sow wildflowers in the snow... I collected the seeds from my phlox, mallow and dianthus this fall and was wondering if it was too late to sow some of the seeds. Turns out, its not. In this past Sunday's Maine Gardener, Tom Atwell writes of sowing your wildflower seeds right after the first snow for hopes of great meadows the following summer. In a nutshell, you sow your seeds over already prepped soil (so prep your garden beds in the fall for ease of planting in the spring.) After the first snowfall, go out and sprinkle the seeds on top of the snow. As the winter progresses, your garden soil will crack and heave, naturally planting the wildflower seed to its ideal depth. Come spring, you'll be greeted with the beginnings of a beautiful wildflower meadow.
5 comments:
First time visit! I have used this method of sowing seeds in the snow many a time for sowing grass seed it works great, why not wild flowers too.
Very cool and good to know. Now if we could just make winter go by a little faster...
What great advice to scatter the seeds on the snow! I hope to order some wildflower seeds from Prairie Moon in the future and know a lot of them require a cold spell to germinate. Thanks!
Folks up North do something called WinterSowing. I learned about it on GardenWeb. Google 'GardenWeb', go to forums, then click on WinterSowing. Lots and lots of information, and it works! They usually start sowing on the Winter Solstice, which is right around the corner!
welcome Randy! thanks kindly for dropping on by. i have a small patch of lawn between the house and the edge of the woods that has been in dire need of seeding for quite some time. i'll have to give it a go with grass seed as well.
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