I have bought some seeds that I wish to grow indoors.

Coriander
Basil
Chiles.

I have only ever tried to grow coriander before and although it started to grow - lots of wee flies were coming out of the compost. I have now recently been told that you need to sterilise compost for indoor use?

Anyway.

My first question is how do you get started with the seeds. Do you germinate them first? What is the best way to do this? I remember back at school we germinated seeds in dishes with paper and put them in a hot place.

I have a hot boiler cupboard that would do the trick. How do I get started?

Secondly. Compost sterilising? How do you go about doing this?

Also the compost I have seems very spacious - by that I mean there seems to be a lot of pockets of air between the soil particles - do you need to compress this down or am I best using a different thing for growing in altogether?

thanks in advance. I look forward to a response