This is my regime for outdoor girls, sow seed directly into 9/10 cm pots (half litre) in a glasshouse which is painted with glasshouse shading, so it full on sun for a young plant, they'll stay in there for 3 or 4 weeks before being planted out in their final positions in full sun, each plant gets about a square metre which will be well dug over with added loam based compost, this has always worked very well for me. Hope this helps and good luck