(1) Thinning - I assume I still need to do this, no? At least for things with microscopic seeds that I sowed with a heavy hand (nicotiana, Iceland poppies, etc.). I know some of you break your clod of seedlings into little hunks of 3 or 4, but here's my problem (which leads to my second question):

(2) my lasagna beds are only half-baked. This means that instead of blithely scooping aside a handful of gorgeous soft dirt and simply dropping in a little hunk (hank?) of 3-4 babies, I am having to make pockets of potting soil in the midst of a strata of leaves, goat poop, etc. for every hunk I plant, which is a major pain. And I have 4 very large beds to fill. SO, I admit, I have been cheating and breaking my milk jug clods into BIG hunks (1/2 a milk jug) and sometimes even planting the whole clod without breaking it up. Is this going to work? Will serious thinning help this situation or am I doomed?

Martha

Last year was my first to winter sow. I went so far over the top, I could see Russia from my porch. I counted 486 milk jugs before calling it quits in April. Thanks to the generosity of the folks on this forum, I had enough seeds to WS three times that many but thankfully ran out of both time and growers mix at about the same time. When planting out time arrived my flowerbeds were still under construction so most of my sprouts got potted up and given away to skeptical neighbors and friends. I just divided the clumps of seedlings as best I could and stuck them in gallon pots. Some I stuck the entire clump in a hole and let Mother Nature do the thinning. The fact they're all coming up again this year, lush & healthy looking, is a little bit of luck and a huge dollop of Trudi's amazing method.

You aren't doomed and you don't have to choose which sprouts grow up and which end up in that great sprout nursery bed in the sky. Keep in mind if those seeds had fallen on the dirt the parent plant was growing in, they'd have had a slim-to-none chance of even germinating.

Good luck, take lots of pictures and keep us posted on how things do in your half-baked lasagna beds.

Ideally, I tip out the whole jug, break it into some sensible-size hunks, and plant them in little sections of 3s of 4s (not 3 or 4 seedlings...3 or 4 HUNKS.)

However, don't worry too much about planting hunks. Wsing makes starting plants from seed so easy, that I don't feel so guilty thinning and killing (gasp) little seedlings. In the future you can sow fewer seeds, and have fewer seedlings to deal with.

Also, if your lasagne beds aren't ready, and you have some seedlings you want to take special care with, you can pot them up in cups or small nursery pots and grow them on for awhile, then plant them out later in the season.