Winter sow or Direct sow?

15 years ago

I have two cans of flowerseed mixture that I was given in the high summer, after it was too late to plant them (I thought). One is a wildflower mixture and one is a red/white/blue mixture. I also just finished grubbing out a ton of weeds that grew in my front garden this year, and I now have a 10 x 10 space of bare dirt with one garden statue in the middle of it and a hosta border. More weeds have germinated and put up sprouts already - Mom Nature abhors a vacuum.

Would it work to hoe down those baby weeds, put down a layer of compost, then sprinkle the wildflowers and cover with mulch? I'd like to try the multiple plastic containers, but (a) the seeds are already mixed, and (b) my husband would kill me.

Also, most of the back yard is in the same naked dirt condition, but it's shady enough that I have trouble getting things to grow there. Does anybody have ideas as to what could grow there, both in the borders (which now have some rather spindly rose of sharon) and in the center of the yard where anything resembling grass dies? We don't use the back yard much because it is not inviting as it is, but it has excellent soil.

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Comments (7)

trudi_d
15 years ago
Mixed seeds WS great--just plant the seedlings out via hunk-o-seedlings.

Can't do anything about the husband but suggest you take away his weaponry and learn kickboxing.
gardenscout
15 years ago
then sprinkle the wildflowers and cover with mulch?

Definitely direct sow now if you want, but don't cover with mulch. Maybe some crushed leaves, but not thick mulch. Sow heavily, because the birds will get some. But they will come up fine.
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I will try to answer a few of the questions. And add a few observations I made. I would suggest to anyone trying it to do a few to start with and experiment till you feel satisfied with what works for you. My goal is to find a way to avoid all the starting seeds indoors, potting up at least once then transplanting to the garden or even starting the typical winter sown way and having to transplant. The spring time is typically very busy for me. I usually end up behind and not getting everything done on time. I have spare time in the fall and early winter and would like to do as much of the work then as possible. My goal this year is to prepare all my holes for next year by Thanksgiving. Will put the additives I use manure ect in and let set all winter. Then the ones I want to direct sow I will put a bucket, wall O Water, ect over that hole and plant seeds. I just mixed a little starting mix in around some last year and on others used cowpots which decompose and put starting mix in the top. I didn't put anything in two holes and still got around 80% germination. How ever you do it. Make sure the soil where the seeds are is dry. And cover well. This is so that the seeds won't germinate if you get a warm spell during the winter. Then when you think the time is right wet where the seeds are and if you have plastic over the top make a slit. On the milk jugs I just put a small hole in the plastic top and later you can remove it. This makes mini greenhouses. I feel that with Wall O Waters a person could even get them started earlier. My direct sown plants had caught my transplants by early June this year. I will probably start around 20 this way and do another 20 the original way and then the rest transplants so I can have a good comparison of methods. I'm also going to basically an all mulch system where I won't roto till much if at all. Pull mulch back and it I feel I need to work any additives in I will turn over with a shovel or use a rake. This way I won't disturb the worms and other beneficial elements as much. Hope this gives you some idea of what I'm talking about. In the end I feel Trudi is right. The winter sowing makes for a better, healthier and more vigorous plant. And whether you use the original way, cold-hot frames or the direct sown you get this benefit. JMO. JD
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kqcrna
15 years ago
Another issue with direct sowing flower mixes is identifying all those seedlings when they pop up? Are you good at differentiating desirable seedlings from undesirable weeds? Planting in covered containers cuts down on the number of weed seeds. They can get in there, but generally less than in a garden bed.

Since you recently cleared that area of weeds and things, you undoubtedly have unearthed a number of buried weed seeds, so you can expect those to come up there.

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lblack61
15 years ago
Now that Karen mentions the weed-seed issue, I'm thinking it might be best to WS the seed. Then you can concentrate on prepping the bed for next spring/summer.
I would suggest at least a partial lasagna gardening treatment (slap some cardboard down there, some soil and manure and get the worms working). Maybe put down some cornmeal gluten stuff (like WoW from Gardens Alive) this fall to keep the germination of weed seeds at bay.
My two cents (which is worth less in Canada and England this week)
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vera_eastern_wa
15 years ago
I did something very similar in 2003. Just around thanksgiving with our first snow, I broadcasted out the prairie seeds over a 60x15 prepared area. No mulch, no amendment and the blanket of snow was my protection from birds. Also by this time the mice/voles ect. are housed up for the winter. My seed (flowers/grasses) were individually ordered from reputable native seed suppliers...no walmart mixes just for the simple fact you usually can't find any that do not contain a few non-native noxious/invasive species...like Dames Rocket, Bachelor's Button and Baby's Breath for example; two of which are on our local monitor list and one which made it too the noxious weed list.
Demeter
Original Author
15 years ago
Ooh, it didn't occur to me to check the invasives list. Must go do that before I do anything else. Thanks, all!
vera_eastern_wa
15 years ago
What's invasive here MAY not be in NY, but it's still a good idea to check :D
As for weed control, I spent about 6 months cultivating and allowing weeds seeds to germ and hoeing out annual weeds and/ or digging out tenacious perennial weeds. If you don't know your weed seedlings from desirable seedlings then I would agree that wintersowing would be a better bet because come spring you don't want to be struggling with trying to ID weeds from the rest.

Vera

Winter sow or Direct sow?

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trudi_d

gardenscout

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Winter sow or Direct sow?

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trudi_d

gardenscout

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