I just replaced a large section of bare-dirt, dense shade lawn
under a maple tree with English Ivy (before anyone scolds me, it is parkway,
bounded by street and sidewalk, and so it can’t go anywhere. And it beats bare
lumpy dirt filled with roots, and seeing dirt washing over the sidewalk every
time it rains). It will take a while before this fills in.

To cover the bare spots, I thought of sowing the seeds
collected from my various columbines. They can grow for few seasons, then when
they get squeezed out, it is fine. In the meantime I have held dirt in and had
something to look at.

I normally have just sown these direct into the garden and
let them do their thing, without having paid much attention to when they come
up. Do they sprout the same year? Or the next spring? I don’t know.

So…sow now? Or in the spring? Thanks!