I live in Iowa and want to know if it is a good idea or a bad idea to sow seeds in my raised beds on top of the soil right now? Our temps are in the mid to upper 40's in the daytime. I am hoping to get a jump on spring seed sowing so I get earlier plant. These seeds include coneflower, daylily, Columbine, Delphenium, Allium, among others.

I would go for it! I winter sow in containers every year. I cannot believe how well it works.

Yes!----go for it!
It all depends on the weather up here in zone 3 .
I am direct sowing onto the flower beds.
It may be a gamble, but it may work out too.
I had the best stand of Iceland poppies one year that I sowed onto snow in the late fall.

I'd say that anything that will self-sow should do fine (which would certainly include at least the coneflower, columbine and allium for me).

Go for it!! Just be aware that if you plant on soil, even if liugfhtly covered, birds and critters may enjoy some of your seed.
Over the years I have had very good luck with Fall/Winter seeding.

See (as in google) wintersown.org, and cold stratification.

Coppice said:See (as in google) wintersown.org, and cold stratification.

or the "Winter Sowing" forum right here on ATP... although planting on the open ground isn't really the same thing as "winter sowing."

Weedwhacker said:

or the "Winter Sowing" forum right here on ATP... although planting on the open ground isn't really the same thing as "winter sowing."

Actually it was for thousands of years before someone decided to toss some seeds in a milk container. That was first described not that long ago in the larger scheme on a thread in GardenWeb.

I live in Iowa too and I am thinking I might be able to prepare a few spots where I want some seeds planted. All of these would be native plants that prefer fall or winter sowing.

Thank you everyone for your great responses. I am going to give it a try in at least a couple of the beds. I will be sure to post my results in the spring. These raised beds are new. They have not had anything grown in them before so I should not have much of a problem recognizing the flowers that I sow.

Wow Jeanne - impressive beds!! Looks like the beds are ready to go - so you have a small amount of time and a small investment. If they take - great. If not you can over plant in later Spring.

With nice raised beds like that,--- you could keep critters from taking seeds by using a clear plastic sheet over the bed too. Remove it as soon as you see sprouts.
Weed seeds may blow onto the beds over the winter.

CarolineScott said:With nice raised beds like that,--- you could keep critters from taking seeds by using a clear plastic sheet over the bed too. Remove it as soon as you see sprouts.
Weed seeds may blow onto the beds over the winter.

I think I'd opt for "floating row cover"; wouldn't plastic be likely to "cook" the seedlings on a sunny day?

The clear plastic is not the way to go.

Thanks for your advice. I did go out and sow some seeds in one of the beds. I took odd and end pieces of rods and sticks and made cube spaces to put different type of seeds in. Some I did not know the name of or what they will become. I hope to sow more seeds but it is very windy here today.

Thank you for the compliments on my raised beds. This is my 2nd raised bed area. It has 8 beds. The first area has 10 raised beds just like this one. Right now all 10 of them are planted with purple and yellow Iris, dwarf Iris, Tiger Lily babies, and many other odd and end flowers. I am anxious to see what comes back. I plan to pot most of these and sell them at farmers markets next spring/summer/fall. I plan to plant my veggies in the 10 bed area so I will need to get these iris, lilies , and others out before the veggies can go in. These 10 beds are lined on the inside with hard plastic so the treated lumber does not affect the veggies. The other 8 beds in the 2nd area do not have this done to them.

>> These 10 beds are lined on the inside with hard plastic

I hope you only lined the walls with plastic. If you cover the "floor" with plastic, the bed won't drain well and could flood after a rain. Like a bathtub.

But you probably already know that.

I lined the bottom of all my raised beds with small hole chicken wire to keep the moles out of them. We stapled the chicken wire to the bottom of the wood frame. I have enough trouble with moles coming in from the fields, I did not want them in my raised beds too.

Thanks DavidLMO for the thumbs up.

Those beds look and sound delectable. Show us some pics next summer.