Yes, it would be better to use a no-till drill to make sure the seed is in contact with the soil, but I was satisfied with simply broadcasting it and letting nature take its course. I learned about this at a USDA grazing school and broadcasting isn't as efficient as real planting, but it's better than nothing if you don't have the equipment. My pasture isn't particularly dense - the bunch grasses have spaces of soil between them covered with thatch, and the seed takes just fine on thatch. If the lawn is very thick the seed may have difficulty reaching the soil, but raking it could help work it down if the area isn't too large to do that. I don't fertilize because I cover 30 acres quite sparsely, only 20 lbs per acre, but in a lawn, sprinkling some lawn fertilizer wouldn't hurt unless you don't want to fertilize the weeds. In that case, don't. I've only used hard red winter wheat, never tried rye. I found an article at the following link on doing this in Canada. Your planting date is earlier and it makes a point about warm days. We probably have a slightly longer season, this is zone 5b/6a, but apparently cattle ranchers in Alberta still make it work. It also mentions rotational grazing, and that's important. Livestock will eat it all as fast as they can. If there's any way to let them have only the number of hours on it that you want them to have, it will last a lot longer. Last but not least, as I'm sure you're aware, some seed intended for planting only may be treated with pesticide, so for the sake of the geese you want to double check the label to be sure it's edible. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Cereals for Pasture

Hi marciaz3 At the garden centre here a bale of Pro-mix BX was on sale for just under $24. I didn't pay attention to the non-sale price but it's somewhere just under $30. I'd say your nursery guy is giving you a decent price everything considered. It's my first time WS & using a soiless mix. I've been happy with Fafard. Occasionally I pick out the odd twig but it's fairly consistent. I guess I couldn't have picked a better winter to take a stab at Winter Sowing!! It's still pretty wintery in these parts so I'm still planting up containers each & every day. I'm slowing down a little but to date I've planted 135 containers. Annuals will have to wait until the looonnngggg winter of 2007/2008 decides to slide into spring. Can't wait! I'm getting cabin fever already. Wishing you all successful winter sowing.

Shannon - I believe that is right and it is why I don't do cartwheels over winter sowing. Our winters are considered mild around here and they are perfect for starting most hardy ornamental plants by seed. Just plant them where you want them. What a lot of people do is to plant a bunch of seeds and then yank out the smallest or weakest leaving only the strong. Perennials and shrubs can take a while to reach a noticeable size so you have to be patient, but plenty of them will grow and even bloom the first year from seed. If the instructions for growing any plant from seed say to scarify or stratify you could just let mother nature do all that work for you (winter freezing and thawing has the same effect on the seed coating as scarifying or scratching away the outer layer of the seed coat with a file, or stratifying by placing the seed in damp peat moss and storing it in the refrigerator). A lot of what gets published for gardening is derived from research for commercial growing of crops. In a commercial greenhouse they want all the seedlings to be uniform in size and form. It helps them sell all the plants if all the plants on the table look identical. So they devised systems to help with uniformity by using greenhouses and mechanically manipulating seeds so they all sprout at the same time. These things don't really matter to a gardener. You can succeed or fail either way. I tend to go with the less-work method of sowing in site.

The other advantage to wintersowing, besides being less expensive than buying (what pathetic selection they have available) at the nursery, and also having the space to coddle seedlings all over inside--messing with supplemental lighting, etc., and that your plants will be hardier and already hardened off, is this: your plants will also be hardier through the hotter months, and more resistant to the cold at the end of season. My wintersown tomatillo survived a pretty hearty frost last year, but the indoor-start one (yes, same seed/variety) didn't make it. However, one of the drawbacks is that, for some plants, there won't be enough head start to get big enough to get some harvest. For example, if you have longer-to-ripen tomatoes, they might not be ready to go before the first frost. Also, peppers will have a later start, etc., and something that didn't occur to me until a few days ago, is that my "120-day" okra (it's not really that long to harvest since it's a continual thing) will be so far behind the 8-ball that it might be August before we get our first okra, whereas if I have indoor or nursery starts, they are usually flowering in June. This might be particularly true if your actual growing season is shorter, like Bonnie's. The other thing to remember is that not all things are suitable for true wintersowing--basil and some herbs are a little too intolerant of the cold that if they sprouted then there was a freeze, they might not make it. However, if you're starting now, I think you're good to go on just about anything from the cold-intolerant timetable. That being said, I always start some stuff inside, and try to put it outside for as much natural sun during the day as possible, then bring it in at night until the nights are warmer. I do "backup" starts for the tomatoes that I can't live without (so then, will someone please explain to me how I have over 40 starts? Oh yeah... the SWAP!), and ALL my peppers and herbs--and certainly, the cherished okra. Also, I stupidly started some cipollini onions WAY too late (but I bought the seeds, and they'll be no good next year) inside, so we'll see if those guys turn out. Of course, Trudi D will tell you that she started wintersowing as a great experiment because she was going cabin-crazy in the deep of winter and just wanted to make some mud pies in January... (My husband now wonders, since we move our tomato containers into the garage and harvest until February, if he will ever see his wife's fingernails without any dirt under them... I'm goin' with NO)