I attended a presentation locally by Jenny Rose Carey, author of two books, who commented on the number of her flowers and plants doing well in gravel, of all things. A take away I had is to try a sparse top dressing of stones (I'm trying pea gravel and river rock) to help with direct seeding of my poppy seeds, along with my usual winter sowing containers.

We'll see what works best! Every year I try a few experiment. This year it is the stones, growing dahlia seeds, and testing three or four indoor and winter sown tomatoes side by side. (One via heat mats, one via winter sown, grown right next to each other.) In the fall, pending spring sowing, I'm going to try a couple new techniques for artichokes.