside that say they can be sown direct now, so I would have thought they'd do okay in pots outside.

Mel

[oldjerry]

Two or three things spring to mind.Presumably no sign of any mice at work(they love seeds especially peas) Eaply April was quite soon for a lot of seed,so be a bit patient,It's been very dry,and pots/trays outside dry out quickly,compared to the soil,finally,some wild flowers are slow to germinate.Final thought,seeing as the cougette/R beans,germinated so well,did you use multi-purpose compost? If so ,some of these are a bit coarse for small seeds,so either sieve it or better still use a seed compost.Hope some of this helps, Good Luck with what does emerge.

[MeganW]

This is probably a bit off-topic, because you say that warmth doesn't seem to be the problem, but my boyfriend recently built me a really easy cold-frame. It's essentially just some breeze blocks fashioned into a U shape against the side of the house, with an old greenhouse pane on the top. The glass sits inside a little wood frame so that it's easier to lift off, but if you wore gardening gloves I'm sure it'd be fine without a frame.
It doesn't sound like this'll solve your problem (sorry!) but it could be an alternative to a greenhouse for future years? The beauty of it is that during the depths of winter the blocks can just be moved again and you'd never know it had been there.

[JoHunter]

I've toyed with the idea of a cold frame and am thinking it might just help. Have a feeling moisture is my problem. Pots are either getting too dried out or soaked from the rain.