Can you ........

Is it possible to just prepare a tilled bed and sow seeds directly in it now? I want a wild flower garden, have a ton of seeds, a bed thats already been prepared and just not sure whether to do it now or in the spring.

Tina

Tina, there are lots of seeds for pretty flowers that prefer to be sown when it's chilly. Larkspurs and poppies come to mind. In fact most of the packet labels state to sow these in fall for blooms the next spring. If you have "tons of seeds", go for it.
Be prepared to scare off birds and squirrels, though. Maybe direct sow half of your seeds, and save the other half to winter sow in protected containers.

I agree with winterrobin. When directly sown into a garden bed, many seeds can be eaten or transported by birds or other critters. Another thing is that rain and snow tend to move seeds into big clumps here and there so that they need to be divided and separated and transplanted anyway in spring.

However, since you have "a ton of windflower seeds", it might be worth a try with some of them. I've found that some annuals like larkspur do well if sown in late summer/ fall, germinate, and overwinter well. Some self-sowing biennials do too, like columbine or digitalis, and then you'll get blooms next year. Some perennials will need the stratification of cold winter weather first to sprout in spring, but not all of them.

Since you have seeds to spare, try half direct sown now and wintersow the rest in jugs later.

Karen

Thanks for your advice!

I have done the scatter method at our lake home in Northern MN, zone 3, I scatter them in the fall late enough that they won't germinate until spring. By late I mean late October or early November. I don't want them to have any chance of germinating before spring.

Further South here in zone 4 I winter sow since I have a small urban garden and do not want them scattered. I do scatter Aquila at my home any time of the year. I absolutely love them