I'm looking forward to the WS experience. But I can't leave well enough alone. I want to sow some annual flowers directly. I've got quite a large bed that got out of control with weeds this year. I'm concerned that I won't know what is a weed returning and what is a flower emerging next spring. I've been known to pull out morning glory seedlings thinking they were weeds and babysitting milkweed thinking it was something I had planted.

Here is my thought. If I take a shallow cardboard box, fill it with planting mix, bury the box (leaving about an inch above ground) where I want flowers to grow and then direct seed in the box I will be able to locate my plantings next spring. The cardboard will just break down in the soil by the time the plants get too big. It should keep the seeds from floating away in the snow/rain and keep the puppy from rolling around in the planting area but not keep the seeds from getting moisture and sprouting when it is time. I was planning on getting the boxes in the ground in the next month but not putting seeds in them until November when there is no chance for premature sprouting.

Now is the part where I ask for your experience, comments, and counsel on this idea. Has anyone tried this? Will it work? Am I just setting myself up for disappointment and a lot of cardboard in my flowerbeds?

I can understand doing this with perennials seeds, but why do you want to sow annual seeds in the fall? They generally don't require cold stratification. I direct sow many annuals and veggies in the late Spring when the weather warms up - including Zinnias, sunflowers, cucumbers, and beans. Works very well, unless the a cutworm gets the occasional seedling.

I believe you are thinking along the same lines I am. I had toyed with the idea of just using the sides. I'm sure weeds will sprout inside the "protected" area but I am hoping it will help if I use planting mix. It probably won't eliminate all weeds, but I hope it will reduce them so I an pick out my seedlings.

I've been thinking about waiting until early spring to put the annual seeds out. What you said confirms it. But I will still bury the box/sides this fall. Then I can just walk out and sprinkle seeds. Oooh, I just had a thought. If I use the box sides as you suggested, I can make the plantings in any shape. I won't be limited to the "box". Now I'm really getting excited.

If your winter is moist, maybe you could double up the cardboard, or try to find the densest cardboard boxes. Planks of wood would also work - but even they can start to rot along the edges if buried in the soil. How about some hardware cloth or small fencing around your seed area?

Or you can do what some posters here have done, build a little cold frame or hoop house! Token has done that.

These seeds were in a most remarkable garden very close to our Community Food Pantry where I volunteered on October 8. The yard is surrounded on two sides by a two foot tall concrete wall separating it from the sidewalk. On top of the wall and less than 12" from it is a chain link fence. The garden exists between the wall and the fence, just a few inches deep extending the full length of the fence along the corner on two different streets. On Oct. 8 it
was blooming with calendula, some delicate annual poppy,
love-in-a mist, two or three malvas of some sort, gallardia, some linaria, and about a dozen other flowers.
There were seed pods of other plants which had bloomed earlier. I was not able to find the gardener but just couldn't help taking an assortment of seeds all mixed together. I'm trying to decide whether to winter sow them in a large rectangular salad container or to make some arrangement such as you were describing. It would probably be best for me to direct sow because I wouldn't need to worry about planting out.

Another experience I had which might be revalent to you dealt with wanting to plant some perennial divisions in a
large unruly pasture. I had black eyed Susans and Purple
Coneflower. I doubled brown paper grocery sacks, rolled down the sides of the double bags and put the divisions in
soil inside. Then I dug holes to fit the bags, removing
what grass, roots, weeds that I could and "planted" the
bags with just the rolled down edge above ground. Voila'
next year there were coneflowers and BES growing in the "lower pasture".

First, the bottom of the box is unlikely to rot out. It's well under the soil and out of direct sunlight and rays which will break down. The possibility of root bound plants is strong because they won't be able to break through the box bottom.

Seeds are food. The box walls act as a corral to indicate to you where the seedlings will be, but it's not a safe enclosure which will prevent vermin, insects or birds from eating the seeds.

Next, windblown seeds happen. Weeds come in on the wind and settle where they may, and the edges of the box will trap them. If youpull away the edges of the box then they may not gather along the edges.

Cardboard swells with moisture and unless the drain holes you put in the bottom of the box are very large you have a possibility of rain or melting snows remaining trapped in the box by poor drainage. You may possibly be creating your own little bog-in-a-box and you'll have rotted seeds.

Transplanting WS seedlings is a lot easier than you could imagine. Hunk-O-Seedlings is a life-saver to the Winter Sower.

I never want to discourage anyone from trying something on their own because it is a learning situation for everyone when you relate the experiences. It may work out wonderfully for you--yet I think that there may be some problems to overcome in order to have a great success.

T

That being said, your idea of marking where your seeds are is a good one, it just needs a little thought.