Late last fall I sowed a wildflower garden and had great success.

Campanula,

Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful response. I'm curious why you sow in 4" pots? Is it so you can keep track of plantings eaiser than just sowing directly in the garden and then play the weed-or-seed game in the spring? I don't have a greenhouse, but I do have a unheated, dark garage. Do you think it would be better for me to do pots in the dark garage or outside on the deck? I'm wondering if putting them in pots - although much easier for me to keep track of what's what- makes them susceptible to being too cold? Also, do you water your outside 4" seed pots through the winter?

I do a mix of different sowings...but yep, the vast majority are pot sown because it is the only way I can keep track of what is where and so on.Even hardy annuals are sometimes better in pots for me...and I like the 4inch square ones because they have more depth than trays and can fit closely together without any waste of space. I also love the look of an entire bench filled with the same sixe pots, neatly labelled. This is the ONLY time where order prevails in any of my garden endeavours.

Regarding using the garage: this is doable for many seeds...but some do require light for germination - often the very tiny ones which are surface sown. If sowing outside, I sometimes cover the pots (if there is a likelihood of mice and blackbirds messing around...or if the seeds need a drier soil than a UK winter offers...so some are covered in glass, the primroses are covered in another upturned flat seed tray, some just with horticultural fleece while paeonia and a number of monocots are left to get on with it, uncovered, largely ignored.

Watering...ah well - this is the point of maximum danger and attrition for me since I have a tendency to over water and some seeds will rot. If possible, sow in the open, water well and put all the pots in a polythene bag, creating a little closed system (this is one of the precepts of 'winter sowing, using jugs). Oddly enough, I lose more seedlings in the greenhouse as this is where my overwatering occurs - rarely do I need to even glance at outside pots. In a good year, 70% germination and 50% make it to transplanting in permanent positions...but in a bad year, this can be halved. My solution - plant shedloads and you will actually be grateful for the fails.

I have a few hardy annuals that self-sow into the garden annually, in particular, bread seed poppy and Nicotiana. I wouldn't want to be without either one, so I leave a some spots without mulch for them to seed into since both have very fine seeds and need light to germinate. Biennial foxglove (Digitalis) is another that has fine seeds that I let sprout wherever, though it seems more tolerant of transplanting than the first two.

If you want to be more organized, check out the winter sowing forum.

is there any reason you need to plant all your seed at once???

my default would be to do half now.. half in spring.. kinda covering your odds ...

the biggest upside.. is that i tend to remember my own experiments ... longer than something i read in a book or online ...

the biggest upside to winter sowing.. or doing it in pots.. is that you dont weed them out in some spring weeding frenzy .... lol .. because you dont recognize them.. when you are in the weeding zone ..... been there.. done that ...

the alternative.. would be a nursery bed ... where you know you need to slow down.. and be a bit slower .... and perhaps.. a nursery bed is just a real big pot ....

ken