I'm in zone 7b (fort worth, Tx) and have done daturas (not sure of the variety, but there was a single white, double white and double purple). I got the single white seeds from my aunt in Tulsa (I think also a zone 7) and the double white here in a trade. All the plants died in the winter, but I winter sowed the seeds. I ended up with tons of double white and a few single white plants. They germinated fine for me, it just took them forever to get going and bloom. I'm not sure how viable this year's seeds are as they weren't quite ready when we started getting cold. The ones that I started indoors did better and faster with the bloom and seed production. Don't know if this tid bit of info helps or not. Alison

Yep, that's pretty much my method too Katob - no fannying about with lights and such - as long as seeds get good contact with a root supporting medium (aka soil), moisture and the required heat/light to germinate, they do very well without any special tending from us - a cursory glance around surely reveals the obvious - life is persistent, tenacious and adaptable. I also work on the theory that what I start with is how it is going to be so any plants which are too fragile, miffy, demanding or recalcitrant are in no way prepared to survive the hurly-burly and benign neglect of my gardening practices...and therefore not worth growing in the first place. The best time to do it is when you get around to it. Seeds will germinate when conditions are appropriate...so quite a few of your seeds will be up in 2-3 weeks - aquilegias for example, while other require various stratifying periods...which overwintering will usually satisfy. Worth checking a good germination database for those tricksy types which go into double dormancy or require alternating periods of warm/cool to kickstart the germination process. In general, I like to sow seeds at the time they would be ripe in real life (although primulas, for example, can be sown while still fresh, sticky and green and have not slipped into dormancy...but can also be sown much later in the year when they will need a cold stratifying to break dormancy). In general, sowing seeds you have saved (or swapped) yourself has been infinitely more reliable than buying from seed merchants - they are already adapted to local conditions and just enabling a space for germination should see the conditions met by the end of winter/start of spring/summer. Keep your seed pots as some take more than an entire season to germinate (clematis can take 3 years!) and some actually germinate beneath the soil (hypogeal germination) such as paeonies and will only show visible shoots in the second year. I have probably sown seeds in every month of the year - they keep their own calendar and know when it is appropriate to grow. Forcing them into growth with lights, chemicals, bottom heat and so forth simply upsets the cycle and they will need cossetting through the early period when they would have expected to be still safe in dormancy.

One other thought on this is that, if one is having to reseed on account of grass drying out every year, one is also NEVER working with ESTABLISHED turf, meaning that it never has a good root system ... and therefore is even more likely to suffer at even minor droughts. Sometimes plants, including turf, must be babied in order to get them to be well established. The "babying" time might be for the first two or three years. If turf requires too much coddling then you may need to move on to plants that require less. When you say move on to shrubs for this area, the devil will be in the details. Personally, I loathe shrubs used in a groundcover kind of way because it adds too much to the maintenance, keeping a mass of shrubs top trimmed. A groundcover or perennial used as a groundcover seems to offer greater possibilities. Whatever you do, though, it'll require some supplemental water until the plants become well established.

You can add 10 photos per post, and then add additional photos in follow up comments. From my perspective more photos are great. Consider repetition. Look at how the repetition of white-flowered plants along the top of your formal rock wall gives a rhythm to that part of the bed. Right now your listed plants have one of this and two of that, and some of them aren't plants that will be happy with your growing conditions such as your hybrid tea roses. Having some plants with a year round presence that repeat throughout the garden will give it coherence, even in a garden that tends to have a lot of variety. So choose one or two plants that you will use in several spots around the bed such as the evergreen heather and Dianthus listed below. Alternatively, if you can make yourself limit the variety, plant large masses of a few kinds of plants, sort of like the mass of annuals in the lower right corner of your photo above but with perhaps a half dozen types for the entire bed. Picture a mass of bloom covering a 5' diameter mass of Dianthus or creeping Phlox. Stunning! Choose plants that suit the conditions. At one point in my life I lived in a house with a similar chunk of ledge with shallow, acid soil. I found that planting a combination of evergreen, blooming heaths (Erica) and heathers (Calluna) along with a variety of low-growing plants that are tolerant of low water and sun worked well. Some of them were thyme, perennial candytuft (Iberis), Sedum, Hens-and-chicks (Sempervirens), low growing pinks (Dianthus such as D. gratianopolitanus), and basket of gold (Aubrietta). There are some low bulbs that will do well here also, particularly some of the species tulips, crocus, and small daffodils for really early flowers. Even though the plants I used were tolerant of low water, I did need to water this area far more often than the rest of the garden because it had so little soil and it was fast-draining. Post in the Perennials Forum and the New England forum for ideas on other specific plants that work well in this type of setting. Create a bed elsewhere (perhaps along the top wall of your parking area) where you can create a bed of deep, fertile soil for plants like your roses, lilies, hydrangeas, etc. that won't do well in this bed. Celebrate the rock. Folks often pay a lot of money to create natural looking rock gardens where rock doesn't occur naturally and you have it for free! In my garden I used some very short rock walls but not many to level soil in a few spots and a few large rocks or lines of single rocks placed in conjunction with plants to do the same. Rocks will look most natural when placed partly buried. Where there was bare ledge, I didn't try to cover it up or dress it up with pots like your 1/2 barrels, I just left it bare and over time it did start growing some moss and lichens, and some of the Sempervirens and thyme crept up over the edges. I liked featuring the ledge because it's such a classic part of the New England landscape. In the planted areas, I mulched the soil between plants until it filled in to keep the soil in place, discourage weeds and help keep soil moisture more even. Keep winter interest in mind. Choose a few shrubby evergreens like the heather or evergreen perennials like the Dianthus and Iberis so that you have year round foliage to complement the rocks so your garden has winter interest. It's easy to get caught up in the flowers, but in New England we have many months of winter, and having an attractive garden view helps alleviate winter blues. On a practical note, don't rip out the grass next to your ledge garden until you have a plan and a general plant list of rock garden plants, and also have found spots for those plants you've already bought but not planted so that you don't get overwhelmed by too much bare soil. This area has potential to be a stunning show piece, and it's obvious that you have already put in a lot of work. If funds are limited which is often the case with new homeowners, several of my favorite rock garden plants can be started relatively easily from seed such as the low Dianthus and Iberis or one large pot can be divided at planting time and then redivided a year later. Often heaths and heathers can be found at big box stores as seasonal color plants, and since you have such a perfect garden spot for them (unlike almost everywhere else in the US) take advantage of that and snap up a few.