[mashauk]

I keep reading about sowing seeds in a seed bed then transplanting them to their final place, does anyone do this, I don't have a seed bed.  What's the benefit of doing this as opposed to just growing in situ?

[Eristic]

The primary advantage of this method is space saving. Many plants that occupy the land for a long time before harvest actually spend quite a bit of time as very small plants.

Plants such as winter cabbage, sprouting broccoli etc and leeks transplant easily from the seed bed to a secondary position and onto final growing position enabling maximum usage of the plot.

The inevitable loss of a plant or two at the early stages then has no effect on the required yield as there is always a surplus of plants.

[mashauk]

Thanks, do you mean by a secondary position that you move them twice after the seed bed stage?  What about plants that require different feeding?

[Trillium]

Not sure what Eristic means by a secondary position either.
But I just grow stuff in larger cell packs, trays or pots until space comes available for later, longer crops. Not everyone has lots of bed space to use as seed beds. Mine go from starter trays to final spot.

[Eristic]

You can of course grow seeds in cell packs trays and small pots but that treatment is normally reserved for the more delicate plants such as tomato, pepper, squash etc. The seed bed would normally be used for hardy stuff that eventually gets to be quite large.

While some lucky gardeners will have space for dedicated seed beds, generally we just grab a bit of space where we can.

Example.

Suppose we wanted 2 doz winter cabbage.  They are going to end up requiring more than 20sq m of land but you could sow a few seed in a line less than half a metre long. Thin out the weedy ones then transplant the best out at say 150mm spacing and leave them to grow on till another crop is harvested where the cabbage is to end up. This bed is then tidied up and the now quite big cabbage plants transferred to their final resting place.

While it may seem like lots of work to a newcomer, it is actually less than growing in pots and trays, and the plants will always do better in the ground.

I don't think you should take the expression 'Seed bed' to mean a dedicated growing space for seeds, although that would be nice, rather just a suitable spot to sow a few seeds for transplanting later. Once or twice it matters not.