Seed germination

Hi, 
Just thought I would mention that our seed has just begun to germinate
here in the Portland metro area. Soil temp. was right on 60 degrees for
the seedlings in pots. 

However, every year after we remove the germinated seedlings from the
pots, we dump the soil from the pots onto the ground where ever we can
find space in the garden. The seed from pots which were dumped last
summer germinated three weeks ago and are doing very well. There are
over 5 dozen seedlings with more showing up each day. Furthermore, we
had a bonus germination last season from these same pots!

I wonder if it might be better just to plant either in a raised bed
(that's what Gordon Plough did) or just into the ground as we do for our
peas, lettuce, onions etc.  

Bennett Jones plants his seed directly into the soil in the fall and has
great results. If I remember correctly, he borders the bed with wood
slats and plants the seeds in rows, covering the entire bed with a metal
screening to keep pests out (like the neighbors cat!!!) How they loved
to dig 'potty holes' in our garden. I dislike cats! Don't have that
problem with my Dobermans in our yard.

We plant in everyday (bagged) potting soil, wet it down, add seed and
then cover the seed with very small gravel. The gravel prevents floating
during our winter rains. It has worked very well for us. Don't
refrigerate the seed, we just plant dried seed in November or December
and have found that 'Mother Nature' knows best.

Is there anyone out there that lets nature take it's course and doesn't
baby the seed? I am refering to those of you that live in climates where
you experience below freezing nights for a few to many nights in the
winter. I can understand somewhat the problems confronting those who
live in a climate with very little cold winters. ( bearded iris) 

We have lived in a variety of areas due to Jim's career. We have
successfully grown and bloomed iris from slightly above sea level to
high mountain desert areas with 90 days growing season.  When we lived
in an area with very long (8 Months) of freezing cold snowy winters we
built a clear plastic tent over the seed. This allowed us to have great
germination. The only problem we ran into was the late, late killing
frost that occured on the 4th of July one year1!
Destroyed the bloom, but the iris survived to bloom another year.

Vicki

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